homely tasks

I've decided that I was born in the wrong century.  The older I get, the more I fall in love with stories like Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. I read the latter for the first time a few weeks ago and found a new piece of my soul.  The simple wisdom, daily chores, descriptions of gardens and clothes...all of it resonated so deeply with me.  Though a lengthy book, I devoured it in a matter of days, pausing only for family interaction and pool time.

At one point, the little family is preparing a new home for the eldest daughter and her husband to be.  Countless pages are designated for this humble abode and the preparations that go into it.  And somewhere in the midst of all of it, we learn, "The homeliest tasks get beautified in loving hands."  It was a small home (though it seemed palatial compared to our flat in Cyprus) filled with handmade linens, secondhand furniture, and a bride who didn't quite know what she was doing.  But to the young couple and their family, it was lovely.

How often do we get caught up in having the newest, the greatest, the biggest anything?  How many blogs and magazines do we read that are filled with images of sparkling, perfectly decorated homes?  How often do we forget the dirty, cluttered table left as a remnant of an evening laughing with good friends?  Or what about that time we spent cleaning out the attic with Grandma, watching her eyes smile as she tells the story of where the beat up glove came from?  The beauty of life isn't in perfect, it's in the journey.  In floured aprons, dusty rags, and dirty mop buckets.  It's in the loving hands and everyday tasks all around us.