The Lady Behind The Curtain

“I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go."  ... Isaiah 48:17

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."   ... Dr. Suess

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Last week a guy drove into an electric pole (he's ok) on our next (medium-busy)cross street. For 10 hours traffic was redirected just outside our windows and oh my goodness.

Good ol' Debra should've just closed the curtains that afternoon, but did she? No, she stared out the windows while cars nearly drove into each other. As some gunned their engines, speeding past. As folks ran our stop signs and acted like redirection totally ruined their lives.

In 8 years at Hobbit Cottage I'd never viewed anything like that wild street circus! Tom arrived home, my nerves felt frayed and my eyes were all, like, darting side to side.  シ

Even though the traffic shenanigans only happened once, the next morning I ordered white curtains, you know, to use like sheers--

              These are Daniel-the-Cat-tougher than sheers. 


I ironed them on Tuesday, hung them up and oh! Now it's like the big, bad world went away. Things became simplified. And wow, the peace of minding my own business rather than the neighbors'.  ツ

Man, why did I wait so long? All those years yanking the curtains across the rod, pleating them just right with my fingers. All the times thinking, "I love when we step into estate sale houses and they've got sheers in between the curtains and why haven't I done that?"

Slowly I'm making my house easier to care for.
Discovering ways to make it clean itself. (I am! More about that later.)
Meticulously finding and fixing what irks me.
And ultra-appreciating how that Task List has brought me awesome hope and ease. (It must be a God Idea, because it's working.)


And no, we're not weak if we must tweak our lives so to give us peace of mind. If we can't (or don't wish to) keep up with our friends' pace or watch the world's madness on tv or online.

God enables us to finish our journeys, strong, in individualized ways.

What works for me, may appear silly to you, but what matters? That I follow God's plan for me so that I don't end up all flattened-out on Life's Road, just short of the finish line.

Heaven forbid.

God-tweaks keep us healthy and traveling in a custom-made harmony which limits weariness and burn-out. His ways are not ours, but yes, they can be when we pause long enough to listen to His plans.


"...and make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands..." ...1 Thessalonians 4:11

   (How smart/kind of God to save us from the extra problems caused by not minding our own business!)




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Wow, I'm truly thankful for God's peace, especially during Disappointment Weeks like this one. 

Here's what I shared yesterday at Facebook about another local closing:


Gee, don't you hate it when losses keep coming? Our local nostalgic theater was in business 50 years and we often went there when we felt like traveling back in Time. When we moved to New York, movies were just $1.50 a seat, I often mentioned this theater in my blog and sometimes I drove there alone at night when things weren't going well--and I'd always come away happy (and feeling safe). Thank-you _____ Cinema for all the sweet memories--I'll miss you!

Way back in the 90's we always sat amongst crowds! In the 2000's, though, usually 3 or 4 people joined us. Once, I even watched a movie all alone in the large, dark room. A scary thing happened in the first film moments and I remember looking around for a comforting face. Didn't find one. Oh my.  


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It's been a very 'reading' sort of spring/summer for me via Open Library!



So Near and Yet So Far by Emily Kimbrough
And a Right Good Crew by Emily Kimbrough
Password to Larkspur Lane by Carolyn Keene
Floating Island by Emily Kimbrough
The Secret of Grandfather's Diary by Milton Lomask
Waverly by Amelia Elizabeth Walden
Mystery At Dead End Farm by Mary C. Jane


And currently I'm reading there--


The Mystery of the Hidden Pearls by Virginia Frances Voight
The Haunted Bridge by Carolyn Keene
The Making of a Writer by Joan Lowery Nixon
Water, Water Everywhere by Emily Kimbrough  (Emily and her friends have taken me marvelous places this summer! New Orleans, France, England, Italy, Greece. Oh, we've had terrific times. 💙)

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"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15