Every morning I open my tattered sixty-year-old King James Bible to King David’s Psalms in search of a verse to feed me. I think of it as spiritual breakfast. As I’ve confessed here before, King David is my favorite Bible character – so big and tough and macho on the outside but humble and tender and needy on the inside. In his Psalms he begs God, as I do, for strength to get through the day; and he thanks God, as I do, for his many blessings.

The other day, the verse that jumped out at me and that I caught with my whole heart was Psalm 30:5 – “…In His favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Echoes of Little Orphan Annie’s solo, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!” and every good parent’s comforting bedtime words for an unhappy child, “There, there, darling; things will look a lot brighter in the morning.”)

Things did look brighter last Wednesday morning when I read the results of the U.S. midterm elections in the New York Times online. I was buoyed by the fact that the balance of power in the U.S. government might once again be righted, that the horrifying  Shakespearean drama being acted out in slow motion over the past couple of years might not end in total tragedy after all. I felt more hopeful than ever that the man who thinks he’s king might be checked before it’s too late. Good ol’ checks and balances to the rescue before the third act! WHEW.

Also — and on a far less grand scale and much closer to my own home — I’ve been experiencing mucho joy every morning lately as I’ve woken to the sight of my newly completed crazy-quilt-design duvet cover on my bed. (For the backstory on this project, please see my recent posts, “The Things Worth Keeping” and “Building Blocks.”)

Since my bed is my favorite place to be in the world — wherever in the world that bed happens to be — and this duvet cover is made from pieces of fabric gathered from every place in the world I’ve been, and the weather here in the central mountains of Mexico is getting colder (in the low 50s) now at night, this duvet cover’s value is incalculable to me. Just looking at its joyful colors and free-form design – to say nothing of sleeping cozily beneath it – makes me happy.

As I wrote in my October 10th WOW post (“The Things Worth Keeping”), “It’s a metaphor for who I am and what I’m made of: pieces of this and that, from here and there, in an odd kaleidoscopic design, all sewn together to form blocks….” These blocks are now the centerpieces of this completed whole — not a quilt, per se, but rather a pillowcase-like cover for a new, light, faux-down comforter.

As I progressed on this fun project, I took many photos. Here are just a few I haven’t published before:

If I were to be granted one wish this morning, it would be that ALL seven-plus billion people on this crazy, spinning planet could have a nice, new bed covering of some sort – a warm wool blanket or quilt or comforter in cold climates, a cool cotton sheet in hot climates – under which they could safely repair each night, to wake in the morning with a renewed sense of hope and joy.