A Curious Quote on Hospitality

This morning, I came across a curious quote on hospitality from George MacDonald:

“I am proud of a race whose social relations are the last upon which they will retrench, whose latest yielded pleasure is their hospitality. It is a common feeling that only the well-to-do have a right to be hospitable. The ideal flower of hospitality is almost unknown to the rich; it can hardly be grown save in the gardens of the poor; it is one of their beatitudes.”

I may be chewing on that for a while.

A Cranky Cat and a George MacDonald Poem

We’re having a rainy, blustery morning in our neighborhood. Luna and Millie hardly want to venture out at all. I don’t blame them; aside from scurrying down the driveway to bring in the paper, I’ve stayed cozy with my hot coffee and glowing candles.

On a similar day last month, we did go out and ramble around the yard. 

I snapped a few pictures of Millie along the way.

I really didn’t think she was going to follow us.

 But she did.

She clearly was not thrilled to be out and about.

Can’t you just hear her muttering under her breath?

This picture makes me laugh. 

It’s not kind of me, I know. 

But that mood is all too familiar to me.

In my reading this morning, I ran across a poem by George MacDonald. I liked it and thought I’d share it.

My prayers, my God, flow from what I am not;

I think thy answers make me what I am.

Like weary waves thought follows upon thought,

But the still depth beneath is all thine own,

And there thou mov’st in paths to us unknown.

Out of strange strife thy peace is strangely wrought;

If the lion in us pray—thou answerest the lamb.

Happy December, friends.

George MacDonald on Hoarding

“The heart of man cannot hoard. His brain or his hand may gather into its box and hoard, but the moment the thing has passed into the box, the heart has lost it and is hungry again. If a man would have, it is the Giver he must have; . . . Therefore all that He makes must be free to come and go through the heart of His child; he can enjoy it only as it passes, can enjoy only its life, its soul, its vision, its meaning, not itself.” —George MacDonald, 1824–1905

A Quote on Giving and Receiving

“Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it.”—George MacDonald, 1824–1925