Join The "Don't Worry" Club: Conservation Of A Woman's Strength Is True Preparedness

 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace
of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 4:6-7)

Image courtesy/The Graphics Fairy

"Eliminate-to thrust out."  Did you never hear of the science of elimination?
Didn't know there was such a science!  Well, just try to eliminate, or thrust out,
from your everyday life, the unnecessary, hindering things and if you do 
 not decide that it takes a great deal of knowledge to do so successfully, 
 then I will admit that it was my mistake.

The spring rush is almost upon us.  The little chickens, the garden, the spring
sewing and house-cleaning will be on our hands soon, and the worst of it is
they will all come together, unless we have been very wise in our planning.

It almost makes one feel like the farmer's wife who called up the stairs to
awaken the hired girl on a Monday morning. "Liza Jane," she called, "come
hurry and get up and get the breakfast. This is a wash day and here it is
almost 6 o'clock and the washing not done yet.  Tomorrow is ironing day
and the ironing not touched, next day is churning day and not begun 
 and here the week is half gone and nothing done yet."

You'd hardly believe it but its true.  And it's funny of course, but one can just
feel the worry and strain under which she was suffering.  All without reason,
too, as the greater part of our worry usually is.

It seems to me that the first things that should be "thrust out" from our house-
hold arrangements is that same worry and feeling of hurry. I do not mean to
eliminate haste, for sometimes, usually in fact, that is necessary, but there is
a wide difference between haste and hurry.  We may make haste with our hands
and feet and still keep our minds unhurried.  If our minds are cool and collected
our "heads" will still be able to "save our heels" a great deal.

An engineer friend once remarked of the housekeeping of a capable woman,
"There is no lost motion there." She never worried over her work. She appeared
to have no feeling of hurry.  Her mind, calm and quiet, directed the work of 
 her hands and there was no bungling, no fruitless running here and there.
Every motion and every step counted so that there was "no lost motion."

With worry, waste and unnecessary work eliminated from our households
we would be in a state of "preparedness" to which no one could possibly
have any objection. And the beauty of it is that such a state of preparedness
in our home is good in war or peace,  for both nations and individuals."

Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1867-1957)

Prolific American writer

Author of the "Little House" series of books.

Photograph courtesy/Literary Ladies Guide

"Join The Don't Worry Club: Conservation of a Woman's
Strength is True Preparedness"
An excerpt from an essay written by Laura Ingalls Wilder
 for The Missouri Ruralist (1911-1918) and taken from the book,
 "Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Family Collection"
Edited by Richard Marshall
With Illustrations by Susan Sternau
Copyright 1993
Barnes & Noble, Inc.