Blood donors top my gratitude list today. On this day over three decades ago, a doctor saved me with her own blood as well as that of so many others…🌟
Honeysuckle along the walking path…🌟
A dear friend texted me this gift for National Poetry Month: it’s the number for Oregon’s Poetry Hotline—call and listen to a new poem each day through the month of April: 503-928-7008 🌟
Children and swing sets 🌟
Busy cardinals in to-fro flight 🌟
Viewing the solar eclipse from my own front yard-memorable and amazing sight 🌟
Coffee in the just right cup 🌟
Bonus:
A short poem from Naomi Nye to send us into the new week: 👠
Another birthday in the books last week, and gratitude for family and friends who honored the day with special moments. 🎂
Granddaughters who are currently enamored with the magician’s code and how one keeps pulling all manner of objects from my ear. The best part is her reaction to my reaction…is there anything more joyful than a child’s laugh? Listen for that in your comings and goings this week. Notice it as the gift it is. 🪄 🎩
Wildflower bouquets. Receiving one and knowing these moments are simply a window of time. Children grow and become busy with so much; when someone offers a wildflower bouquet, I hope you recognize the gift of that. Added bonus: a child who agrees to a picture. That sometimes is fleeting, too. 🌸
Beautiful offering
Funny stories told and shared… 🤭
Daily routines and rituals…and freedom to choose how our days will run in the background of life… 📝
Spring’s gifts of puddles and purple irises this week. 🌧️ 💜
Knowing how to prepare a meal and realizing that, too, is worthy of praise. 🍽️
I hope in this month of April (oh, it’s National Poetry Month…I’ll add one as a bonus 😊 below), you’ll honor the gifts of your life. I hope, like me, you’ll never exhaust the list. The more you notice, the more arrive. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
A Gift
By Czeslaw Milosz
A day so happy. Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden. Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers. There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess. I knew no one worth my envying him. Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot. To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me. In my body I felt no pain. When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
—-
And, as all things are connected it seems, this poem reminds me of a young man who read the poetry of Milosz to me in Prague…and how that moment’s memory has always stayed with me.
Easter greetings to the Christian readers here… I hope you’ve had a lovely day and made good memories. The bloom in the picture was only a bud the afternoon of Easter Saturday…what a difference a day makes, right? 😉
That full bloom iris greeted me this morning and reminded me how much good can come in a truly short time. Always be on watch for it.
It’s been a busy few days here with grandchildren dyeing eggs (and that brought back memories of my children doing the same— as well as my mom doing the same with me so many decades ago. Memories hang with us.) Traditions. ❤️
Little Easter baskets and fillable eggs and cascarones and children’s happy voices …
…and those children coming in with pre-birthday gifts as we were able to celebrate together this weekend…
The mailbox has been a treasure trove of happy mail recently, and I will always marvel at the magic that seems to bring a card or parcel from place to place. Today, it held homemade baked goods, too…all the ways friends show up with love and light.
I sent some good mail of my own during the past few days: a stitched contour portrait is on its way to Australia thanks to India Flint and her ever busy way of connecting creatives through stitch or words or art.
Friendships…and the ways we witness one another through good times and bad 🌟
Full moon glow a few days ago that led me to stand in wonder…the beauty of this world…
Books and journals and coffee cups and flowers…all the usual suspects that bring joy 🦋
Recipes…and time to make them…
And as I enter a new year, I honor the tradition of staying up to meet the day—happy to see another year and hopeful for the good it will bring…
So many times I wanted to post because I knew I missed last week, but I decided a catch up today would do. The message really doesn’t change:
Find beautiful moments. Surround yourself with good people. Learn from a child. Laughter is life. Carry on.
Solo goose the last few days…so Mama is likely on her nest just out of sight…
Wisteria appeared in its purple glory, cascading like clusters of grapes among telephone poles and adding a shot of color to still winter shrubs…
Dandelions have come, too, and while some of you likely hate them, Sofia christened them wish sticks and we are happy happy to see we have plenty of chances…
I was able to participate in two granddaughters’ school event this week, and I’m always glad to see happy children, beautiful classrooms, and a whole host of people…ones who come to witness and celebrate handprints and seedlings and book fairs…
Speaking of celebrations, a dear writing friend received good news and will have one of her poems published this summer. When that happens and with her permission, I will post it here. How truly good to see someone following the call to write and earning deserved recognition. Good news lifts us all. May we have more of it…
Blackwing pencils…one came to me from the friend mentioned above and reminded me how the little things really are not little at all…
Well, let’s see. One more thing—-how about some lines from the nature loving poet Mary Oliver to send us paying attention into the new week:
This, from her book Upstream:
“Teach the children…stand them in the stream…rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms. Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
Hello readers, and welcome to February. We get a bonus day this month. I haven’t decided what I’ll do with it yet, have you?
The week was fast and eventful. Grandkids swinging, testing out puddles, throwing rocks and noticing all the minute details of the natural world.
The eldest pumped her arm at the end of our country road as a truck driver passed by, and he rewarded her with air horn honks…and in that moment, I was transported to the same driveway many decades ago, being rewarded the same way. Little lights. Little efforts…
We have rock candy experiments “growing” in jars on my kitchen countertop. Little ones have to wait for a week to see the results. The smallest efforts, once again…
Garden center jonquils made their way to my arms this week…and
my daughter texted me a pic of one of my fave places : the Charles Bridge in Prague. Night scene. Lights on water. In that moment, transported to a past as well as future (hopefully) time. All the ways we get to be connected through space and time and memory and effort and kindnesses…
beauty…
Plastic baby Jesus has come out of storage, and has been coddled, sung to, and wrapped up these past few days. He’s really an outdoor manger piece, but these kids treat him like the real deal…
The geese are back. The birds are feeding this morning and filled with song…
Talismans. Those memory laden items or even attitudes we carry to sustain us during trying times. The week gave me a few trying moments, but was punctuated with high notes—much more good than trying. The sense of self we carry really does matter.
I noticed a lot this week. At a community meeting, a woman leader was summarizing content and asking questions, but at one point referred to herself as “stupid”…and my antenna went on high alert. People of the world, women of the world: we do not refer to ourselves as stupid. We may be learning, we may be relearning, we may be unsure; we are not, however, stupid.
I digress, I see. 😄
A former GED student came by “just to drop in” on his way to a college comp class. Those moments of realization: knowing you helped make a difference for someone…but also knowing no one succeeds alone. ✅
The week also gave me a watercolor workshop and time with old and new friends. And later today, some special young adults have arranged their schedules to keep up a tradition we established years ago. 🔔
Some good words to end (or start, I guess 😉) the week:
“The last of human freedoms – the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.”~~Viktor E. Frankl 🌟🌟🌟
Looking for the first jonquils…it’s time. My phone’s record of memories shows there was a year when they’d be prolific by now. 11 years ago—abundance. I’m looking for just the first one. It will be enough. ✅ I’ll post the field from that long ago time, though, as a reminder to notice the beauty when it is presented…it can be fleeting.
Fleeting blooms 2013
Kid art ✅
Poetry sketching with a new group of students ✅
New routines adopted ✅
Good words—this week, from Michael J. Fox:
“And if you don’t think you have anything to be grateful for, keep looking. Because you don’t just receive optimism. You can’t wait for things to be great and then be grateful for that. You’ve got to behave in a way that promotes that.” ✅
Farewell, January. You gave me some good people, beautiful moments, necessary reminders. ✌️
This year, I hope to continue posting seven small (and big) things from recent days that I’m grateful for, but in addition to that, I’m planning to add a line or quote or verse from some current read.
This week’s choice has been in my stacks for years and includes many rich poems, but today I choose “Return”…maybe because a new year is similar to a re-entry after a vacation. Maybe we have been celebrating. Maybe now we have to come down. Maybe the poem has nothing to do with that. I’ll post it and maybe you’ll give it a read:
Return by Naomi Shihab Nye
Build my home here
On the spot of old time.
I’m sure I have failed you
One thousand ways,
You ancient clock,
You stockpot of moments.
Look how the first thing I do
Upon entering the house
Is remove my watch
It’s in your honor.
Fuel by Naomi Nye
So, poems. Other goodnesses lately:
Chex mix aka “trash” in these parts —delectable, savory, spicy treat.
Homemade pound cake —all the holiday food remnants beckoning for a few more tastes
Jon Batiste —musical genius
Camelias, winterberries, holly—all the winter bloomers
Forecasts for snow—still brings a smile
and those long airport hugs and kisses that have to last awhile—-grateful for daughter time this season.
Be kind to yourself this year, wherever you find yourself on 2024’s map.
I adopted a new artist word for the year: capacity. For me, it means paying attention to all I need and want, and all I hope to (and have to) let go. 🙌🏼🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
A blog reaching out to victims of abuse and others in need, providing insight about abuse, hope for the future, and guidance to see THE LIGHT that lead Secret Angel out of the darkness of her own abusive situation and helped her to not only survive but to overcome.
agnestirrito 