I saw geese mamas ushering their new broods to the water on a walk break this week—which led me to remember how many good and wondrous things happen just out of sight a lot of days…
like the driveway feather waiting for me to find…
Nature’s Gift
…the way our world smells after a clearing rain and the child who reminded me of that…
…how rain led to some happy mud puddles but also some necessary clean outs
and progress in increments or big versions still counts as win here.
Take out pizza because 🍕is gift, actually,
in so many ways, and eating it for breakfast is evidence of plenty/leftovers/choice…
…and we are already at the end of April and this list, so I choose this poem to share as we go on about our busy days:
I started the day strong, then I gave in to one book after another. Books about art, book making, creativity, textiles. Not a bad place to be on a Sunday afternoon, actually. 📚
I have quite a few handmade books in various states of progress, too. Also a good thing. This is likely due to a really good art workshop I attended recently, hosted by Marlene Gremillion. She’s a wonderful teacher, and I think new and experienced artists alike left feeling motivated. Even though this was not a book making workshop, ideas started flowing.✅👩🏻🎨
It’s encouraging to see people giving themselves time to explore new techniques, hone old ones, be part of a community. Art does that for us.
Other good things from the week:
Seeing a granddaughter perform in a school play, and watching her search the crowd beforehand. Seeing those eyes light up and that face break into a joyful smile when she spotted her family in the audience. ❤️
Walking in the company of a beautiful sunset this week and receiving a text from a friend—pretty sky alert!—and realizing how much the sky and friend have added to my life. 🌟
Some of you know I love to cook—-well, this week my college campus had a soup cook off, and yours truly walked away with a second place medal. 👩🏻🍳 The recipe?
This is so good—-college kid approved—-and I added doubles of tomato sauce and heavy cream. Didn’t add the ginger; did include a block of cream cheese. I regret nothing. ☺️
What else? Well, poetry, of course. Here’s a beautiful one by Naomi Shihab Nye. I offer it here in honor of Women’s History Month, AND because she once answered a letter from a good friend…and was generous to her:
Onward, friends! It’s spring break for some, and a lost hour due to Daylight Savings Time for a lot of us in the USA. I feel an extra cup of coffee coming on, and maybe I’ll move from this stack of books to go greet what daylight remains.
This past week, I celebrated the National Day on Writing with a couple of classes of college writers. That decision gives me way more than five good things for this post, so here we go:
Young adults exploring the natural world —some sitting and noticing, some standing, some taking advantage of the playground swings in the nearby park we visited, some sketching. All deeply engaged in the moments.
In answer to my question of what was the best part of writing outside, one student’s answer, “Peace…it’s just so quiet.” Yes.
Other words: “We all walked out of those front doors together, all of us —with all our differences— and we became united…and we were free.” Wow.
We are writing sonnets now, and the work we do is influenced by that short time apart from the daily classroom. We draw from the solo classroom of attention. I hope they’ll return there as often as they can. I really think they will. 🌟
The simplicity of teaching and learning…some things really are like poet Mary Oliver told us:
Today I’m doing a quick flip back…a look through my journal from the past week. Let my eyes land on five random moments and let them live happily here. Memories of goodness from the previous week.
Oddly, I am writing this entry super early in the day. Not so oddly, my schedule is always a bit off in August. I started teaching part time this week. The back to work time generally spins routines around a bit.
This week, it was a literal spin with the unwelcome visitor Vertigo showing up. We all say of course by now. Another #2020 eye roll. Thankfully, I have a set of exercises for that, so it passed quickly and I made it through the day with no problems. Count every good as a win, my friends. And, when we feel good, let’s remember to be grateful, too. Noted. I am planning to do quite a few little things today…things that I couldn’t do if the room was spinning. So, I am grateful.✅
I sat outside a lot this summer, and I hope to continue that practice for as long as I can. Waiting quietly in nature solves a lot of problems and opens our eyes to new possibilities. Sometimes I write outside, or knit, or make art. Mostly, I sit and watch. Time well spent. ✅
The pumpkin seeds I planted last month have taken off, and I learned their lesson: they open their beautiful blooms early in the day. If you wait too long, they are still pretty, but different. I guess I never realized all the adjustments nature makes minute by minute. ✅
My niece left a mailbox surprise this week: zinnia seeds for a future day! So kind…and as I look out toward my happy flower patch this season, I think I will cut a bouquet to celebrate that on this Friday, there is still plenty of beauty around…both in the thoughtfulness of others and in the joy to come. ✅
Finally, I started a new part time job this week. I am a teacher in the adult education program in my town, and I help students work toward their ESL or HSE certificates. As always, meeting my students and learning about them has started this season off well. They showed up in masks, but the masks did not conceal their determination and grit. They have goals. They are ready to work. I am ready to help them. ✅
Have a terrific weekend, dear readers. Find a moment or more to get outside and find the healing in nature. Surprise someone. Pick a flower. Plant a seed. Help someone learn. Live in grateful wonder. ❤️
I almost titled this entry “Friday’s Five and so is Sofia” but decided I would just write it here in the first paragraph. ❤️
My sweet granddaughter makes the top of my list tonight because her life has brought and continues to bring a lot of joy. Children do that, as a rule. We can learn so much from them. Think of yourself on an age 5 birthday. Can you? I really cannot, but I know people were loving me and I was living a great life.
I bet all of us were enriching other people’s lives at age five. Interesting to think about, really.
I wonder what she will remember from today and what will be forgotten.
These days, many of us might like to forget a lot of what is happening. We are waiting for a better day…a day when things seem not quite so hard, not so complicated.
Yet, while we wait, someone puts candles on a cake. Someone sings a song. Somebody says I love you. Someone unwraps a gift. Someone says thankyou. So much goodness.
This week, a former colleague wrote to tell me her child still cherishes a simple blanket I made for him years ago. She said some nice words. They warmed my heart.
Then a day later, she sent this picture.
I had forgotten that I had made this little card for her. The back of the card showed 2009. I thought of how much my life had changed since that year. I remembered then I had made little magnetic cards for all the teacher interns that year as a parting gift.
This card meant something to this person, though. She wrote that she keeps it out in her classroom, then carefully files it for safekeeping until the summer is over. She’s been cleaning and preparing her room and sent me the reminder of more than just the card.
All this to say: we do things today that seem like nothing…and find out later, they were something to somebody.
Sofia doesn’t know today how much her smile lifts my heart. How her I love you, Loulou uplifts me. How she stays with me even when we are not together, like during these crazy covid days.
So, keep doing the good things. They come back to us in ways we never expect. Walk on and remember that your gifts do matter, no matter how small. Words on a card, people. And if someone has helped you or lifted you or encouraged you, for God’s sake, tell them. We really do not have time to waste thinking people know anything. Your words could be the lifeline they need.
Do five good things. This is my challenge to you this coming week. Bonus points if they involve telling people their lives have touched yours in a precious way.
Be safe. Honor your life and your gifts. Make your days worth remembering. 🌟
I’m writing this as thunder continues to rattle the windows of my little house. It’s been a strange weather day…stormy, sunny, stormy…like a record on repeat.
In between storms but accompanied by distant thunder, I transplanted this little camellia
this morning.
That’s it in front of a weathered brick that was part of my folks’ old farmhouse porch. The camellia “volunteered” this year…one lone shoot in front of a towering bush that’s been on the place for about a century. Yeah. They like it here.
So, off I went to dig it up because we have had rain. A lot of it. But even though we have, it was no easy thing digging this baby up. The root system was not what I expected. It was horizontal and spread out several inches in both directions.
Finally, though, I met success, and the new seedling starts its new life at the beginning of my driveway. There are plenty of pine needles and similar soil to where it had been living a few hundred yards away, so hopefully I’ll see growth in this new location.
All the while digging, pulling, chopping, and cajoling this plant to release its first home, I thought how many of us are just like that. Fixed. Solid. Secure. No problem. Growing fine.
But…how about a little change? Total fight. Ha
Maybe I’m thinking too deep. It’s just a plant, after all. But it made me happy to dig it up and move it to a place where it can shine on its own. And even this wacky weather blessed it by holding back the rain until I closed the back door. Then? Torrential rain ensued.
I took it as a hearty Amen. 🌱 🌧
What are you planting this season? I hope it grows well. ❤️
Almost 10 pm on week 2 of Lent, but I’m here. Don’t give up. If you think to yourself Oh whatever, maybe reconsider. We lost an hour, after all. 😉
I keep thinking about threads and books and projects and ideas. So this week, I am bringing them to the table. It does not matter that they are not in final form. This little piece was part of a workshop I’d hoped would make a year ago. It didn’t. But it should have.
So, it still wants a place. Guess what? Here is its place. It is reminding me to keep going this week, even when I’m tired. And busy. Even when I’m not sure what the reason is for lots of things. Even when I’m not sure it matters. That is the voice of “not me” haha. The voice of me says oh yeah. It matters. Keep following the thread.
What is your thread this week? Pick it up, friend. It matters…
Sometimes it’s good to take a look at our days. Make a new grid. Design a new way of looking at them. Write in the non-negotiables. You know: eating/sleeping/Netflix ☺️.
See how much time we really have to do something new…or something we used to enjoy. See how much time we (dare I say it) waste.
Look at that new grid and live with it for a week or so. Decide where we can eliminate something for just an hour a day. Just 30 minutes. Then adjust. Again and again until we are living a more (fill in your own blank) life.
That’s where I am this first week of Lent. Deciding. Trying. And admitting it is not easy, so I must be on a good track for me.
No one should dictate our free time activities, but now and then it might help to see if what we choose is benefiting us or holding us back.
Today’s “new found” time is leading me into a scary art studio space. You think I’m joking. I am not. I may have to pray for time to stand still in there for a little while. I expect to learn and re-learn some lessons about order in there.
Good luck on whatever your time is telling you to do. 🌟🌟
My mailbox has been filled with beautiful letters and cards lately. I’m hoping to return the favor soon. A whole day can brighten when a real letter is in the box. 🌟 Trying…
Hand sewing. Rebel stitches. Another India Flint class has begun, and the community of makers is a generous and talented bunch. It is so lovely to see women sharing and supporting one another in creative pursuits. Stitching…
A yard filled with jonquils and camellias. February has shown out with beautiful bouquets for the taking. My grandchildren collecting bouquets. Watching…
More opportunities for presenting various workshops and celebrating the creative spirit. Teaching…
Looking at this point in my life and knowing that it may last just a season, but it’s a good one. Living…
Happy belated Valentine’s Day. Love the you you are today. And if you haven’t already, do one little thing for yourself. Treat yourself well.
I am two days away from a five year anniversary of writing this blog. Writing those first entries and wondering where they would lead… I did not picture myself as a widow, an activist, a world traveler, a theology student. Yet, here I am–all of these and more. We just never know what is around the corner.
I have lived through many seasons, and I am still able to say I am grateful for so much. That is pure gift. Pure grace. Tonight, these five from the past week:
Safe travel to and from Austin, where I spoke with a policy advisor and participated in a rally for public education, teachers, and retirees’ benefits.
The realization that I am not afraid to stand up and fight for what is right, regardless of who stands with me.
The awareness that when I am true to myself, the universe rises up to help me.
The acknowledgement that I have a lot of goals to work on in the future and how happy that makes me.
Knowing that difficult situations do not last forever, and when they do come ( because they will indeed come), to trust that a power bigger than me has my back.
Listen to your heart and follow where it leads. Remember that you are here at this moment in time for a purpose. You don’t have to see the whole picture. Just keep pressing on. Peace.
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 