How about appreciating my ability to appreciate so many things in my world? My wife upstairs singing…holly berries at my window…our lovely little harpsichord…Uncle Carl’s painting…the woodpecker on the tree…wet stones…going to tune a piano this morning…work waiting in my shop…how lucky I am to love my work…

The wrens that live under my shop.
Their morning duet tells me the day has begun in earnest.
Their curiosity is enjoyable, especially when they come into the shop or house. When one gets accidentally locked in the shop, its mate waits by the window, worried until I reunite them.

Relax my need to control.
Ask for help where I need help.
Be available.

Greta Thunberg’s resolutions for 2020:
Be optimistic.
Be motivated.

Laughter!
Hearing the wrens sing their sunrise duet!
Completing things that have been on the back burner to long!

It is time to retire a professional identity that has given me much ego satisfaction over 20 years. This means organizing teaching materials and passing them on to the next generations, giving up control of things I have created. It’s easy to keep feeding this “self,” not so easy to let go. My remaining years are for something else, and I must go with my ego vulnerable and unknowing to find my new way.

A hug!

Grace is the moment when the frontier of the Promised Land passes over my heart.

Residual resentments and judgements. I can always find something to examine and release. It’s a way to lose weight every day!

I’ll try, just for a moment, to open my heart to each person I meet today.

Everywhere! I’ve spent seventy years learning to be simple…just in time!

I guess I’m not the fire type…

My wife’s smile. I know because I feel myself smiling back!

I’ll go about my day quietly and pay attention.

Plain old gravity has helped many times. Doing nothing leaves open the possibility of tomorrow.

This moment has more weariness than I can shape into meaning. I shall go back to bed.

Put up another bird feeder…oh, wait, I have enough to do that now!

A little bit of attention, both personal and professional.

Verena, for a long time I felt that the Promised Land was on the far, far horizon, that the most we could hope for was a brief, distant glance. Recently I have learned that the horizon of the Promised Land follows its own geography, and that when I least expect it, it may pass right through the center of my heart. I can’t make it happen, but I can do my best to be open when it comes. I can pray for it.