Homemaking as a Social Art

Many years ago, when I was homeschooling my three young sons with a Waldorf-style education, I purchased a lovely homemaking book that is still one of my favorites today.  Homemaking as a Social Art: Creating a Home for Body, Soul and Spirit by Veronika Van Duin brings the beauty of Rudolf Steiner's philosophy into the home environment.  It is not a how-to book for homemakers, but rather, it is a book about the spiritual tasks of the homemaker that will inspire peace, beauty, rhythm, and harmony in the home.
If you've never been introduced to the pedagogy of a Waldorf education, or  the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, you might have a little difficulty understanding some of the concepts in this book.  But, if you're open to learning some new ideas, along with timeless ones,  Homemaking as a Social Art is a lovely book that inspires beauty in the home, and life.

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Reverence, devotion and wonder are tools for the soul of the artist.  The homemaker too, uses these tools in daily life, in order to create beauty, truth and goodness with which every home can be filled.
~ Veronika Van Duin, Homemaking as a Social Art

Welcome Back to Light Cottage

 Gamia Anna by Carl Larsson

Hello Friends,
 I'm so happy to be back in my blogging home.  I've been away from it for too long, after being sidetracked on other forms of social media, and finally realizing it's just not a very pretty place there.

If you've been a follower of mine in the past, you'll notice that I've changed my focus from the Quaker religion and homemaking to beauty, simplicity, spirituality, and homemaking.  My life has changed somewhat since I stopped blogging several years ago, and so has my perspective.  Our beautiful world has become an uglier place today than it was only a few years ago.  So to encourage and inspire a little more beauty and peace in my tiny corner of the cyberworld, l will be sharing  on my blog "whatsoever things are lovely".
Blessings,
Kim

Simple Way of Life

Simplicity flows from well-ordered living.
  It is less a matter of doing without, than a spiritual quality that simplifies our lives by putting first things first.

  A simple way of life, freely chosen, is a source of strength, joy, and comfort.

  Friends are advised to strive for simplicity in the use of our earnings and property, and in our style of living, choosing that which is simple and useful.  This does not mean that life is to be poor and bare, destitute of joy and beauty.

  Each must determine, by the Light that is given, what promotes and what hinders the compelling search for inner peace that enables us to listen deeply to God.

~ Baltimore Yearly Meeting

Stitched with Love

This is a quilt I put together for my youngest son's high school graduation.

 Each 12-inch quilt block was lovingly designed and created by a family member or friend.  As you can see, the blocks are all very different, unique, and creative!
Once I received all the quilt blocks, I sewed them together with dark green cotton fabric.  The backing is made from a twin-size flannel flat sheet.
 A quilt shop did a lovely job machine quilting the piece.

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A quilt is a blanket of love.

Home Light

The light is what guides you home,
 the warmth is what keeps you there.
~ Ellie Rodriguez

Peaceful Summer Days

Monkshood and Bellflowers in my Alaskan garden.

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Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
a place to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~ John Muir

A Spiritual Home

Prayer ~  I take time daily to be with God in silent or spoken prayer.  Prayer provides spiritual refreshment, guidance, and peace.

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Keeping a Sabbath Day ~  Although I believe every day is holy, the Sabbath Day is different in that it is a day I plan to be with my family and friends outside enjoying nature - God's most beautiful temple.

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Silent or Spoken Grace ~ Silent or spoken grace before a meal is so important; especially for children who are learning to know and feel the Presence of God.  Each meal is an opportunity to commune with the Light of God and to give thanks for our blessings.

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Reading Inspirational Books ~  Reading inspiring spiritual books offers peace, encouragement, guidance, and spiritual growth.

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Loving Home Atmosphere -  I strive to make our home a welcoming place of love, joy, peace, contentment, and kindness where the Presence of God is known and felt.

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Celtic Blessings

May the blessing of light be on you ~

light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you

and warm your heart

till it glows like a great peat fire.

~ An Old Celtic Blessing

An Ordered Plan of Love

This is my favorite encouraging message to mothers of young children.  It is a beautiful, spiritual gem.

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To a young child home stands for God.  In it he learns to see and touch the gifts of God.  If his mother is wise she will make his home beautiful.  She will copy the world's creator and make a tiny new Eden.  She will bring in flowers and give the child animals and feed the birds.  The food on the table will be clean and simple and good.  It will not only taste nice, it will look nice . . .

It is in his home that the child should assimilate the Sermon on the Mount, not as if it were being drilled in his brain by words, but as if he were breathing it in his whole being like the air . . .

The ordering of time, which seems so simple, really requires great skill and energy from the mother.  It has tremendous importance, above all if it is related (as it obviously should be) to the rhythm of day and night and is interwoven with prayer.

The child should wake to the singing of the birds (and they sing in the cities as well as in the woods).  Give his heart to God, when light is young, play for long hours when the world is awake and lively.  He should form habits of regular hunger and thirst, so that food and hunger come together, and his grace is a real thanking.  With twilight there should come stillness in the house and he should be lit to bed by the stars.

From such ordering of time he will learn unconsciously, though it may be years before he thinks this out, that he is not part of that chaos that man has made of this world, with its fearful abuse of time, but part of an ordered plan of love.
~ Caryll Houselander

Happy Mother's Day

Something of God

comes into our world

with every child that is born.

There is here with the newborn child

a divine spark, a light within . . .

~ Rufus Jones

Peace

Between Christmas and New Year by Carl Larsson

. . . whatsoever things are true,

whatsoever things are honest,

whatsoever things are just,

whatsoever things are pure,

whatsoever things are lovely,

whatsoever things are of good report;

if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,

think on these things.

. . . and the God of peace will be with you.

~ Philippians 4:8 . . . 9 

   



Gracious Living


Truly gracious living is a by-product of gracious thinking and doing, and in material things is expressed in "what is simple and beautiful".  And true simplicity is not the rejection of beauty in our surroundings, but the refusal to allow concern for things to clutter our minds . . .
~ Edgar B. Castle, 1961

A New Year

Anna S by Carl Larsson

Make it your ambition and endeavor to live quietly and peacefully, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands . . .

~ 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Kindness

Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers.

~ Author Unknown

Faith at Home

Getting Ready for a Game by Carl Larsson

I was not "christened" in a church, but I was sprinkled from morning to night with the dew of religion.  We never ate a meal together which did not begin with a hush of Thanksgiving; we never began a day without a "family gathering", at which my mother read a chapter of the Bible, after which there would follow a weighty silence . . . My first steps in religion were thus acted.  It was a religion we did together.  Almost nothing was said in the way of instructing me.  We all joined together to listen for God and then one of us talked to God for the others.  In these simple ways my religious disposition was being unconsciously formed . . .

~ Rufus Jones, 1926