SPRING CLEANING

[As we spring into April, with hope for higher temps, clear skies, and warming sunshine, there's a pull to do something about the indoor clutter, winter yard mess, and anything else that seems to need a good spring cleaning. So I'm repeating this post to give you a leg-up and maybe inspire you to do what needs doing. I'm also inspiring myself, just so you know.]

Growing up in the Midwest, in a family of hard workers with strong ideas of right and wrong, I could always count on one thing. Every year the arrival of Spring meant something important: Cleaning Out. Cleaning Up. 

Almost an "off with the old and on with the new" attitude. But not quite.

Houses were swept, scrubbed, and polished until every surface mirrored my face and the fragrance of lavender greeted me every time I came home from school.

Furniture appeared in back yards--not for sale, but for airing.

Clotheslines sagged with heavy bedspreads, wool blankets, small-to-medium sized rugs. Also for airing.

Eventually, after the furniture and other household linens were back in place, out came our winter clothing. Once the wool jackets, coats, and sweaters appeared on the clotheslines, we knew it really was Spring. None of those things would be worn again until cold weather appeared, probably in November. (And you were on your own if you felt cold before the official date of hauling out woolies.)

In those days, not much was thrown away. "Make it do or do without" wasn't just an attitude of the Yankees of New England--it was the difference between having a sufficient something until money again became available to replace it. And, it was a matter of pride.

So I don't recall much of the old stuff going out and being replaced by new stuff. I do recall folks reusing clothing--cutting out the good parts of old suits to make a child's coat, for example. (Clearly, recycling is not a new concept.)

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Fast forward to today--yes, we recycle; been doing that officially for a couple of decades. We've had to re-learn the "make it do" philosophy during a year of COVID, especially when it came to having enough paper products or canned goods.

Then there's another category of Spring Cleaning: our attitudes.

There's a lot--a whole lot--of stuff in the news about diversity, racism, social justice, and more. We're encouraged to think of others. Help those who are having a hard time. If you can't donate money or goods, how about giving a kind word? Or a smile? Or just letting somebody in line ahead of you at the checkout when they have three items and you have a cartful?

It's been a while since I took my attitudes out for an airing--got them down off the shelf and dusted them, rubbed them with a cloth and some fragrant dusting spray to make them shine again. Maybe take them outside and hang them on a drying rack (no clotheslines around here) in the sun and breeze. I think it's time. And Spring is as good a time as any.

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Without our help, Nature comes along and does a super job of Renewal. Every year. Without fail. 

The church encourages Renewal--Easter is a grand celebration of the power of new life.

We can do it, too. It doesn't have to be expensive or labor intensive. How about it?

 WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT?

I grew up with a lot of what I'll call "canned wisdom"--old sayings and maxims and proverbs intended to improve me. We're not talking about eating your spinach here, or sitting up straight, or stop making that face because what if your face freezes like that. No-no. We're talking about well-known (and well-worn) phrases we heard all our lives and took for granted they were, well, practically gospel truth. Until we discovered they were something else entirely.

Today we'll look at seven phrases and their origins--not my Great Aunt Fanny's or Grandpa Joe's--the real origins.

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1. "Eyes bigger than your stomach." The original reads "bigger than your belly." Found a reference to the poet George Herbert (1593-1633) but nothing about where in his work it's to be found.

2. "Bite off more than you can chew."  Found no references, sad to say. But I think it's safe to assume we're not talking food here--I know it was used in my youth as a warning not to be too ambitious because I'd not likely succeed. (I still think that's bad advice--what about our reach exceeding our grasp?--Robert Browning)

3. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."  First seen in print in about the early 1800s; political writer Edmund Burke said “having looked to government for bread, on the first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.” The term is believed to be hundreds of years old.

[So far we seem to be inundated with advice on our feeding and eating habits. But once we get into the origins, we learn something else.]

4. "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile." Already a proverb in John Heywood's 1546 collection, "Give him an inch and he'll take an ell." [An ell is a former English unit of length, about 45 inches.] The change to mile happened in about 1900.

5. "Walk a mile in my shoes."  Original said "in my moccasins." Same difference. Possibly from an 1895 poem by Mary T. Lathrap called “Judge Softly.”

6. "A penny saved is a penny earned." Attributed to Ben Franklin, but I couldn't substantiate that. Anyway--it's bum advice--100% earnings? No way!

7. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."Probable that John Heywood (see #4 above) obtained the phrase from a Latin text of St. Jerome, The Letter to the Ephesians, circa AD 400."

[NOTE: Sources were: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and Webster's Tenth Edition dictionary.]

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There you have them--seven pieces of advice/wisdom/opinion/or (if you're one of the skeptics in this life) so much codswollop.

But now that it's spring in the northern hemisphere, and especially up north in the U.S., we will have rain-rain-rain. So I leave you with this wisdom: "Always save something for a rainy day." Heaven knows, you're gonna need it.

Blessings from

Thursday's Child

TIME--A CLICHE FESTIVAL 

Last week when we met, we examined Time as a part of our lives.

Aside: Did you know it's extremely difficult to write about Time as a subject without using the word over and over? True.

This week I want to look at phrases and sayings that have grown up around the word Time and the concept of time passing. F'rinstance:

--Time will tell - something will be made clear in the future.

--It's high time . . . - suggesting
some urgency to the subject being discussed.

--For the time being - at present; now; perhaps only for a short period in the future.

--In a timely manner - being on time, action occurring when it's supposed to, or when it's most needed.

--No time like the present - meant, I suspect, to move a reluctant person on toward an action.

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Other usages seem to be meant to reassure the listener, such as these:

--Take your time - no hurry, no worry, relax . . . .

--Time-worn - used to suggest the age of something, such as a written work, or the physical condition of a book, or music; or, perhaps, the lesser value of a phrase or philosophy; perhaps something not to be taken seriously.

--It's all in the timing - I don't know about you, but when I hear something is all in the timing, I tense up; timing isn't an attitude or a way of thinking that one adopts--it's earned, by practice. By hitting a ball, fielding a fly, swimming laps, learning how to run a half-marathon, speaking in front of an audience, training or teaching someone how to do something, leading.

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Then there are a few that fall between the cracks, such as:

--It's about time you ___ - this one seems to be a favorite of parents who want to shove the kid on toward some goal, but know there's not much they can do (legally) to make it happen. Can also be heard between spouses, sad to say.

--For old time's sake - I think of this one as a way to lay on the guilt. Or maybe it depends on how long ago the "old time" was.

--Time after time - another one that can fall off on the negative side; yet it can be used positively, such as "I could never get the hang of long division, but time after time my dad showed me how it was done."

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Recently I participated in a study of St. John's gospel--and on different occasions, Jesus says to his disciples, or to others, "My time has not yet come." Later, he says, "The time has come for me to glorify my father." 

Maybe there is something to getting the timing right. And, using the Christian example, it may not all be up to me.

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Blessings,

Thursday's Child

 GETTING A HANDLE ON TIME

Is it possible to actually "get a handle" on Time?

Ever since I've been able to tell time, to have to plan my time, to fit myself into somebody else's concept of how time is supposed to be used--so, clearly, most of my long life--I've never been able to figure out time, or get hold of it in any way. Time remains as elusive to me as it did when I was five years old and wasn't time-bound for much of anything. Mom called me to come in for meals. She said when it was time to put on pajamas, say my prayers, get into bed. (My memory is that Cultural Wisdom in the late '40s decreed children of school age should get 12 hours of sleep. Honest! Not a joke! Not an exaggeration.)

Until I went to school, I had little concept of "time passing." I certainly didn't have to keep track of what the clock said or how many more minutes till something else happened.

Then--School. That place I adored, where I'd have lived if they'd let me. From the moment I went in the door each day, I knew I was Home. Not the house my dad built for us. Not the apartment my mom and I lived in later on. No, School was my true Home--spiritual, intellectual. 

The only fly in the soothing ointment of School was the keeping of Time. Fortunately for me, I had no need to mark the hours; I was prompted by my teacher to put away my arithmetic book and take out social studies. When a bell rang out in the hall, something more important was going to happen--usually, leave the school building and go home for lunch. Sometimes it was a fire drill--and to this day my adrenaline roars into life at the sound of an alarm (any kind: alarm clock, smoke alarm, car alarm; plus sirens on any and all emergency vehicles). The only bell that didn't start my fight-or-flight system was the one at the end of the day when I could put away my books (and pencil and anything else I had taken out of my desk) and go home. That bell was a sad bell. I had to leave School, my true Home.

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As years passed, I learned more about Time. Such as:

--time spent in a classroom passes faster than time spent outside School. (I wanted to be there, remember.)

--time spent in a dentist's waiting room is even faster; it should have gone slower, I think, because then the torture of imagination would be more effective. But five minutes in the waiting room took no time at all, and then my name was called, and it was my turn.

--time during a school exam is never long enough, no matter how much time is allowed.

--time waiting for a baby to develop and finally be born is interminable.

--time waiting for that teenager to come home (wee small hours) causes ulcers.

(You can compile your own list . . . .)

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At present, I'm not bound by time as I was when I worked. Retirement didn't completely obliterate the need for calendars, lists, and clocks. But it did give me a healthier perspective about how Time works--and if I don't want to go completely round the bend or drop out of society (sometimes appealing, but not just now), I have come to terms with Time.

I use the tools at hand, the calendar, list, and clock.

The calendar records appointments of all kinds, but in my case, mostly medical.

The list details each day's expectations, obligations, and information. What doesn't get done on any particular day may migrate to the next day's list. Or, it may not.

The clock is there for me to keep track of appointments or to let me know when it's time to take my blood pressure, call somebody I need to speak with, or to determine if I can work in a ride on my exercise bike or do some yoga before supper is on the table.

One great benefit of keeping track of Time is finding I have leisure to pursue things I enjoy: writing, watercolor painting, occasional quilt-making, letter writing, knitting. I may have to juggle some of my commitments in order to have that leisure, but I'll do that because the end result is worth it.

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No doubt you've caught on--we're talking about Time because on Sunday you and I will have to adjust our clocks to conform to Daylight Savings Time. Or maybe you also have one of those atomic clocks (weird name) that uses GPS to change itself around 2 AM. My cell phone, my computer, and my car clock also do that for me. That leaves me two clocks to change--the one on the microwave, and a wind-up clock in the bathroom. Oh, and a couple of little old-fashioned battery-operated clocks I've had for ages--they're invaluable when the power goes out.

No rant this time--DST is just a fact of life, like weather, and tax time (also coming soon to a place near you). 

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Until next time--there's that word again--enjoy the Days Before Spring Arrives.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

 MARCH!

[This was first published in 2018--I wanted to repeat it because I don't want to forget how we thought and spoke in those pre-pandemic days. March ought to be a time of looking forward--to the season's change to Spring, colorful beauty in Nature, growth. For me, despite seasonal allergies, a happy time.]

New month . . . new expectations . . . .

On March 20th, we'll celebrate the first day of spring, 2018. A one-time thing--there won't be another first day of spring this year. Make the most of it.

Before that, though, we live with all the old sayings:

If March comes in like a lion, it'll go out like a lamb.

Or, if March comes in like a lamb . . . you got it, out like a lion.

In my neck of the woods, there's a little of both--the lion roaring around, trees swaying, rain pelting down, temp dropping. Then the little lamb gambols across the landscape bringing sunshine, a soft breeze, the illusion of a warm spring day. What's up with that?

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This year, March is the last gasp of Lent--Easter Sunday is April 1st. And if the weather doesn't show up dressed in sunshine and fluffy clouds--if we get a freezing rain before the sunrise service (happened to us about 40 years ago here in my neighborhood)--well, that's what we get that day. It'll still be Easter Sunday.

In Anne Hillerman's book Rock with Wings, police officer Jim Chee reflects on weather:

He never minded summer, even at its peak. What was the point of calling anything in nature “bad”? Weather was weather, hot was hot, cold was cold. He didn’t see the need to attach judgment.

But Chee is a native of the desert Southwest, and he's a traditional Navajo, which means he's close to nature, and the above attitude is just right for his character.

I won't say I'll be nonchalant about the weather on Easter Sunday. If it's a cold, rainy day, I'll feel cold, and I'll wear a raincoat and hope my fingers don't freeze while I drive to church.

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What do you look forward to in March? Gardening? Working outside? Building a gazebo? Taking the dog for longer walks? Not shoveling snow? 

We had an almost-spring day or two this week. My job was to clear the fallen limbs, branches, and sticks that wind had torn from my four big old trees. There's a good-sized pile at the curb for the City trucks to pick up later on. And the trash bin is filling up nicely with the small stuff--it's naturally biodegradable so it's okay for the landfill.

When we get a warmish day without wind, my patio will get some attention--last year's leaves got tangled up in some of the bushes nearby, so that'll require a rake and a bushel basket for hauling debris to the bin out front. Best of all, I may get to see some buds on flowering bushes. If not, I'll keep checking.

Last night, my Ohio daughter told me her daffodils and tulips are already about three inches out of the ground. Go Spring!

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March is a month that wears many hats--a sunbonnet for the bright days--a poplin rainhat for the precursor to April showers--a tied-on scarf to keep hair out of our eyes when we walk or run on the snow-free walks and streets.

It's a month of green beer and wild weather, sunshine and rain. Whatever--celebrate March!