Cast Your Cares (and Make the Bed)

Spring is here!

I have not gotten to take any photos of it yet, but spring has truly arrived: the daffodils, forsythia, quince, and hyacinth are all in bloom. My cute little snowdrops are also blooming.  Yesterday I spent several hours clearing our garden space to prepare it for tilling (it's time to plant potatoes!) and hunting for asparagus (they're not up yet).  I'm almost done with my March flower gardening, too: all I have left to do is get the winter stuff out of one flower bed area, and prune my roses this week.

Domestic work--especially work that is quite physical--is one of the best foils to anxiety, in my experience.  There's something therapeutic about pulling weeds, burning brush, baking bread, cooking supper, folding laundry.  Restoring or maintaining order is powerful. When the entire world is way beyond our control, it's good to remember that we can make our home nice!  Set a table, light a candle, eat a simple bowl of soup, clean up.  It really does help. 

There's a lot of bad news Out There these days and I don't know anyone who hasn't been already affected in some way by the COVID19 virus.  Our own lives have downshifted significantly as all our activities outside the house have been cancelled, but I'm enjoying the change immensely because suddenly our days feel free and wide (although we are spending them all at home!).  My husband still has to go to work, at least for now. We are grateful that our income has not been impacted yet, because we have friends whose incomes and businesses have already destabilized significantly. Strangely, this time reminds me a little bit of my husband's cancer treatment recovery period--a 3- month period when we mostly stayed home and quiet.  It was one of the sweetest times of our lives, although he was extremely sick for a couple of those months.  But there wasn't the underlying, global anxiety that we face now as coronavirus cases rise and the economy tanks. 

And on a very personal level, we are (finally! the testing shortage situation is no joke) awaiting COVID19 test results for a very close loved one.  I dropped groceries off at this person's house today and we FaceTimed this evening, because since their return from another country (with many cases) two weeks ago, we've not been able to see them. We miss them, and they miss us!

I am known around these parts as someone who does not worry.  It's true; in general, I don't.  At a time like this, I think the best things we can do (other than conscientious hand-washing and good hygiene, and of course staying home as much as possible for a little while) are--

praying to God for peace, healing, and joy

and

making things nice for ourselves and our families.

It doesn't take much to make things nice: a lit candle, a quiet time of prayer before bed, fresh laundry, good (even if it's very simple) food, a nicely-set table, a neatly-made bed.  In our culture I believe people tend to scoff at these as unimportant, but they're life-giving!  

Back during my husband's recovery period, every morning after he got up from his fitful night of Not Sleeping, I aired the bedroom.  I changed the pillowcase, aired and then made the bed, and sprayed the room with my favorite air freshener scent. I cleaned the bathroom, cleaning out and sanitizing the suction machine he had to use for his mucositis. I got everything spic-and-span, and tried to keep a little bouquet of something in the bathroom and bedroom--I recall a lot of sage, since I had a lot on hand at that time in the flower beds!  Just the tiny ritual of taking a few minutes to get the room nice and airy and clean made such a difference.  And, even better: it costs very little, or nothing, to do these simple things like making a bed, opening a window, cleaning a bathroom.  But it does a lot for morale!

So I encourage you to just do whatever tiny, inexpensive thing you can think of this week to make life a little nicer for yourself and anyone within your immediate sphere of influence.  Pray about your worries and anxieties. 

"Cast your cares on the Lord

and He will sustain you;

He will never let 

the righteous be shaken."

-Psalm 55:22