Lovely friends:A hot and sticky day here and my husband didn’t want me to have to cook so he is off to pick up take-out for us. I am grateful to have this treat! I am also grateful for the opportunity to support our local restaurants during this challenging time for small businesses in our farmland community. We have been trying to do that on a regular basis. Ordering books from our independent bookstore instead of online. Lavender plants from a nearby lavender farm. The occasional take-out meal. When I am craving a chocolate treat, a pick-up from “The Fudge Shoppe” which is a fabulous family-owned little store where they make their own yummy chocolate right on the premises! And every week a visit to a local farm stand to stock up on fruits, vegetables, eggs and cheese.

It has been an encouragement to my heart to see the way so many have come together to help each other through this challenging time….surely the goodness, kindness and compassion of humanity has been on display. And we have needed to be reminded of that.

I am grateful for this silver lining in the dark cloud. These are my grateful musings….so very grateful to be able to share them with you.
~Om Shanti my friends…..we are peace ♥

Hello lovely people:

A perfectly delightful spring day….with hints of the summer season that is just around the corner. I find that my heart is filled with gratitude for the changing seasons that we experience here on the east coast of the U.S. I love how each season steps aside gracefully and welcomes the one to follow. It has been a joy to see our gardens come alive, each new morning another surprise blossom. We have a lot of property and the previous owners did an abundant amount of planting…. it is overwhelming at times trying to keep up with their care! Seems it never ends. But I’m especially thankful for this task lately…It’s been good for my mind and spirit to be occupied with tending to our gardens and I am grateful to have this grounding connection to our sister Mother Earth. Gunilla Norris writes of a “mystic garden”. By working with soil, we are attending to our Souls. I love that sensibility ♥

I am grateful to also be occupied with writing. For the past 8 months I have been contributing articles to our town’s monthly newsletter. It has been such a joy for me to have my musings accepted and (hopefully) enjoyed by others here in our beautiful farmland community. I try to combine my love of nature with some whimsy about the current month…..and the biologist/teacher in me can’t help but sneak in at times as well! As a bonus, my younger daughter is an excellent editor for the times when I ramble on for too long 😊 I’m grateful to be sharing this endeavor with her…it makes it even more special!

These are challenging times dear friends and sometimes it’s hard to rise above. But for this day, I am choosing to believe that healing and change is on the horizon. In the meantime, we have grateful living to sustain, inspire and give us hope.

~Om Shanti. May we all be peace.

Good morning lovely friends:

I am grateful for the summer-like weather we have been experiencing here in our little corner of the world…complete with thunderstorms! I am intent on getting outside today if only for a short walk. I long to immerse myself in the gift of gardening around our little farmhouse, but alas, my body is uncooperative! But I am intent on listening to the messages of quietness and rest my body is sending me…for these are gifts too!

I am happy with the selection of annuals we made on our recent trip to the nursery. We chose some new and different plants this year….both red and white geraniums, some “polka dot” plants (Hypoestes thyllostachya), a bunch of delightful “angelica” that is a butterfly attract-er, along with our usual tomato plants (2 different varieties) and marigolds for our front porch. We are also trying red peppers for the first time…I wonder? We will see!

I am grateful for the show that Mother Nature is putting on for us. Everything is bursting with color, there is a chorus of happy birds in our newly-planted garden, the cows and horses are grazing in the warm sunshine Despite how I may feel physically or emotionally these days, I hope that I will never lose that sense of wonder and appreciation for this bounty.

Wishing you all a peace-filled day during these challenging times.
~With grateful love ♥

I would like to believe that I am aware and grateful for the blessings of each day….but I find myself taking simple pleasures for granted. Heat and hot water for bathing, fresh water to drink from the tap, electricity, a refrigerator and pantry that contains food, a flushing toilet…..these are things that far too many people don’t have.
Another evidence of this in my life, that has been shown to me recently, is that I am desirous of attention, applause, approval, and expressed (gushing?) gratitude from others. I have begun to question my motives when I am giving, serving or opening my heart and home to others. This awareness was painful for me to face…I can see clearly that I was feeling “entitled” to admiration for my good deeds.
I’m grateful for this awareness of how I may not have overcome the illusion of entitlement.

Still meandering along at my own pace as the Spirit moves.

Serendipity that we have been visited by so many butterflies lately. Vibrant red and yellow echinacea, bell shaped soft lavender hosta blossoms. They can’t resist.

I wrote in my journal that although I have been to the Grand Canyon, it is the birth of my daughters that springs to mind as my “peak experience”. They surprised me, these miraculous creatures.

Waiting, empty, longing
Afraid to hope.
And then…Surprise!

Late to the party….life has slowed down and opened up space for me to continue on this haiku journey. I am grateful for this gift.

Trees-Givers of life
Xylem Phloem
Pure water
flowing from my roots
miracle food
from my leaves

Trees speak to me without words….they are mystical creatures in my eyes…my “spirit animals”. They are miracles of nature and have a unique role in this web of life. They remind me that all living things are inter-connected and all belong.

I was not able to participate daily and have saved all of the practices…to do on the slower, quieter days. when they come to me. Today is day 2 for me….and it is Good Friday in the Christian tradition. I was raised Catholic and although I don’t practice Catholicism per se any longer, some of the traditions and rituals remain beautiful and meaningful to me. So today my mind and spirit is filled up with the life and death of Jesus.

.Spring
Right before my eyes
Death becomes life
Once again

here I am-
somewhere between ocean and moon
somewhere between lost and found

I am drawn to this haiku because to me it speaks of being fully present, yet paradoxically “somewhere between”. I am on a journey towards embracing paradox in my life and in the world.
I am drawn to this haiku because during this Lenten season I have been reading and reflecting on Henri Nouwen’s book about the biblical parable of the return of the prodigal son. I have felt many times in my life that I am the prodigal daughter…ever leaving and returning to the awareness of divine Love.

This haiku brings grateful tears of recognition and acceptance to my eyes.

Dear Ann….it’s a funny thing how our lives intersect in a roundabout way. I live on the east coast too….in New Jersey. My older daughter went to Arizona State University and consequently made Arizona her home for 11 years. We visited her many times over the years, she and I had a few very special mother-daughter trips and I fell in love with it there…..I called it my magical fairy tale land. We were looking forward to retiring there when the time came. Alas, she and her fiance (now husband) moved to Colorado several years ago…another beautiful state of course but very different from the desert landscape I had grown to love.

Well…retirement time is upon us and my daughter and her husband are hoping to have children soon so we now will be retiring to Colorado…to be near any future grandchildren that we may be blessed with! Our younger daughter has also recently moved there as well so our imagined fate is sealed…God-willing we will all be together soon.
Funny how life throws us curve-balls at times. 😂 As I often say “we make our plans and God laughs”
Enjoy those beautiful grand babies!

~Blessings ♥

Dear Pilgrim….thank you for your kind words. I honestly just really enjoy writing. It’s one of my “happy places” and I am just so grateful to have this opportunity. I also had a couple of reflections published in a small devotional book a few years ago……I’m always looking for ways to share my love of writing and when this came along I saw it as a hug from the universe! 😊

I too feel the fleeting of time. Just this morning I was pondering how, despite this slowing down and isolation, the days just seem to fly by and I was wondering why this is so? I finally decided to chalk it up to my age…I will be 65 in a couple of months…how did this happen?

What a joy to be able to share Gunilla Norris with a kindred spirit. From her “Spring” chapter:

“The dark has its own ray.
It is part of day.
To be illumined by not knowing, not seeing,
not doing is also a way.
Even in the deepest darkness
are you not still with God?”

~With my grateful love dear friend ♥