House Sitting
By Elisa Morgan
I'm house sitting today. Okay. It's my house. But I'm still sitting in it and doing everyday tasks like taking care of the mail, plants and pet. And my soul.
Some people might call this taking a personal day. Or a sabbatical. Or really, just everyday living. That might be. But there's still the house to sit. And I find daily tasks of house sitting oh-so-lovely and even comforting at times. Loading and unloading the dishwasher, throwing in a small load of laundry (mine is small and his is larger but together they are still so much smaller than the loads I used to do), and walking and feeding the dog. It's when such to-dos are juggled along with nine million projects at work along with forty-five thousand people needs - that's when house sitting becomes drudgery.
But in and of itself? House sitting is rejuvenating. I walk to the mailbox to retrieve flyers and bills and the occasional personal note. I notice the sun - or lack of it - on my skin. I take the broom and sweep the front porch, letting my eyes follow the drift of the debris into the flowerbeds. I slice up salad ingredients and fork leftover protein atop the greens for lunch. Doing the daily, routine, normal duties of life refreshes me in unexpected ways. And reminds me of my place on this planet.
There is a time for every activity under the sun.
Sometimes, while house sitting, I attend to completely unplanned things. Like today I sat on a couch outside and read Bob Goff's Everyboy Always.
Oops! I just mis-typed that! See there?! If I wasn't house sitting, I would be annoyed at the blip. One more moment to backspace-delete a whole row of writing and put myself behind for a looming deadline. Not now. I'm chuckling to myself. Because I'm house sitting.
Anyway, I sat on a couch outside and read Bob Goff's Everybody Always. This wasn't on my list for today. He didn't ask me to endorse it or anything. He just handed out advance copies to those who were attending a conference where he was recently speaking. So I happily took one. I'd never read Love Does because I thought the title really was the book, so why read it? Why not just do it? Love, that is.
But I'm house sitting. (Or is the house actually sitting me?) So I pulled the book out of my stack and invited it to accompany me to lunch on that very outside couch. I opened it and started reading and decided that reading it would be just the thing to do today while house sitting.
It's a good book! A challenge to love everybody always. No matter who and no matter when with no matter what love. Because that's who Jesus is and more than anything, Jesus wants us to show others who he is. Again, Bob did NOT ask me to endorse it. (The thing about it is it's written in Bob Goff's LOVE DOES/EVERYBODY ALWAYS voice, so you really must read it to get the message. Don't just take my word for it!)
Just now, I decided to put down the book and open my laptop to catch this moment. I find you in my thoughts - right here with me. I want you to know that I'm house sitting today because I want you to know that I don't ALWAYS do marvelous, glamorous or busy things. Nor do I ALWAYS do hard, striving, heroic things. Facebook and Instagram can make you believe such a myth. My fault, for sure.
In reality, just like all of us, there are days I slow to the regular and I house sit.
And this is one of them.
Elisa Morgan is an author and speaker and the cohost of Discover the Word and contributor to Our Daily Bread. Her books include The Beauty of Broken, Hello, Beauty Full, and She Did What She Could. Connect with Elisa @elisa_morgan on Twitter, on Facebook and Instagram @elisamorganauthor.