Ever just feel like you were born in the wrong era?
Ever feel like you identify more with life “back in the day” than you do with life in the present?
I’ve often thought I could have been one of those women; you know that woman in the kitchen called Maw who is married to a man named Paw.
Maw and Paw live on a farm with cows, chickens and goats.
Paw tends the animals and fields with his hardworking boys and little ones “in training” underfoot.
Maw and her girls (big and small) share life together in the kitchen, raising babies and making everything from scratch; homemade bread, pies, and all the meal’s fixens.
The vegetables grown by Paw and the boys are canned and stored for winter and all the youngin’s clothes are sewn by hand.
Maw loves the cool summer breeze dancing through the kitchen curtains of windows that stay open all summer long, not minding the waft up yonder from the cow barn and chicken coop as the aroma of homemade apple pie cooling on the counter soothes the senses. Laundry is hung out to dry on hot summer days, giving that crisp fresh feel on a newly made bed and dinner after a hard day’s work is worth it all with your loved ones seated around the table together.
Maw and Paw live on a farm with their grown children and families keeping house nearby. Life as it appears in Maw’s mind is painted perfect, albeit “back in the day”, yet that is not Maw’s life she was created to live.
Maw and Paw are really Papa and Gaga who have a wonderful life together, with grown children and grandchildren living amazing lives on their own, just not on a farm with us.
The grand-kids clothes are store bought and for sure not sewn by Maw, for which they all say Amen.
Two of my girls enjoy cooking homemade and one would rather not as a day’s work for her is sanding, painting and refinishing the house. All three are wonderful mothers creating havens of love for their families, for which Papa and Gaga couldn’t ask for anything more for our grandchildren.
But there are days living in a crowded subdivision that we long for home on acreage room enough for the houses of our children and grandchildren running back and forth to play with their cousins.
But in these moments I have to stop and wrap myself in an old fashioned blanket of contentment, and be thankful for what God has blessed us with in the “here and now”. Yes, I wish for a slower life where families shared bread and life together more often, preferably in the same state. Yes, I wish that store bought cookies were against the law and everyone loved food from scratch like I do. Life would be easier and probably cheaper if I didn’t want to make everything by hand. As I said, I think I was supposed to be born in another era, well, at least my ways.
But I cherish the life I’ve been blessed with and never want to miss what God has for me even if I could have never imagined it for myself. God is good and good all the time, in every detail and square of our patchwork quilt of life.
We must all keep that old fashioned blanket of contentment handy whenever we feel a chill of dissatisfaction with life as
… godliness with contentment is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:6 NIV
Apples of Gold Encouragement 