I’m not sure how long it has been since I sat alone in the middle of an afternoon and just read a magazine.
But I did it today.
My mama had a subscription to Our State and to Southern Living, and I used to smile when she’d sit in her chair and mark recipes she wanted to try. She had long ago stopped cooking, and had turned over family holidays and meals to me, but she still loved to read recipes.
I’d shake my head and agree with her about the foods I thought sounded good, but I knew she’d never cook them.
But today, I sat there in the sunshine in my rocking chair on the porch and read a magazine.
I looked at how this couple decorated their deck, how that company sells watches I probably can’t live without, and how to match my flower arrangements to my china pattern.
I even read an article on the joy of cooking with dill.
And, I saved two recipes I think I might want to try.
There is a recipe for a fresh dill dip for vegetables and crispy ranch shrimp that I think ‘My Boy and I need to taste’.
It makes me smile, to think that after all those years of shaking my head at my mama, I’m now sitting on a porch collecting recipes from a magazine she paid for a couple of years ago.
It’s a beautiful thing to find myself still in this place where she was born and raised, this place that she loved and that she called home.
And it’s a beautiful thing to feel at home in my own skin, to rest this evening in the peace that only God can give.
This evening, may we always remember this promise: “O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us” (Isaiah 26.12).
Blessings,
Vickie
** used by permission from Vickie’s Facebook page – Photo credits – Vickie Woolard