Sunday Afternoon Tea

"Therefore choose life,

that you and your descendants may live"

Deuteronomy 30:19 AMP

La Vita Vera... the three words written on the chalkboard in my kitchen.  I first heard of them on a favorite cooking show a couple years ago, as the hostess talked about her goal of introducing La Vita Vera to families through helping them understand the importance of spending quality time around the dinner table.

Translated The True Life, it has some aspects in common for many of us... faith, family, friends, that which we consider beautiful, those aspects of life we hold dear.  Where we find our... bliss.

Now, I understand that most of us do not live in a beautiful Italian villa, and grow all of our own organic food to serve on a farmhouse table, and enjoy a flower garden in the backyard, and have time to read stacks of favorite books, and have a perfect spouse and loving children, and the time to spend in the kitchen cooking delicious meals.

Come to think of it, I have never known one person in my life who has all of La Vita Vera every day of every year of a lifetime.  But I do know it is possible to make choices which bring us closer to such a life.  Never perfectly this side of Heaven, of course... but a little here and a tad there.

For you see, all of life is Sacred to those who daily seek living in His will.

I have learned that life does not have to be all or nothing but I can enjoy La Vita Vera by choosing to plant a small vegetable garden and a few flowers on the deck, cherishing the time my family is together, budgeting for real cream to use with inexpensive coffee each morning, and taking the time to assemble simple ingredients into a truly wonderful meal.

I find The True Life by sipping tea in a favorite teacup, lighting candles at sunset. choosing to enjoy morning quiet times on the deck on summer days, watching British mysteries on cold winter evenings,  re-reading favorite books, watching my cat's antics... and even while listening to my husband read the sports pages to me as if I cared who the Bears took in the NFL draft.  ;)

True La Vita Vera is when we see the Sacred in the everyday... when we know all we have is a gift from Him.

We can handle the bad times and celebrate the wonders of the good days because we know He watches over us and that the sparrow doesn't fall without His knowledge.  Rather difficult to wrap our finite brains around, isn't it?

I truly believe in an Eternity when La Vita Vera will be... perfect.  However, until that day I am bringing a little of the Beauty of Eternity into this finite fallen existence.  I believe that makes God smile.

So I wrote the three little Italian words on an inexpensive chalkboard to remind me each day to choose that true life.