I would if I could…

Have a house pretty enough to show in the home magazines.

Have every room just the way I wanted, decorated, color coordinated and all that

Done miraculously without any input on my side, except to say – thanks – gorgeous when some interior decorator has read my mind and found stuff for nothing.

Have a place for everything and everything in its place.

Have all new sheets, linens, tablecloths and towels good enough for guests and pleasing

to me (I would of course have a guilty conscious – some of my towels are only 30 years old, the sheets even older - so would donate all used ones to some very worthy organization).

Have every room impeccably tidy at the end of every day, thus awaking to beautiful.

Have all my furniture and any wooden decorative items dusted and polished a minimum of once           a week.

Have all my windows permanently sparkling (o.k. I’d allow for the odd very rainy, windy day) thus      bringing the light better into the house or when the light isn’t needed in the summer at    least be able to see the colors through the windows.

But if I could, I would also want to:

Give everyone in the world enough food to eat, a family or friends to love, warmth or cold when needed, peace everlasting and joy for a lifetime.

So I will have to forget the "coulds" and the "woulds" and simply get on with:

Being out and about enjoying my life as I do,

Having coffee and meals with friends,

Travelling to new or much-loved old destinations,

Reading and e-mailing with family and friends,

Ditto for skyping,

Not spend a great deal of my time accomplishing the “I woulds” so I guess I’ll have to accept life as it is – a compromise in between I would if I could, and

I do when I can!

That being said the cupboards in the kitchen were washed down last weekend and I just emptied and de-frosted the freezer; three loads of wash are done and I made lunch out of leftovers.

Thanks, yes, I’ll take that pat on my back and forget, mostly, about the

I would if I could.