Everyone needs a friend who is velvet and steel. A friend who exudes grace, but isn’t afraid to speak pure, raw truth into our lives. A friend who sees us clearly, knows how to rebuke and love.
Velvet and Steel.
A few months ago I was talking to my velvet and steel friend and the subject of my Monday posts came up. It wasn’t negative but she did say that I should go back and look at my Monday writing. “There’s a theme running through them”, she said. “That of trying to reconcile your Sundays with your Mondays”.
The Holy Ache of living in the not yet.
She’s right. My Monday mornings reflect the wonderful and awful tension of living in the in between. I don’t think this tension will ever end. I think it’s the tension of all of humanity. We are able to experience glimpses of grace that leave us longing for more, longing for something greater when all will be made whole in our broken, beautiful planet. A time when there will no longer be tension between Sunday and Monday.
Sunday is my velvet, Monday is my steel. I know I need both. If I lived in a world of Sundays, I would be little use to anyone. If Mondays were my only reality, I would despair.
So I’m adding something lovely to the tension that I know will continue.
Muffins. Yes. Muffins.
Because there is something perfect about mixing muffins with Mondays. About knowing that there is something so purely good about muffins, something so practical, affordable, and lovely. Muffins make Mondays more bearable.
I am delighted to partner with Stacy Rushton author of Food Lust, People Love. You’ll like what she does with stories and food, weaving her stories through her recipes. Today’s muffins are Peach Blueberry Muffins and I can’t wait to try them. Just click on the link or the picture and you’ll have yourself a new recipe!
So welcome to Monday’s Holy Ache and Muffins.
I’m curious, what are your Monday’s like? Do they reflect the ache of rest meeting reality, velvet meeting steel?
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- Just Another Manic Monday
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Marilyn R. Gardner 
I think the Sabbath tradition had it about right. Sundown to sundown. By sundown Sunday my mess and rest becomes a little much to take when I’ve let so much go. Monday mornings find me stumbling and a bit more grumpy than I’d like to admit.
I’m still working out how it looks to Sabbath but at this point, my Mondays are a little more like steel and I do need something akin to Monday muffins to ease the transition!
Thank you for the observations on the Sunday/Monday thing…I relate and it encourages me today, Thursday, to think about it before Monday hits again.
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my mondays are pretty much getting over tiredness from the weekend! Not the hangover kind, the serving in church, bbqs and outings with the family kind. Thank goodness they’re usually quite quiet and mean I can get the house back in order.
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When my girls were still at home, I tried very hard to make sure that Sundays were family days and that homework was at least mostly taken care of before so that they weren’t hectic and no one got fractious. Mondays the world intrudes again and our little circle is broken. On the other hand, I got more accomplished while they were at school. So Mondays are mixed for me.
I love your analogy of the velvet and the steel. Without the softness of one, we couldn’t appreciate the sharpening ability of the other. To take that a little further, I had to look it up (I am terrible at quoting verses) but in some translations, Proverbs 27:17 talks about friends sharpening each other, like steel sharpens steel. Reading your insightful blog posts (and Robynn’s on Friday) does that for me. Never hurts to take a good hard look at my own life.
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I’ve always liked Mondays. Often Sunday evenings are hard for me. There’s been too much weekend and I long for productivity and purpose. Sunday evenings seem to bring conflict among our children. Mondays mean school and routines resumed. Adding muffins to an already pleasant day is like adding ice cream to a warm piece of pie!
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I think there may be a difference when you work in the home. If I was working from home and knew that this was my time to begin the week, to develop order, get my thoughts together I think I would love Mondays. Because my Mondays include what often feels like a hostile world it feels hard to reconcile. Does that make sense? It’s often the reason why, though I like my job, I often look for other opportunities. I know working from home has it’s challenges as well but as a general rule, I’m one who loves working from home!
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Can I bake them on Tuesday instead?? Amazing recipe, and me with peaches and blueberries that are begging to be used.
I guess it’s because for most of my life I haven’t had a “job” I had to go out to, Monday always feels like a new beginning, a new week, a fresh slate. Last week with the half done to-do list, the things accomplished or not is gone. But now it’s Monday and a new week and I have a new opportunity. And today the sun is shining in Rochester! Actually we’ve had quite a few sunny days all in a row, and a delightful Sat evening baseball game watching the local minor league team, the Rochester Red Wings with granddaughter Sarah and her friends. Such fun. The Red Wings are the farm team of the Minn. Twins if anyone from there is reading.
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