Morning Thoughts, a proper ramble

Thunder crashed, not rumbled, through the morning air, disrupting my plans to sleep late. Rolling over to look out the window, the sky was the color of tea dyed muslin... not real looking. More like a sepia photo of old. The rain began to fall in a moments time, not the steady pitter patter of an easy rain, more of a steady pouring sound. There was to be no sleeping in this morning. I was awake now. There was a damp chilliness to the house so time to get the wood stove working. Tiny thin clouds made of woodsmoke mixing with dry autumn leaves dance in the strong winds of the fast moving storm. It feels like a moment of extremes.

The storm passes as quickly as it arrived. I turn on the television to see if more is on the way and hear and see pictures of the ice storms that have paralyzed much of the mid section of this country. I am thankful for our wood heat, our life that is not dependant on electricity .
In tending to the fire, the next story comes on the morning show, a woman fakes her abduction, successful by the world standards, a lawyer, married to a pastor, a child on the way and one in day care. She bolts from the pressures of her life, fakes her abduction because in this "perfect life" of her, crashing from the pressure of the pace just isn't an option. Is that success ? Not in my mind. Stress from "doing it all" is just not living !

This week, someone asked me if I liked to cook. I have never even thought about it to be honest. I just cook. I had a family to feed, a husband to cook for. Its a job, and yes, I do enjoy the rave reviews of some well planned meal and the enjoy the look of satisfied faces around the table, but I don't cook because of a like or dislike. I cook because I need to feed my family and I want them to find pleasure in what I prepare. The question made me think perhaps we have all become a bit spoiled, only doing the things we like to do. I wondered if my husband LIKES to work. What if he decided he didn't like to work and so he didn't work ? I don't know if I like to clean the toilets, but I clean them. They need to be done. If our ancestors didn't do what they liked, but just chose to do the things they found fun, I suspect there would be a much smaller population in this country. People would have died off pretty fast if Momma didn't like to garden, to sew warm things, to cook 3 times every single day, 365 days a year. When faced with an unpleasant task, I run the verse over in my mind by Kahlil Gibran about work being love made visible. Most tasks around home are not just for my benefit, but it is my love made visible for my husband, my family. Isn't that enough ? Do I have to like everything I do and then no do the things I don't like ? Sounds like a spoiled child to say it that way. What example would I be setting for my children if we had to go out to eat all the time because I didn't want to do the cooking because I didn't like to ? I suspect they would pick more than a couple things to NOT do because they didn't like to. Unless you are filthy rich, most folks don't have the option to just do what they like and in my humble opinion those folks that have nothing they HAVE to do, seem crippled in the face of emergencies many times.

It's never very pleasing to hear a child whining and crying " but, I don't want to !" It makes you feel very sorry for the parents, especially if they don't work on the child's attitude some. Yet, maybe the mom doesn't like to cook, so they eat out or have frozen pizza rolls 5 times a week, or maybe the dad doesn't like to work so he doesn't.

Look on the bright side of your tasks. The jobs you do are signs of your love for your family. It says so much more than you can ever imagine. Work is indeed, love made visible.