Dear Reader:

Emily Dickinson once wrote ” Home is the definition of God.”

She went on to say ” Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in everyday.” In other words… is spending time at home picking up and cleaning daily our idea of spending another day in Paradise? Emily thought so…

Today we remember Emily Dickinson as a poet with extraordinary insights in the beauty of everyday life… finding sacredness in the mundane.

During her time on earth Emily Dickinson was a spinster and ” home body” who rarely left her house, unless under emergency conditions -after age 34-her greatest two passions were cooking and writing poetry.

Since the bulk of her poetry wasn’t published until after her death -it was actually her cooking skills that gave her notoriety in her hometown in Massachusetts.

She was known for her dense black fruitcakes and periodically made gingerbread for the neighborhood children … lowering it down in a basket from her second story bedroom window.

Emily was one of a handful of poets who saw sacredness in the ordinary… like many of us… she would sweep and clean daily to restore order, harmony and peace to her world -her dwelling-then reward herself by going to her garden to commune with nature or make herself a refreshment-perhaps a pot of tea -throw open the windows to let the sweet smell of soft breezes in… a wonderful feeling restoring order again.

So until tomorrow… if we do not endow our daily life, both at home and work, with meaning, no one else can do it for us.

* Even Jimmy Buffet found a ” Cheeseburger in Paradise.” 😃

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh