Slice-of-Life-graphic

“…strive earnestly to live quietly and to attend to your own matters, and to work with your hands..”  I Thessalonians 4:11

Today is one of those days that I feel as if I’ve accomplished a great deal simply by checking most the items off my To Do list (work out, do laundry, go to water store, bake bread—yes, again). Each thing on the list by itself signals a mundane existence, yet each one is important to the quality of our empty nesters’ life.

At times, I really miss those crazy busy days as a wife, mom, and teacher. To-do lists a page long, reading over student essays late into the night while doing laundry and baking cookies (that son #2 forgot he promised to bring). Now that I think about it, I don’t miss all that as much as I thought.

It’s harder some days than others, though, to live so quietly after years of rushing through each day and being actively involved in so many lives. However, today’s tedium was broken by the opportunity to sit on my patio with a good book and a cup of tea while being serenaded by finches, sparrows, and dove flocking around our bird feeders.

So even though today was totally boring by most standards and lacked an obvious inspiration for today’s slice, I end it with the satisfaction that we can eat fresh bread and wear clean clothes tomorrow. I am taking solace in a remark my older son made last week about being content with “a quiet life lived earnestly.”