An Ottoman is Worth a Thousand Words

I was sitting with my legs stretched out over my ottoman this afternoon and realized that there was just way too much stuff under my feet. As I leaned over to start clearing things off, I was struck by the story that the ottoman was telling. It encapsulated so much of what is going on in my life. In no particular order:

The Remote

I use it to check the weather in the morning and to make sure there is no breaking news on CNN, then I tune into and crank the Spa or Nature Channel for the rest of the day. Soul Mate gets home by 4:30, and that's the last I see of this device.

Eat Magazine

Just grabbed it at the grocery store yesterday. I don't bake, but if I did, I would make the rhubarb galette from the recipe on page 28. It would appear as though a galette is just kind of a tart without a crust top on it.

Chatelaine Magazine 1949

I teach women's history, so I love to collect old women's magazines. This issue from 1949 would not appeal to vegetarians. An unusual number of the recipes are "jelly" oriented (vegetable marrow jam, elderberry jelly) and quite a few ads are for what were then referred to as "table-ready meats" such as bologna, the ever popular pickle and pimento loaf, and Prem, a close relative I believe, to Spam. I was also amused by the "Nerves: A Blight to Good Looks" article. Especially this sentence:

"Living in a constant state of tension can be the forerunner of tiresome and serious ailments, such as heart palpitations, chronic headaches, indigestion, high blood pressure, and, perhaps most devastating of all to women, loss of  hair."

Or, perhaps not.

Deck of Melody Beattie's The Language of Letting Go Cards

The card I picked today:

Accepting Change

Today I will be open to the process of change. I will trust my Higher Power and believe that the place where I'll be dropped off is better than the place where I was picked up. I know that change is necessary to take me wherever I need to go.

Sounds good to me.

Deck of Cheryl Richardson's Grace Cards

Today's pick:

Surrender

Surrender is the key that unlocks the door to grace.

Yes, I get that.

Writing As a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives

I have been too busy writing to do much reading, but I look forward to sinking my teeth into this book by Louise DeSalvo. Like Natalie Goldberg and several other writing gurus whom I adore, DeSalvo talks a lot about ``writing as practice.`` In fact, DeSalvo even terms it ``The Yoga of Writing`` and claims that ``Committing to the practice of simply writing is as transformative as is telling our stories, as is linking our feelings to the events in our lives.``

These things too, I know to be true.

And that is the story of my ottoman.