Don't blame the dog if you're the untidy one!

Subtitle: SOCK THIEF!

Actually, Eliot doesn't usually touch my clothes (not since that first pair of brand new expensive shoes ... and I'll get over that sometime) but today he turned up with my socks!  Just last night I'd decided that this particular pair of favourite and very old purple socks should go to the bin.  They won't stay up any longer and,in sock years are well into their second decade, so they deserve a rest!  Is the dog telepathic?  Did he know that they were free to a good home?  Why, today, did he decide that it is okay to use my clothes for tug-of-war.
Yes, I did play with him.

And yes, it is I who needs to have my head examined!
I guess the socks now belong to the dog until such times as the shreds, and they will become shredded, are vacuumed up and join that great compost bin in the sky.
Of course, if the socks had been put in the correct place ... laundry basket or bin ... then Eliot wouldn't have found them.  Too often it is easier just to abandon something where you happen to be ... and then the junk piles up!  Eliot is working hard (clearly) at teaching me the art of tidiness!  How he will succeed when my parents didn't manage is more than I care to guess ... !!
Let the clear up begin!
But I wouldn't want to rush things ... so I tidied up an e-mail folder and the phone list in my mobile!  Don't laugh ...
           ... it is a beginning!
And new beginnings are important.  Sometimes we need many new beginnings before significant progress is made ... but if we don't get to the point of starting ... there's certainly not going to be any chance of advancing.  A toddler will have many tumbles before he or she has learned to walk with confidence ... and we don't become frustrated with them ... it is part of the learning process.  So maybe we need to understand a little more that the "second chance" is important!
Enough of the sermon!
Today's photograph of a turtle got me thinking about the process of finding a pleasing image ... and that's often the result of removing all the distractions ... of simplifying.
We begin at the prayer table ... one candle among others ....

Let's remove a few distractions ...

Now the main thing is the main thing!
This was the candle holder that I wanted to use for today's shot ... so here it is, all by itself.  However, the background is "busy" .... there's still distraction and your eye follows the inlaid pattern and is drawn away from the light.
So ... the next stage ...

 A plain black leather folder.
I took it out into the dawning light and tried to focus just on the candle and the way it brought the glass holder "alive"!  Without all the other "stuff" you can see more clearly the glass holder.
An unexpected and very interesting thing happened as I came back into the house ... in the back kitchen where the ambient light wasn't so good I tried another shot and ... this is the result!

In the darkness the light shines more brightly!  You'll not be surprised if I suggest that there might just be a sermon there!!!!

Jesus Christ, the Man for others,
we, your people, make our prayer:
help us love - as sisters, brothers - 
all whose burdens we can share.
Where your name binds us together
you, Lord Christ will surely be;
where no selfishness can sever
there your love the world may see.

Church Hymnal number 318

Stewart Cross (1928-1989)  "Father, Lord of all creation ...".