New beginnings, Clean Slates, New Pages, Simple Pleasures etc.

This morning is the beginning of a new day and it is the beginning of a new week. I love that. I love new beginnings. (Reminds me of the gospel - Jesus offers us the ultimate new beginning - a new life.) As an artist I've always loved a clean piece of paper. There is so much possibility. I hate the part where I mess up. So, I love opportunities to start over again. (Repentance and grace - saving grace and enabling or sustaining grace - ask me a question if you don't understand). And I love when I don't mess up. I love that. Across the board, not messing up .... with anything. (Jesus saved me from my own tainted good works - I lean toward being the elder brother instead of the prodigal - I think I would rather be the prodigal - He seemed to get it better than the elder brother ) But the thing is I mess up more than I don't. Or so it seems. I just like doing something right. That matters a lot to me - like making a bed.
Mother taught me that lesson - how to make a bed properly. I remember being with her and I can see the whole scene. Tucking in the sheets neatly, few gathers - Layering the blankets and having the bedspread just so.... with the edges straight, parallel to the floor. Mother would never leave a bed unmade. (Mine upstairs is unmade, but I know that no one will see it and I intend to get to that) In Mother's later years, when she needed a full time caregiver to help her out of bed and to get her shower, she still wanted to see her bed made, and she supervised it. She would sit in her chair while the person attending her made the bed.... and she would point out places any of us missed, places which were uneven. She wasn't mean about it, so we had some good laughs over it. Jane(her nurse) or Mary Ann, or me, if I was in town, would tease her about being so bossy. The thing is, I knew what she was talking about.... and as her daughter, I wanted to beat her to those spots, get to them before she had a chance to point them out. She had been my teacher, and I had been the pupil. I wanted to show her that I had excelled beyond even her skills. I enjoyed pleasing her with the perfectly made bed. All of this is an overstatement of making the bed, but it is a simple pleasure. That is another thing I like; simple pleasures, the daily ones. A clean sink in the morning, when I go to make coffee. Or, the smell of coffee, when Charlie has already made it. The first cup of coffee in the morning, that's the best. I wonder if those people who load it with cream and sugar feel the same way about the first cup. It seems that the pleasure of the first cup is common only to those who drink it black. I'm not sure. In an earlier post I mentioned that I had worked for the past 3 years, after being at home for the previous 25 years. Now I am back at home. Coming home, after being gone all day, is one of the things I miss. A whole day of being gone, and walking into my house. I love that. I confess that the first thing I would want to do, after taking off my shoes, is have a glass of wine. That first glass is like the first cup of coffee. Again, clean slate, clean palate.
Back to the bed thing; who doesn't love the smell and feel of clean sheets? That is intoxicating. And back to my hydrangeas. I am still enjoying my arrangement which is on my mantle. I never tire of seeing it. There are so many simple pleasures which we can give ourselves, which make our daily lives very enjoyable.
An organized closet. That's great to me. Not saying I have all of this done, but I'm working on it. One thing at a time. My mom always said, "Everything has it's place", or "Everything should have a place". That's referring to the house. So, if things get cluttered, I have a place to put them, or perhaps I should toss them. These are random thoughts.
But it's all about Monday morning and the possibilities. I'm going to get busy so I don't lose the morning.

(Pictures make a post so interesting, and I haven't mastered that detail. Perhaps today I will photograph some of my "simple pleasures", "tasks accomplished", and post them separately.

Have a great day.