Serenity Prayer

 Grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace,
Taking this world as it is,
Not as I would have it.
Trusting that Spirit will make all things right
If I surrender to Spirit’s will
That I may be reasonably happy in this life.

December 2020

 

Thank you, Sweet Julie

Sweet JulieK totally surprised me with this beautiful quilt that she made.  How blessed am I to have a friend as sweet as this woman is.  She is a prolific quilter, as well as a devoted nurse.  Words cannot express my heart's feelings.  Thank you, my beautiful friend.

 And the people stayed home...

They read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art,

and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.

They listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.

Some met their shadows.

And people began to think differently.

And the people healed.

And in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless,

and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again,

they grieved their losses, 

and made new choices, and dreamed new images,

and created new way to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

Happy Halloween! Happy Full Blue Moon

 

The Beauty of Fall

                                                                Birds

 

Such A Vivid, Beautiful Fall Day

 

                                                             Last Night

Early Voting

 

Today was the first day of early voting here in Tennessee.  It was a beautiful day to vote---and I did.

Backyard Walktober

Marlee heard me talking about lovely Princess Katie at Change is Hard joining Robin at https://breezesatdawn.wordpress.com/ who is hosting her annual Walktober.  Of course, Marlee thinks she's a princess too, and wanted to join in.  Our Walktober, for now, is in our backyard.  We may gather photos from longer walks next week.

We are experiencing breathtaking weather this last couple of weeks.  The days have been drenched in sunlight and blue skies and leaves changing colors before our eyes.  The slant of the sunlight through the trees has that distinct difference to it.  It's like no other season's light.  And night draws inky blankets over the day earlier each day, with stars on stunning display.  Lamps are lit and blinds are drawn.  Thoughts turn to gourds and pumpkins, Mums and Jack-o-Lanterns, flannel sheets on the bed and snuggly quilts.  

With leaves turning and starting to drop, can you believe that there is a violet (Johnnie Jump Up) in bloom in the back yard on October 8, 2020?  I have never seen this before.  Curiouser and curiouser.

The Seasons Are Changing

 So, leaves are starting to drop, the hummingbirds have headed out on their journey, there's a definite 'nip' of autumn in the air as evening draws to night, and the sun is waking up the morning.  I scramble for my favorite, ratty jacket to throw on to take Marlee out at night and first thing in the morning.  I've always always loved when the seasons change; I've always been so ready for the summer heat to fade, and the fall air and colors and smells to arrive.  Hmmm, but this year, I'm hesitant about it all.  Maybe it's just that the whole year, so far, of 2020 has been so unnerving.  And the fact that I'm still not really adjusted to proceeding through the world and life without Randy.  I don't know...just a bit hesitant...

Just to add to the complexity of thoughts and emotions this time around with shorter, colder days, there was a knock at my door this morning.  There's a man, I don't know him, asking if I'm _______.  No, I'm not, and I've never heard of her.  I explain that I've only lived in this house for a year.  Maybe she lived here sometime in the past, but I don't know her.  When I finally find out who he is, he tells me he works for a bonding company, and there's a warrant out for this person.  After he is satisfied that I'm not who he is looking for, he tells me that there's a good possibility that there will be a raid on my house.  Excuse me???  Well, just giving you a heads-up that they may come in the wee hours of the morning, come in 'dark', as he put it, no lights and banging on my doors.  Whoa, hold on.  That's quite disturbing.  So I've spent most of the day on the phone with  first the City Police Department, who tell me I need to call the County Sheriff's Dept, who tell me I need to talk to the bonding company.  And along the way, I've had a couple of phone conversations with my attorney, just to make sure he has my back.  It's now after 3 p.m.  The day is shot, but let's hope everyone got the memo that this is not the house nor person they are looking for, and that midnight raids at this address would be a bad thing.

When Great Trees Fall - Maya Angelou

 

WHEN GREAT TREES FALL
Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable
ignorance of
dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

RIP, Ruth Bader Ginsberg

 

You are phenomenal; your service to this Country is phenomenal.  You will be desperately missed.

I can't even begin to express the sorrow, the depression, the outrage that I am feeling.

What If...

 "What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.”

~ Ganga White

Shorter Days

 

The days are getting shorter, and I've struggled with that this weekend.  I have always loved the change from Summer to Fall, the nights drawing closer a little earlier each day, that feeling of being nestled inside at the close of the day.  

These morning glories have greeted me the last couple of mornings with their sweet faces.

September 11, 2001 Never Forgotten

 Never Forgotten--Twin Towers, Pentagon, Shanksville, PA

(Photo by Jake Rajs)

Corn Moon

 

The Strange Summer of 2020

These times are surreal.  Two tropical storms in the Gulf at the same time.  Tropical Storm Marco made landfall along the Louisiana coast about 6 p.m. this evening, but has, so far, pushed all of the rainfall to the east.  Tropical Storm Laura looks like it will likely grow into a Cat 2 hurricane, and the outer bands are being felt in Key West, Fl.  The weather forecasters have all been talking about the fact that they haven't seen two in the Gulf at the same time before.  

I'm 'under the weather' myself with what I suspect is a sinus infection.  Isolating, not that I've been out and about anyway, and drinking ACV/honey/lemon juice toddies.  In light of that, I just placed my first online grocery order at Food City for pickup in the morning.  I don't have to go for groceries very often, and I have gone to the same store every time when there are less shoppers when I have had to go.  That's the only store that I've been in since February---other than an early morning, fast-in and fast-out trip into Dollar General the day before Easter for milk, and once into Home Depot in June---fully masked.  It was so easy to place the online order that I have a feeling that I will be making that a habit.

The skies have been gorgeous!  I am fascinated by the clouds, and every evening I find the camera or phone in my hands taking pictures of them.  I have all of my bird pictures on my Canon camera and haven't transferred them yet to the computer.  The days are getting shorter every day, and I know that my focus will soon be drawn more inward.

Love

 

Hazy Days of Summer

 

The heat has been exhausting this last month.  The days have seemed long and languid, and blurred.  They run seamlessly one into the next.  Nothing since my sister's back surgery in June to mark any of them by.  I am still reluctant to venture out beyond the grocery store, when necessary, as cases of Covid in our county/state have been on the rise.  I've been sitting too much, to the point that my back hurts.  I look at the bike on the trainer and promise that I am going to 'ride' today---and some days, I do---but most days I don't.  I go to bed each night with the promise that I will move more tomorrow, but I feel like I'm mired in the midst of this strange Summer, unable to do much of anything beyond the basics.

This little scamp, Feisty, came along, a tiny stray that was starving for food and love, and stole my heart.  And then my heart was broken just a short 3 days later when I took her for her first evaluation by my Vet.  She was positive for Feline Leukemia.  She was such a special, sassy little bundle of love, a bright star that burned for such a very short time.  I'm still dealing with the sadness from having to let her go.  Her tiny pawprints will be engraved on my heart forever.