17 January

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Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

and those who love it will eat it's fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

Peace begins in the kitchens and pantries, gardens and backyards,

where our food is grown and prepared.

The energies of nature and the infinite universe

are absorbed through the foods we eat and are

transmuted into our thoughts and actions. 

Michio Kushi

~ ~ ~

There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that

of a beautiful woman in the act

of cooking dinner for someone she loves.

Tom Wolfe

~ ~ ~

I have been participating in A Bowl Full of Lemons

2018 Organized home challenge.

Last week I cleaned and organized my pantry.

When we first moved into our second floor flat on this rather tiny island,

the pantry was an old closet in the kitchen.

It hadn't been touched in about 40 years and it was disgusting!

I stripped the old linoleum off of the little floor

to find beautiful old pine boards honeyed

from years of  housewives feet stepping in

to grab a cup of sugar or a can of beans,

or sweeping up a bit of bread crumb.

I painted every single surface a beautiful creamy white

and lined the shelves with brown packaging paper

Now I love it so much, I won't put anything ugly in there.

Still though...it's an old closet in an old house.

The door opens inward which makes it rather difficult to move about

 and there's no light so

 we store an old headlamp in with the onions on the bottom shelf.

Yesterday as I stood back and admired my handiwork

It occurred to me that it doesn't really matter how beautiful our pantries look

or if they light up automatically when one opens the door (outward)

It's only  how we use the things that we store in our larders

to take care of  loved ones that matters.

Because the energies..the love...that I feed to my family

is carried with them throughout their days.

They use it when they wait in line, they use it when they smile at an old lady,

or when they stop to let some one cross the street,

and when they lay down their heads at night

the love and the light that I used to feed them and care for them

tucks them in and rocks them to sleep.

And...all the people that they touch through out the day

carry a bit of my love out into the world with them as they go...