During the Great Fast, Orthodox Lent, we read a lot from the Old Testament, especially from Isaiah, Genesis, and Proverbs. Today we heard the day’s readings during the streamed Morning Prayers that I have been trying to tune into at 8:00.
Some of the verses from Proverbs 16 and 17 I am including in this post. They may not seem directly applicable to the context in which I place them, but they remind me to keep the right perspective.
For the last week I’ve been using my laptop in this room, which I showed you the Before picture of last week. That very day I cleaned it up and took the picture above before I ever sat down. I also cleaned up the Guest Room, mostly by tearing off the carpet protection, which took a great effort. I hadn’t figured out what chair to sit in by the window, where I imagined I would quiet my soul in contemplation. Here’s the Before:
…and a few more showing the process into After-but-not-Final:
Maybe you would like a refresher about what used to be here? Some pictures are just too painful to post, but I hunted these down, and they are a good refresher for me, too, for what I have been through, and why I might need an uncluttered spot in a light-filled room for a few months of recovery.
A patient man is better than a strong man,
And he who controls his temper is better than he who captures a city.
Also, it’s good to look behind at all that has been completed, tedious as it was, and to be thankful that all of that construction chaos is over!! The only things left to do are fairly clean and tidy tasks. Thank you, Lord.
I always knew I wanted one of the new rooms to be a place for sewing, because I’ve never found another in this house that really works. There are no windows on the sides of the house, until I had some put into this new room, and I think that was part of the problem.
Still, it’s been so long since I could even access my sewing machine, or settle down long enough between trips and big events to think of using it, I was starting to say about this room, “I don’t know if I ever will sew in it….” I knew I could not spread out into the space and figure out where to put the furniture and rugs and pictures until it would be fully mine, with no strangers coming and going. I don’t want to have the beautiful fabric I bought in India sitting exposed on the shelves of the cabinet when carpenters are finally putting doors on it.
A man wise in his deeds is a discoverer of good things,
But he who trusts in God is the most blessed.
It doesn’t seem smart to invest in a new chair that I’m not able to try out first, so I was glad to remember one that was given to me a few months ago by the same friend whose living room gave me the color for this room that has been known for two years as the Sewing Room — first in my imagination, then on the drawings, and as it is referred to by all the workers from painters to carpet installers, from age unto age.
That black table was my grandma’s breakfast table truly for ages, when it was the color of the chair in the top picture. I began last week to use it for my laptop, and then to write letters to my friends. I am better at letters than phone calls, but just as likely to procrastinate about either.
Considering the continuing upheaval, in my psyche if not in my daily life, it’s surprising even to me how happy it makes me just to be in this room, especially in the mornings soon after I get dressed. Whether the morning is cloudy or sunny, plenty of light pours in, and just the emptiness of it is peaceful; by contrast, my bedroom is always dark in the mornings, and still bears more than its share of clutter and mess.
The abodes of wisdom are more to be chosen than gold,
And the abodes of discernment are more to be chosen than silver.
What it is, is a Morning Room. Of course! I wasn’t trying to come up with a better name, but the room somehow revealed its own self and natural name, which plays itself like a song in my mind. It will be fitting for a long time, I think. More items have been coming in, even my sewing basket and mending pile. Who knows what might happen….
It’s taking me longer than I expected to find a routine and a rhythm that fits Lent and the Coronavirus Confinement and my own unique situation. Every day seems to be a new chapter in the story God is trying to write, and I often feel out of sync with the plot. But it is the most lovely thing to find that in this chapter of my story there is a Morning Room.
As silver and gold are tested in a furnace,
So are chosen hearts before the Lord.
Gladsome Lights 
Plants like morning light the best of all too… after all, that light comes after the darkest hours.
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I really like the room. It looks so peaceful. The morning room is a perfect name for it.
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How splendid to have the chaos of construction behind you and the joy of reconstruction ahead of you! Your Morning Room looks as though it will become a place of quiet contemplation as well as useful, quiet activity. You will add to to it as birds add to their nests until it is ‘just right’.
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What an encouraging image of me as a bird 🙂 Thank you, Anne!
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Wow Gretchen, what a lovely ‘morning’ room. A place where you feel at peace. It was a dream, now it is reality. God’s continued blessings on you dear friend ~ FlowerLady
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Let there be light!
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🙂
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I enjoyed reading this yesterday but wanted to come back today and read it on my laptop for bigger pictures. This post was especially calling my name because I am fascinated by Morning Rooms and have an ever expanding file of descriptions of these rooms mentioned in novels. They are essentially feminine and so there must be a need in each woman for one, I’m thinking. Yours has certainly been long fought for and I know you have a heart of gratitude for yours. I love the green paint with white trim and of course the wonderful windows letting in morning light. I remember that it did take time to recover from the havoc of living in a house during major renovation. There was not instant “oh it was worth it” relief. Thankfulness yes, that the new space was lovely and the construction workers gone but it was such a hard 5 months for me. And mine was not followed by world wide shut down and waiting for the other shoe to drop, which is my particular besetting sin.
Hoping for a healing time for you, if not 100% blissful,
Dewena
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Since I know you’ve used Zoom, I thought I’d pass on this article. It’s always something!
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Oh dear! I think Zoom is having a hard time keeping up
with their Boom! Several of us ran into some breakdown in their services and never could get into one church service “meeting” recently.
Thanks for the alert!
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I chatted with someone who uses Zoom for his business. He said that if the meeting isn’t recorded by either party, then it is not subject to being exposed to those looking for such things. That relieved my mind a bit as more and more Zoom invitations come in.
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Thank you! I think Zoom has several ways the host can prevent meeting crashers from coming in, too.
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Thanks for the proverbs. 🙂 How exciting to have a Morning Room! Makes it worth all the hullabaloo, I would think. But how relieved you will be to finally have everything just where you want it.
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How wonderful that at long last the renovations are done and the carpenters are gone leaving you in peace. I love the light-filled rooms and all that space!! Now comes the fun part where you arrange everything just the way you want it. I hope that goes well. I’m sure it’s all complicated by the need for isolation in order to keep safe. Stay well.
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That’s the deal – the carpenters can’t finish if they can’t come here, and there is something waiting to be finished in all four rooms, if you count the closet, which is the most, i.e. completely, unusable. So I’ll be using my Morning Room very lightly for the foreseeable future….
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So refreshing and inspiring! Maybe you should also start searching for “patron” Saints for your rooms! I am in this process …
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You have one more good reason for using your sewing machine. Plenty of people need protective masks.
Best of health. Keep safe GretchenJoanna.
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The room where I sew is a morning room too, and my favorite room! The color you chose for your room is just perfect. The sewing basket is a good sign.
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Now you can feel just like you inhabit a Jane Austen novel as you write letters in the morning room:)
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Hee hee…
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