Quiet

Long time, no post. I suppose I have been taking my friend Tonia's advice, to "Live first. Blog later." A little rundown of the last couple of weeks:

--Bliss to have my Joshua home all day, so we can putter around with Sam, be mostly schedule free, and share that uncluttered summery feeling.

--Reading some wonderful books, The Graces We Remember: Sacred Days of Ordinary Time by Phyllis Tickle and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. Leading me to haunt the Farmer's Market now, and plan a garden for next year.

--Enduring the first fist of classic SC heat and humidity, and drought, which is taking a day off this day of grace, as we bask in overcast skies and 75 degrees.

--Rearranged my paper-crafting area and have been dipping my toe in, making a few cards, enjoying the paper in my hands and ink on my fingertips.

--Continuing to hang laundry, turn off lights, use the attic fan when I can and generally try to set my foot a bit more lightly on the Earth. Conviction on every side about the connections between ecology, human rights, and health. And how it is all coming down to stewardship for me, graciously receiving the gift of this life.

I read the above and feel that nagging feeling, that I'm not doing it, I am not flying that "I'm so busy" flag, the commodity of my spent time like a measure of affluence or importance. Even for this slow-living, stay at home mama, who really doesn't want anything else, I feel it.

But in the stillness of early morning, or late night, I am grateful, for time: time to breathe, to wait for the bread to rise, to wait for the shot to click the shutter, to wait for the pace of the child, to listen.