The Gifts of this Present Day - Laura Ingalls Wilder

If you've been here even just a little bit you know who my hero is.

I believe we should all have heros.

Heros of faith. Heros of fiction. Heros of real life.

My hero is Laura Ingalls Wilder.

For so many ways.

Today I read some of her works.

I have everything she ever wrote that was published.

Her nine fictional (based on truth- but still fiction) children's chapter books.

I have her original book that was written for adults that the Little House books were based on, Pioneer Girl.

I have every article that she published in magazines back when she was alive.

I have read all of her inspirational writings. Those are the ones I love the most. It is a a window in my hero's heart that no other writings have.

Today I was thinking of one of her writings called The Blessings of the Year

Sometimes we recognize as a special blessing what heretofore we have taken without a thought as a matter of course, as when we recover from a serious illness; just a breath drawn free from pain is a matter for rejoicing. If we have been crippled and then are whole again, the blessed privilege of walking forth free and unhindered seems a gift from God. We must have been hungry to properly appreciate food, and we never love our friends as we should until they have been taken from us.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. - Ephesians 5:20

As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessing of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness - just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breathe it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.

Oh we have so much to be thankful for that we seldom think of it in that way!

These days one of the gifts to me is to really dwell in the present and choose to focus on what is here - what is good - what is true.

Much of her message is very incarnational - as we grow up to love, and to create and choose to be faithful to our place and our people -

In that sense I think this writing has been running in my mind - a melody - kind of calling my eyes to look around - that what is here in this moment is grace and goodness - and His grace is sufficient for this day and for this moment and for the future of my silly voices of girls in my home, their future.

One of the great challenges of a spiritual life and a centered and calm life is to not live in the future but to live in the grace that is here.

And that too is to learn to listen to the gifts of the Holy Spirit who speaks at all times - His presence is here, truly and really and I believe that becomes more evident as we draw our minds back from the possibilities of the future and into the gifts of the present day.

I know I will look back on these days - this present disaster - as some the sweetest days of our lives...

when we can sit by the window

sip a cup of tea

taste the luxury of a brunch

have time to learn deeply and fully - to really stretch our brains in this space, our home, but still from our wonderful schools

to talk

to walk

to see  "that it is the common, everyday blessing of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful". 

and that "They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness". 

Truly and truly.