Inspired by Scholastica

Whenever I see clothes hanging outdoors, I think of my mother. She loved laundry days and the smell of fresh sheets and towels. She also admired other people’s laundry on clotheslines. You don’t see wash on clotheslines much anymore now that most people have driers. My mom didn’t like to have clothes battered around in a machine because to her wash was a living thing that required gentle care. I know that sounds silly to today’s busy homemakers, who have no time to spend a whole day drying clothes outside. Yet it’s true our linens and clothes lasted a lot longer with her tender loving care. She also mended clothes at their first sign of wear.  She would never hold things together with safety pins or let her children wear anything with holes. Her example edified me, but did not carry over to her offspring.  I enjoy the convenience of driers  and would much prefer to use my time on other things like reading, games, exercise, or TV.  I am not as frugal ...

My mom My mother rarely sat at the dinner table. Instead she waited on us, dishing out  food onto our plates, relishing our compliments, encouraging us to have more, often eating what we left behind. She always had fresh-baked cake or cookies or pie for dessert,  never store-bought always made from scratch.    I never realized how lucky we were to have a mother that loved to cook and lavish us with delicious meals, serving us tirelessly as if she had not spent hours peeling potatoes, cooking vegetables, mixing ingredients. I think she learned to be a servant when she worked for a Jewish family in Germany. Always in an apron   working in the kitchen, never taking time for her own needs or resting, never even expecting a tip.

  In St. Benedict’s Holy Rule he says the younger monks should respect the elders and the elder monks should love the younger.  He also commands that guests were to be received as Christ and special consideration should be given to the less fortunate. I’m sure he would be horrified at the way this year’s presidential campaign has been conducted.  The candidates have referred to each other as unfit, lying, evil, and worse in some instances.  Common courtesy is mostly absent and hateful slurs and innuendos are rampant. So I really liked the last question from a man in the audience at the second debate: What is one good thing you could say about your opponent? Hilary Clinton said she thought Donald Trump’s children were exemplary young people so he must be a good father, and Donald Trump said Secretary Clinton had perseverance and determination and never gave up.  It was a relief that they found something to admire about the other in spite of all the n...