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My grandmother had a subscription to Reader's Digest for years and years and years. One of my earliest memories of reading comes from that little magazine. I would read "Laughter, The Best Medicine", "This is Joe/Jane's _____" (an article about a body part or organ) and of course all the cartoons. It was a sad day when their house was flooded and all those magazines were ruined and had to be discarded. You could learn a lot about what was going on in the world by the articles written within those pages. It would be almost like reading a history book!
Continuing the tradation, I have had a subscription to that magazine for many years. My eldest grandgirl loves to come to my house and read for hours while sitting in the old rocking chair made for my grandfather. Such memories. I, too, sat in that old chair when reading stories and dreaming about the faraway places that seemed to jump from the pages. I learned what "Joe's" liver or lungs or "Jane's" uterus was for. I laughed at "Humor in Uniform" as the stories of funny things happening to service men/women unfolded for us to read. I learned of the lives of the "Most Unforgettable Person" featured each month.
I would buy her a subscription but I want it to be a special time when she visits my house and reads the little magazine while curled up in that old chair!
We have some people who used to blog daily or at least every few days and they have not been here for a while. I guess it is a sign of the times. It is hard to be witty, cheerful or pen a happy prose when the world around us is in such dischord. Or perhaps another blogger has interrupted with hateful, harmful words. Maybe they just need some time away. I hope they come back. I miss them.
Back to the Reader's Digest. I was reading the April issue when a little passage jumped out at me and I felt it worth sending on to you. It is written by Wendell Berry...a name I don't know, but I like what he wrote:
The Peace Of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief, I come into the presence of still water,
and I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Reminds me of another writer who penned the words (not quoted exact): I will lie down in the grass by the still waters. I will fear no evil. You will prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
I sit here on a Saturday morning while Hubby is at work and it is raining and the wind is blowing my windchimes around and I wait for the time to go visit the grandgirls. I think of all the bad things and all the good things happening around me right now. If I placed them in the balanced scales, the good would certainly out weigh the bad.
The only thing I have control of is what I allow to linger in my mind and dwell in my heart.
I choose the positive. The negative will be overtaken and put to rest.
I have copied that little verse from Wendell Berry and will post it on the bullentin board above my computer. I will read it often and tuck the words away in my heart.
Mz Scarlett...looking upward above the clouds to find the sunshine is still there waiting for me.
