My Symphony

My little sis called Saturday morning.  Early.  Sort of.  I was still in bed at 8:30 a.m.  Late?  Perhaps, but I had an excellent excuse.  I was poring over a book...always a favorite companion.  Someday when I look back on my life, I don't think I'll lament the postponement of laundry for the love of a few incredible words.  Ultimately, I'm hoping to become better at living my life without regrets.  Taking time to embrace the moment is a part of that effort.  This weekend, I found success.  As for discoveries, I found something else this weekend, too.  I'm reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.  It's a gift I've given myself upon the recommendation of a friend...To Stephanie, from Russia. With love.  *sigh*


And so I now I return to my sister's call...  She stumbled upon an incredible blog and was confident I'd develop an immediate affinity for it.  She knows me well.  Meet Deserae.  You'll find her Peeking Thru The Sunflowers  in Kansas.  Her post of December 7th captivates me.  It highlights scenes from Midwest Living Magazine's holiday showcase of her home.  I am ready to find my old house and mimic the ambiance ~ and her  kitchen, as well.  Incredible, truly it is. 


The end caps to the weekend were noteworthy too.  Friday evening my home was filled with family for dinner and a birthday celebration. 

• The food?  Chili (dad's recipe) with cheddar cheese melting atop, pumpernickel rye bread served with dill dip, Cuban salsa cheeseball with tortilla chips (red and green, of course), tiny peppermint cupcakes, and the list continues...but I will not.  Two words: hunger pangs.
• The atmosphere?  Christmas trees with tiny white lights in several rooms, my eldest daughter's boyfriend enduring a shock treatment of children laughing and running through the house, and four generations of people who matter ~ together, under my roof.

Sunday: church.  A few of the most insightful words I heard during the sermon regarded a story of a man's epitaph.  It read:

"A man of unquestioned integrity." 

integrity (ĭn-tĕg'rĭ-tē) noun 

1. Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.
2. The state of being unimpaired; soundness.
3. The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.

Integrity.  Living a life undivided, unquestionably so.  What a powerful epitaph.  What will people someday say about me?  Maybe I shouldn't care.  I do, though.  I care.

My Symphony

To live content with small means.... To seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion.... To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich.... To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly.... To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart.... To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.... In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.... This is to be my symphony. 

~William Henry Channing

And now for Monday ~ It is a short work week as school will soon be out for Christmas break.  The students are ready, as am I.  Tonight I will celebrate the holidays with friends, significant friends.  Friends from childhood, from adolescence, with shared history, shared laughter, shared memories from then, making memories for now.   I am excited to see them, to be with them again.

“We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected.” ~Ben Okri