With my youngest daughter Kate getting married in just a few days, you’d think I’d have precious little time for writing here. And that is so true, which is why I’m mostly passing on some more gleanings from my recent readings. If you ever pray for bloggers you don’t know, add me to the list this week!
1) Leila writes about some of my favorite things in her post Housewifely. I specialize in ironing and wearing an apron, but the other 
things are also high on my list. She writes, “When you put on an apron, you do not merely protect the garments. You also announce your commitment to the task at hand, your willingness to suffer the slings and sputterings of the pots and pans, your resolve to see the work out to the end.”
I wish I had written this post. Sometimes I think I could write a whole book about aprons alone, and how practically and symbolically they are so significant to my own homemaking. I don’t only wear a apron in the kitchen, but to clean house and dig in the garden.
Aprons were one love that I shared with my now-departed friend Bird which is why I made her a new apron at a time when she had no obvious need for one. Bird and I knew that she did in reality use one, as a way to keep herself on the continuum of the woman she had always been.
2) Daphne writes common sense and wisdom about dating and marriage.
“Start dating after you are ready to get married, and date people you can actually see yourself marrying, as doing otherwise is typically a colossal waste of time. ”
“A good marriage is intentional and dating should be too.”
“And none of them live in magical fairy tales; no matter how it’s arranged a relationship always involves confusion, mistakes, and heartache. Crossed wires are built into every human interaction. ”
3) This article on acedia I found to be revealing of all the many ways self-love manifests itself. Fr. Aidan Kimel quotes a 4th-century desert monastic on the eight fundamental passions or thoughts; acedia is central.
“Frustration and aggressiveness combine in a new way and produce this ‘complex’ (that is, interwoven) phenomenon of acedia.”
“’A despondent person hates precisely what is available,’ Evagrius writes, ‘and desires what is not available.'”
4) The last thing I offer you, which was most helpful to me at this time, is Father Stephen writing about Comforting One Another, which is also about comforting ourselves — or rather, not comforting ourselves. You see, we try to comfort ourselves by running away from the heartbreak or pain and suffering, running to pleasures that we think will ease our hurt. They often bring us further pain. We have to make ourselves not run away, but turn to Christ and let Him truly comfort us by His being and presence.
“For it is when our hearts are broken and do not run away or hide that we can call on God to comfort us. And He does….That comfort is the gift of His own life within us, a sharing of His own joy and love.”
Gladsome Lights 
I look forward to exploring these links. I’ve prayed for you now, and will do so again. I hope this week is filled with joy for your family.
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I liked all that your wrote about today. I love aprons and I have them everywhere. I use them just because I am a terrible slob. I always make such messes and get every thing on me.
I love what you wrote about comfort. I totally agree.
I am continuing to pray for you all and I will step it up with the wedding almost here.
I hope you are okay.
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I wish you a beautiful week as your daughter marries. I’ll keep you in my prayers.
Lovely words about aprons. The writer is right when she says that the apron is a determination to see a job through. I just put one on this weekend as I was making fry bread for Indian Tacos. I’m always a mess when I am cooking like that.
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Lifting you up in prayer right now!
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praying (and was before I saw this!)… I LOVE aprons and have a red sturdy one with pockets that I wear at home daily/often within daily. I hope the wedding was beautiful and I am praying for you all. Lovely links. FYI the Kathleen Norris book on acedia is one worth reading when the time is right. Much love to you!
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I too pray that this marriage this week is a true blessing……now, as to acedia….yes, it’s my demon. Kathleen Norris’ book about it is wonderful.
Thanks for this whole post. Goodness throughout. Thanks for taking the time.
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Dear Gretchen,
May you be aproned in prayer…you know you have mine…and I have the peace of knowing you know whom to go to in the face of the full spectrum ever unfolding in our lives that you may receive even that which is beyond comfort.
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Your #4 is so true — running away is no comfort. The seeming escape only delays and intensifies the trauma. Comfort in Jesus is a deep, enduring peace.
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Gretchen, a wise post. I wear aprons and, sometimes, don’t take them off when I go to town. They do put me in a frame of working mind when I put them on in the morning. God, grief and time have taught me it’s best to confront the pain and letting God pour over and through me has brought me safe thus far. Dave’s death was, and still is, very difficult but jumping back into life would have been so wrong for me. In days gone by, people gave themselves a year when first married and a year to grieve. Dave will be dead 3 years 11/11 and the grief continues. At one point, I thought it would go into mourning but I was wrong. It takes time and taking time means healing fully. Only God can heal fully and only when we give Him time.
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Hi Gretchen,
It’s been a while since I’ve been to visit, but I sure enjoyed the stop over to catch up a wee bit. I popped over to see the post by Leila about aprons…. enjoyed her comments as well as your own. I have serviceable ones at present, but fun as one is a bright Tuscany yellow with olives sprigs on it. It’s great for when the pasta sauce is splattering all over the place.
Wishing you a beautiful day….and many blessings for joy and peace!
Brenda
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Wise gleanings Gretchen. I never thought about aprons like that before, but it makes perfect sense.
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