Saturday Afternoon Delight

The sun is coming in the kitchen vivid, gold, and incredibly bright - an narrow band, slipping around and thinning to a strand, smiling on the countertops and chrome, making the clean look cleaner, and showing off how low it can go. It would be a champ under a limbo pole; almost completely horizontal.

I've made good time on housecleaning today, so soon it will be over; twenty minutes of Swiffing and vacuuming are all that remains, and I don't even feel a hurry to complete them. I can sit here and post, watching the gleam of the camellia leaves at the end of the afternoon, and still know it's not going to be darkening to evening in any greater hurry than I'm in. This is a beautiful home, a blessed place, and I'm more eager to enjoy that in all its stages than to push it around right now to some particular state, when that state is less a goal than a pleasure. If there's pleasure in this moment, too, why rush my way beyond it?

I do look forward, though, to settling in once the light does dim, and setting to pampering myself. An hour or so on my nails, cleaning them up and buffing them pretty; probably just clear polish today, keeping it simple stupid. Then upstairs for a bath, a powder, a perfume, a dress and impractical shoes. Then out into a night not so cold I need rush in that so much either. It is my plan to dance tonight.

But for now, my fingers dance. My dog dances with me while "baby I love your way" plays and I sit on the kitchen floor with her, just paying her attention, just making her tail wag, and happy that she scoots in for a hug, a silly sway with me. The sun dances in leaves blowing outside, but in my home it is still and peaceful. Not even much dust dancing within it today. Simply a moment of un-marred content. And not even content I wish I could trade for satisfaction. Just peace.

I know why my church bids people peace. It is a joyous thing, the peace of quietude.

And with that, I bid you peace. Peace be with you, my brother, my friends, my family, my strangers from Belarus and the United Arab Emirates, and from Russia, even if that count appears to be all bots. Peace, and a good night. Maybe pleasant surprises.

Saturday is my day of worship - of stewardship to my home (and my dog). Of tending what has been given to me. Sunday at church is a climax, not the initiation of worship, for me. My day has been one of service to my blessings.

And so I will get to that Swiffing, that vacuuming, and get my service done. Before tending to that temple of silliness that is myself, and my stinky, house-cleaning-grimed self. Heh.

Peace. And don't forget to breathe, and to smile, too.