I'd forgotten about our tucked away, huge every-book-is-70-percent-off book store, but this morning before the heat and humidity rolled down our streets, God whispered, "Why don't you go there?"

So I went and though this place is so large that anyone standing at the back of it appears half-size to any person at the front door, I was the only customer. I'd hoped to find Tracy Porter's book, Home Style, which I discovered yesterday at our library, a book stuffed with photos of how I'd decorate my house if I lived alone.

But I found a book even better. One called, Thoughts of Home, edited by Elaine Greene. And well, God has done it once more. He's spoiled me far and away more than I deserve.

I mean, just last week, this is what I wished: "I wish I could find a book all about peoples' love for their houses, their homes."

And today I found that book! 

I am in love, and in a hurry, even, to skip steps back upstairs to our couch and continue reading these essays by various authors describing how love at first sight feels when you find the perfect house. How sometimes love for your home must grow, how comforting the right home can be. Family members within those houses are remembered and appreciated again after the passage of years. The essay, The Love Nest, described how one couple, at retirement, left the huge, memory-embedded home where they'd raised their children and found a white cottage on the sea. I had to wipe away tears before I could finish--so closely to the bone did it resonate with me.

Some of you may love this book as well. If so, they're practically giving them away as door prizes over at amazon.com.

And speaking of homes, I cannot describe how in love I am with my turquoise Dream Room. I feel as though I step out over the ocean whenever I walk through the door, especially when the flowing muslin curtains at the windows fill with air like sails on boats. I even, yesterday, bought a present for my room--a simple coffee mug which blends-in and appears at home in my 'seaside room' if I leave it atop my nightstand the hours after my morning coffee.

If ever you've pondered painting a room this color (or a similar one) grab a paintbrush (or roller) and paint away. You'll not be sorry.

God is good. But then, He always is, even though it's a goodness we don't always recognize (at first) nor understand.



******