All you need is love... and a dog

A U-Haul removing 30 HUGE paintings from the basement after a decade of storage is just icing on the cake!

And by huge, I mean the smallest was 6 ft x10 ft... Art Boy is NOT a miniaturist!

Sunday in the park...

no, not with George ... with me!
And it was glorious!

Redbud, crab apple, Bradford pear, star magnolia, forsythia... so much beauty it made my eyes ache with overload.

Annie Lamott reminds us that " We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature."

And I was...





I also noticed before you get to be this,

you have to be this;

it's all a process of becoming!

I also thought, since I was coming to the end of the trail, I had seen all the beauty that was meant to be seen.

Until I turned my head off the path - and saw ...



a rare, and very expensive, yellow star magnolia.

It took my breath away...

So much for assumptions about what the end of the trail may hold!

“E.L. Doctorow once said that 'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night.

You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to know your destination or everything you will pass along the way.

You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you'.

This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.”
― Anne Lamott.

I certainly don't know where I'm headed or what I'll see along the way.

I only know that what's in front of me is lovely!

Keeping Sabbath

This will be the last Sunday post I'll be doing.

For the past decade, my Sundays have been defined by taking my mother (and, for several years, her boyfriend as well) to church, to lunch and then the store for any necessities; squeezing my own chores into whatever time remained in the afternoon.

It's time to find new rhythms, new ways of being - and none of the ones I'm contemplating include any electronic devices.

It's time to take a step back to just 'being'; to enjoying the sounds and sights during a walk, sitting on the deck reading or maybe even napping!

The possibilities are truly endless...

If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our sabbath - our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create Sabbaths for us.
Wayne Muller

THAT hopefully isn't one of the options!
From my lips to Gods ear!

See you during the week!

Wishing you the luck of the Irish...

which, may or may not, be a good thing!

Heading out to do a 'photo shoot' for friends maternity pictures... which, no doubt, will prove the adage, you get what you pay for!

At least, after a morning that started like this...

it's gorgeous and sunny!

Wish us luck!

Two smiles from the weekend

A friend, who has known me for years came up to me after the service, and after watching me with my siblings, to say:

it's the tension and friction between two grains of sand that produce a pearl...
YOU are your family's pearl.

What's not to love about a friend like THAT, right?

And

my sister-in-law, as I was opening up a bottle of wine from SD (near the rez) to go with Chinese takeout, read the ingredients (92% chokecherry wine, 6% elderberry wine and 2% cranberry wine) and proclaimed:

OMG; it's practically a breakfast wine!

The real surprise is this woman isn't an alcoholic!!

"Breakfast wine" - a whole new market!!

It's not just for Happy Hour anymore!

Happy St Patricks Day

with sprinkles on top!

Life lessons

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over.

But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.

That’s what this storm’s all about.”
Haruki Murakami

I am not the same person I was 10 years ago.

Having sole responsibility for the care of my mother as she struggled with Alzheimer’s and multiple health issues has changed me in significant ways I’m aware of now - and in ways I suspect I won’t even recognize until more time has passed.

What I DO know is what I perceived as a terrible burden was actually a gift.

The responsibility for her care forced me to explore and confront feelings about my family of origin – their behavior and choices - and mine - in ways neither of my siblings has and I’m in a very different place than they are as a result.

I won’t pretend I got there totally on my own; I’ve had wonderful guides and teachers and have benefitted from their collective wisdom; but the showing up, the hard work of sloughing through the pain on the way to awareness was mine.

And I like where I am now… on the other side of so much of the pathology and pain.

I also know that choosing estrangement, resentment, division or hate is far easier than choosing relationship; choosing to be open, and therefore vulnerable, to those who can be messy, imperfect and unreliable.

I must say that I was particularly moved when my sister in law thanked me for not hating my brother; not hating him for so consistently letting me down when I needed him over the last decade.

Did I want him to help? Of course.

Did it hurt when he chose not to? Certainly.

Have I ranted and raved and been angry? Oh baby, you have no idea!

But we all can do only what we can do.

And he is not me... and the consequences for his psyche about what he did or didn't do are his to face, not mine.

And this time, at this point in my life, I'm choosing to love - and move on.

If I ever had any doubts

or questions about liturgy and ritual being forms and forces for healing, they were swept away last Saturday.

To a person, the Memorial service for my Mom was described as an authentic expression and acknowledgment of both the brokenness and grace in my mothers life and in our family's life;

and through it's honesty, it was healing.

I'm so glad I didn't chose to ignore their power - or our need for them.

Having both my sons there, as well as 'family' from Chicago and dear friends, helped keep me grounded in the reality that biology doesn't always determine 'tribe'.

It was also the first time in over 25 years that my brother, sister and I had been under the same roof...

I can't help but think my mom was smiling during our time together.

She also would have loved the flowers... all her favorites were included... irises, forsythia, pussy willows, roses and ruffled tulips!

Surprisingly, it was a good weekend and, when it was over, I felt emotionally drained but terribly relieved.

Signs of Gods promise

and the presence of angels...

or just sun coming through the window on the day I washed the down comforter cover?

“Logic will get you from A to B.
Imagination will take you everywhere.”

~ Albert Einstein

Not even the Ides of March...

and it's been over 80 degrees, I've mowed the lawn already - and my shovel has a stress fracture!

Violets have taken over multiple sections of the yard -

and just hours after taking pictures of a neighbors flowering quince, I realized I have a 'volunteer' plant of my own.

I didn't plant it; I've lived here for 24 years and have never seen it before... but there's no doubt that, while it's small, it's thriving!

And, I noticed more than a dozen robins hopping around the yard tonight...

It's clearly spring...

although not everyone looks pleased about it;

maybe he was just objecting to having his own paparazzi.