Sunday Afternoon Tea

Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.

Proverbs 4:26

New King James Version

As with years past, my ponderings the week between the celebration of the birth of Christ and the beginning of the new year have been centered around the idea of Living Life on Purpose.  While I wrote much about these ponderings in the early years, I haven't thought as much about it recently.  As with so many important aspects of life, the urgent trumped the important this past year.

I have always known we should put more thought into the way we live but it wasn't until I was in my 40s and living in Detroit that God baptized me with these thoughts in such an overwhelming fashion that I could think of nothing else for awhile.  I'm certain part of the timing was my age as my 40s were when I began to ponder more than before.  Living in the midst of a major metropolitan city and feeling quite alone (with millions of neighbors) contributed to the time and quiet months to ponder... ironic, isn't it?

I have written so much about the general idea of Living Life on Purpose already.  Should you be inclined to brew a cup of tea and cozy up to your computer for some reading on this subject... they start here.  I believe they go back a few years... yikes.  Time does fly by, doesn't it?  However, it doesn't take too long to read unless one wants to ponder at the same time.  :)

Today I want to chat about some specific ways I am concentrating on these ponderings in the next year.  Just a few ways I am putting my life through a mid-course correction.  I can't think of any major detours taken this past year, more often I suffered from self imposed neglect... which over time can become as much a danger to our hopes and desires as anything more drastic.

I haven't made enough effort to have a daily morning quiet time.  Some days it is easy and those other mornings... sigh, my sleepiness overwhelms what I know is important.  If my attention is not drawn to the Holy at least a short time each day, my Martha side overwhelms the Mary and I fret about many things.

I have no excuse as there are twenty-four hours in the day and I have no young children demanding attention.  So, I'm in the process of sorting through my quiet time basket to decide what I want to study in the next few months.  I'll be chatting more about the basket and my quiet times as they come together. 

I haven't been writing in my scrapbook journal lately for many reasons.  Mostly having to do with feelings of melancholy and a gentle stomping of the feet and telling the Creator I am quite unhappy about aspects of my life, thank you very much (or not).  Having repented of such an adolescent attitude... my scrapbook journal is making a comeback in January.

During my last doctor's appointment, I was told I need more protein in my diet and that I must take off ten pounds.  Upon remarking that I already don't eat a whole lot, the nurse practitioner smiled and told me it meant getting out and exercising again.  As she is also an insulin dependent diabetic, I think she set me up for that one.  Actually, I want to take off about fifteen pounds and at my age... any and all muscles are hidden as I at times feel a deep and abiding kinship to the Pillsbury Dough Boy.  I find it hard to believe I was underweight not that long ago  (I gained thirty pounds the first three weeks after starting insulin).

In the next year I will continue sharing about deepening the pantry (although there are an amazing amount of links on the sidebar to my own writing and great blog posts and websites written by others).  Along with new posts, I plan to repeat some "oldies but goodies" every week or two.

As from the beginning, I'll be sharing books being read and those I have already enjoyed.  I know in January I plan to read mostly Elizabeth Goudge... as a blog friend said she may do, too.  While I own a few Goudge books, I'll have to depend on the library for a couple I want to read.

During the year I want to read more D. E. Stevenson and re-read my favorite Edith Schaeffer books.  For years (and years) I reread The Hidden Art of Homemaking (my original hardback copy is called Hidden Art and I was a bride when I first read it) and What is a Family at the beginning of each year.   I plan to read through The Tapestry and L'Abri again this year, too.  Sometime this winter while it is freezing outside and cozy on my reading sofa, I plan to read through the Mitford series again.  I have never read them one after another.

So many old friends to reread... not to mention all those new and undiscovered authors and titles.  In the midst of fiction, there is always a nonfiction favorite... or two... or three.

Then there are recipes to try, rooms to decorate, pantries to stock, gardens to plant, grown children to enjoy, grandchildren to write, hubby to spend time with, and a quite fluffy cat to spoil (whom... as I write... is draped across my hand).  While circumstances cause my world to be smaller than it once was, I have learned this past year it does not mean my life has to be less than good.  Attitude is everything as I give my hours to the one Who created them.