Do something every day that stays done.

The first day of a new blog is an awesome feeling.  I've thought long and hard about whether I wanted to put myself out there--pubic, unexplained, for anyone to see.  I've had an amazing life, a life I'm grateful for and one that's been harder than most.  I know that's an incredible statement to make, but it's true.

However, thankfully, I don't want this blog to be about me, but about survival in the 21st Century.  

So on with today's post.

Today I'm embroidering quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. onto little puffy pillow-ish ornaments to hang on a metal tree in my entry.  I eventually want to have a different set of ornaments for every month or holiday of the year.  For January I considered snowflakes, snowmen, or red cardinals.  

While those are all cute and seasonal, I want the decoration that I look at for a month to mean something to me, to inspire me and lift me up.  If I'm going to put that much time into something, it needs to be worth it.  I chose quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because he was a great man.  He did a great work, not only for the African American people in our country, but for me personally.  I work at a large corporation that treats all people with respect regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion or other differences that make up the wonderful world of human family.  I believe that Dr. King is in large part responsible for the awakening of the rightness of respect for all people.  I feel I enjoy a better a world because he lived.  I want to honor him in his birthday month, by displaying quotes from some of his many great speeches.

So how does this relate to survival in the 21st Century.  Today is my day off.  I have many choices to make about what to do with my only truly one free day of the week.  Goodness knows that after the holidays I have a house to clean, groceries to buy, food to make.  I need to exercise, pray, study and meditate.  There's my elderly mother-in-law to care for, and children both grown and at home.

One thing I learned when my children were little and it felt like my life was a circle of make food, clean the kitchen, clean the children, repeat, was that I had to do something every day that stayed done.  Beds don't stay made.  Kitchens don't stay clean.  Children don't stay anything.  I was going crazy inside with the conflict between how valuable my service was to my family and how repetitive it was with seemingly no progress.  I needed to do something each day that stayed done, so I sewed.  I could look at a finished seam, a finished collar, or even a finished garment and say, "It's done."  Yes, it would wear out in the next year, but not in the next few minutes or day. (Unless Kool-Aid was present which required the mandatory spill.) 

Now that my children are grown, I still need the same thing--to do something each day that stays done.  I sew.  I garden.  I decorate.  I write.  Reading makes permanent changes within.  Some people say that you have to find time for yourself every day.  I guess that's one way of putting it.  I could find time to paint my toenails or get my hair done, but that's not what my soul craves.  My soul needs to do something creative every day that stays done.  Today I will make pillow-ish things that remind me of the good in all people. I plan to keep them for years.