Leisurely Woman's Daybook 17

Outside my window...I failed to close the window shades last night, so my immediate view upon awakening this morning was a glorious red sunrise! What better way to start the day?

From the kitchen...a potful of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg is boiling on the stove. For me it's the sentimental smell of feasting and celebration...and the holidays. It's also a labor-unintensive and non-caloric way to enjoy the aroma of home-baked goods!

Around the house...disinfecting the place now that I THINK we're finished with the flu.

A favorite thing...Mr. Clean. No, it's not JUST his bald head that attracted me, it's his smell! Seriously, it's my favorite cleaning agent. No pungent after-odor, just a refreshing, clean, windows-open kind of fresh. It's the simple things in life that bring me joy. :-)

I am wearing...my pink Cardinals ballcap. I used to scoff at PINK Cardinals-wear, until I found this hat for $4.99! Now...I kinda like it. Though I'd NEVER wear it to a GAME. THAT would be inexcusable.

I am hearing...Nancy Griffith. She's one of my old favorites. I love this version of Love at the Five & Dime. If you can, take the time to listen to the story she tells at the beginning. Any of you remember Woolworth stores? I remember many Saturdays spent in the Woolworth store in Chicago...and she's exactly right about the smell of the place and the elevator doors. Good memories...

I am reading...well, I finished reading The Problem of Pain last night. I can't say that I understood much of what Lewis was talking about, except in 3-4 of the 10 chapters. I either didn't follow and understand his train of thought, or if I DID understand it, I disagreed with him on several points! I did, however, appreciate the 2 chapters entitled "Human Pain." Here's an excerpt where he talks about the origin and purpose of our pain:

Now the proper good of a creature is to surrender itself to its Creator. In the world as we now know it, the problem is how to recover this self-surrender. We are not merely imperfect creatures who must be improved: we are rebels who must lay down our arms. To render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, a grievous pain. To surrender a self-will inflamed and swollen with years of usurpation is a kind of death.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain. No doubt Pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the man can have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul. While what we call "our own life" remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. He thinks that our modest prosperity and the happiness of our children are not enough to make us blessed: that all this must fall from us in the end, and that if we have not learned to know Him we will be wretched. And therefore He troubles us, warning us in advance of an insufficiency that one day we will have to discover. The life to ourselves and our families stands between us and our recognition of our need; He makes life less sweet to us.

He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him. The creature's illusion of self-sufficiency must, for the creature's sake, be shattered. This illusion may be at its strongest in some very honest, kindly, and temperate people, and on such people, therefore, misfortune must fall. The dangers of apparent self-sufficiency explain why our Lord regards the vices of the feckless and dissipated so much more leniently than the vices that lead to worldly success. Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.

If pain sometimes shatters the creature's false self-sufficiency, yet in supreme "Trial" or "Sacrifice" it teaches him the sufficiency which really ought to be his - the strength which God confers upon him through his subjected will, and this is one of the many senses in which he that loses his soul shall find it.

I am creating...a couple months ago, Riesa indicated that she wanted to bring this poster of pictures from her room at "home" (Grandma's house) to "Lori/Riesa's house" (as she calls it). Her room is darling, so I couldn't bring myself to mount it "as is." Yesterday, I FINALLY fixed it up! Now I'm motivated to finish a couple other picture collages for her as well!

I am thinking...that the Lord wants me to learn to be longsuffering with the weaknesses of others, as He is with mine.

I am thankful for...soft tissues. Seriously.

Plans for my week...I know I've said this before, but making an appointment with the orthopaedist has suddenly rocketed to the top of my priority list. Coolfire Thursday. Reformation Celebration Friday.

A photo/video I am sharing...Riesa hanging out in the front yard with us on Halloween.