Wednesday, April 6, 2011

And So



The day has gone and gone well. It still goes, grouper thawing and two bathrooms and a guest room and the dining room all tidied and mopped, a dog-peed upon rug scrubbed and out on the fence, sheets clean, rugs washed, more going now.
Every hour today I have felt better and every hour I got more done and no, this place will not be ready for Southern Living on Saturday but maybe it will be fine enough for southern living, wedding edition.

I actually love to mop the wooden floors in this house. It thrills me still, seven years after the first time I mopped them.


Not so much the mopping of them, precisely, but the way they look and smell afterward. Heavenly, these old boards that have been walked on by so many, danced on by so many, cherished by me. The pine trees that they were sawed from (by hand!) must have been alive two hundred years ago. Maybe three hundred! Can you imagine? And aren't I lucky?
Yes. Oh yes, I am.

So. This day which started so horribly, so filled with fear and panic has ended up filling ME with with peace.

And the best- the very best news- is that Kathleen's blood markers for cancer are almost at normal. I'm sure she'll write about it herself.

And all day, as I went from one room to another with laundry or mop buckets or brooms, I passed through porches and went outside to check on this gorgeous day and above you see the delicate, sweet cup of the Ashe Magnolia flower, so much more fragile than it's Grande Flora sister, but smelling almost the same which is light and lemony and there really are no words for it. Or, more likely, I am not the poet to be able to find and arrange them properly.

Whatever. Whichever.
It's there in my camellia and fern bed and I may not have cut the boards to make these floors but I planted that tree and every spring I am reminded of buying it in a small pot and bringing it home and clearing out that bed and planting it there.

Sweetness. And so much light.

And tomorrow Owen comes again and I have missed him all day.

The grandmother is happy again, well again, and as whole as she gets, inside and out.
Clean floors, clean rugs, clean sheets, eggs in the ferns, Ashe Magnolia blooming, sweet husband just home, daughters on the phone, grandson coming tomorrow, birds at the feeder, sun shining silver as it descends over the garden.

Peace.

13 comments:

  1. The wood floors are amazingly beautiful. I love them.

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  2. Go Kathleen!
    Go floors!
    Go Ms. Mary Moon!

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  3. Ahhhh. Heavenly. I can almost smell the clean pine and the magnolia. Oh I miss magnolia most of all. None were in bloom yet in Orlando, and I looked everywhere for one starting to open, but it was too soon. So I'm going to imagine smelling yours in stead. Thanks for the lovely lovely post.

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  4. Peace is right. Glad you're feeling better!

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  5. Dear Mary, I love that feeling when everything is clean. Your floor and your magnolia are beautiful. So are you. I will stop by tomorrow and watch the film as it's 4.30am here and I must get to bed. I just wanted to stop by and say hello and send you some love xx

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  6. It sounds like a great day. I'm glad.

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  7. Glad to hear it wound up being a good day.

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  8. Stephanie- Just goes to show.

    Rebecca- I love them too.

    Bethany- I know!

    Lisa- Okay!

    Mel- They're indescribable, aren't they?

    Nicol- Thanks, sugar.

    Christina- You are such a night-owl! I loved your post on Bubbles. Loved it!

    Angella- I am sharing my outdoors with you.

    Syd- It was. Thanks.

    Ms. Bastard-Beloved- Who knew that could happen?

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  9. The photo of the magnolia...gorgeous! I don't like the leaves of a magnolia tree much but their flowers, so big blow me away.

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  10. Wow gorgeous flower. At my home theese flowers are pink, but your is beautiful.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.