Life can be a bit stressful in my house the day before a holiday. I am not a good student of women's magazine articles that advise the key to holiday bliss is to do tasks A and B four days in advance, tasks C through Y two days in advance, and task Z the day before, leaving a person relaxed as the holiday approaches and arrives. In my household, most of the holiday food preparations are done the day before or the day of. This morning I was among the mass of women's magazine drop-outs who were at the grocery store trying to fill a cart on the busiest grocery shopping day of the year. When I got home, my husband was just finishing washing the kitchen floor. I proceeded to put away the groceries thinking the worst was behind me. An innocent push of a package of paper lunch bags into the cupboard, however, dislodged a brand new tall bottle of olive oil, which fell to floor and shattered. An ocean of olive oil carrying broken glass gushed across my newly-washed floor while I frantically tried to break open a new package of paper towels to sop up the mess. Which leads me to a huge thing for which I am thankful: my husband came back into the room, knelt on the floor that he had just washed, and cleaned up the entire greasy glassy mess.
“Thou takest the pen – and the lines dance. Thou takest the flute – and the notes shimmer.
Thou takest the brush – and the colors sing. So all things have meaning and beauty in that space beyond where Thou art.
How, then, can I hold anything back from Thee.”
— Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings
_