“A true home is one of the most sacred of places. It is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world’s perils and alarms. It is a resting-place to which at close of day the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow."

It might seem superficial to gather autumn ornamentals when the headlines are blaring disaster,  to simmer soup when the schools are practicing live shooter drills, to smooth bedcovers when nerves are frayed. I wonder, though, as I pot the mums, if we aren't doing the very best thing we could be under the circumstances.  Our families are navigating a loud and unsettling world, daily.  We can't fix that by ourselves.  We can however create a soft place to land at the close of day, a sanctuary space to launch from every morning.  

That's what I am doing.  We woke to mass casualty news.  We had dental appointments which resulted in prescriptions and an oral surgery consult for one boy.  The brakes appear to be shot.  The dog got sick on the carpet.  So I put on my new dress, kept the news off where children are present, explained extraction procedures in the best possible terms, cleaned dog mess, lent my van to the teens, arranged a sitter for a parent meeting tonight, and made dinner in the instant pot so we have warm food whenever we all gather again from the four corners we are dispersed to today.  Pollyanna?  Maybe.  Or maybe super pragmatic. 

"Far more than we know, do the strength and beauty of our lives depend upon the home in which we dwell. He who goes forth in the morning from a happy, loving, prayerful home, into the world’s strife, temptation, struggle, and duty, is strong–inspired for noble and victorious living. The children who are brought up in a true home go out trained and equipped for life’s battles and tasks, carrying in their hearts a secret of strength…"    - JRR Miller 

I can't fix all the things.  I can do the little things that will send us all out again tomorrow with that secret of strength which is home.