Dust if you must.
But there is not much time
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb!
Music to hear, and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.
Dust if you must.
But the world’s out there
With the sun in your eyes,
the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will not come round again.
Dust if you must.
But bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go, and go you must,
You, yourself, will make more dust.
...and is attributed to Mrs Rose Milligan from Lancaster. The poem was first published in the September 15th – 21st edition of The Lady (magazine) in 1998.
One day I'll illustrate it all! (and nicely!)
What do you think of these wise words? Agree wholeheartledly or yearn for a tidy house? ; )
Happy weekends All.
x
I love that poem, I read it somewhere last week so I definitely love your sketch x
ReplyDeleteThankyou!!
DeleteWhat a poem. I've never heard it before, thanks for sharing it. It reminds me of one pinned to my friend's fridge about not worrying about the cleaning in case you miss your kids growing up, or something.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of this in principle but the trouble is, if I don't dust (or mop, load the washer, fold the laundry, iron, sweep, clean the bath...) then the fairies aren't going to do it for me. And i like the way I feel when the house is clean and looking pretty. So I do dust. But hopefully I do all the other fun things to! Is that tragic of me??
And your sketch is brilliant, as always. x
ha ha yes Gillian, I agree, it all sounds good in theory!! So it's certainly not tragic of you to dust AND do all the good stuff too- just flipping brilliant. X
DeleteWhat a lovely poem and a gorgeous sketch ... I too would love to do as the poem says and try to but too much untidiness makes me itch to get cleaning ... I like to think I try to get to both ... wishing you a lovely weekend ... Bee xx
ReplyDeleteI love this poem - it reminds me of something I have on a fridge magnet 'Cleaning the house while the kids are growing's like shovelling snow while it's still snowing!' Jane x
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lovely mention Jen ... glad you liked the poem, I thought you might.
ReplyDeleteMinimal dusting, that's my approach, when it's raining out and I have an odd five minutes. It's amazing how much housework can be done in the spare bits of time not long enough for picture painting, cake baking, hill climbing and the like :)
I wish I was more laid back but I find I can't enjoy doing the nice stuff if I know the house needs cleaning. Silly I know! I am getting a bit more relaxed, the older I become! Lovely illustration Jen x
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant poem! Love your sketch too. xx
ReplyDeleteAlways always the last thing on my list of things to do is dusting, my most hated job!
ReplyDeleteLovely blog Jen, and lovely to chat to you this weekend.
Suzanne x
I love this poem and love the way you have sketched it out. I gave this poem many years ago to friends and one of them said it was morbid. Ha! I didn't get that at all. I meant it as live your life now and don't worry about everything being perfect, because that certainly won't matter in the end. :) Best wishes, Tammy
ReplyDeleteI really love the message and how artful the sketch is!
ReplyDeleteHi Jen, I've tracked you down on Etsy and sent you a message about getting a print of this illustration - look forward to hearing from you! Claire
ReplyDeleteHi Jen,
ReplyDeleteI've tracked you down on Etsy and sent you a message about this illustration as I love it so much - look forward to hearing from you about it, thanks, Claire