Habits? Traditions? Or Lessons?

If you read this blog, you know Monday is my absolute favorite day of the week. Carrie comes on Monday. We clean the house. (By that, I mean Carrie cleans the house). I make my bed with fresh line-dried sheets...every Monday. And when I get into bed on Monday night, I take a deep whiff of my fresh pillowcases..and it is a moment of complete contentment.

I don't know why I enjoy it so much. And I'm pretty sure the other people in my family don't even know when they are sleeping on fresh line-dried sheets. I do it because it's something I care about and something I learned from my Mother...I do it because it matters to me. But I can't tell you exactly WHEN I started to do it or WHEN it started to matter.

Growing up -- laundry and making the bed were chores I hated. I didn't do it when we were first married, living in an apartment. And we didn't have a clothesline at the first three places we lived in...

We all do things that matter to us...and if you're really lucky, these things become gifts we give to the people we love...even though they may not realize it until years down the road.

During the summer -- I love eating on the porch. A big element of those summer meals is the Hummingbird Show. Because John has worked for many years to feed thousands of hummies who come here on their way to South America (or wherever...) -- they make even the simplest lunch a special occasion. But because the hummies have been there since the day Lillian was born -- she has no idea how special
 these little birds really are...

One day, she'll look back and realize what she took for granted...and maybe we all do that. We don't see the gift until many years later...and it comes back to us in our daily habits. Things we don't even think about. Ordinary things like embroidered bed linens -- or special things like cream puffs for Easter...you do them because they matter to YOU...and you cannot worry about how they are received.

But you should know that one day -- they will be remembered and recognized as a special gift...

I think my Mom would be very pleased with my line-dried sheet fetish....