What/Who Comforts Me When I Need Comfort?

Sunday Afternoon – June 21^st 2020

This has been a week when the days blurred into each other.

We enjoyed Father’s Day having lunch with Doug, Nadia and family.  Thank you!

What/who comforts me when I need comfort?  How can I ask for help when I need it?

I’ve learnt to give myself what I need.

I’m going to the chiropractor – again – I’m hopeful to feel more comfortable soon!

I’m going to have a reflexology session on Friday.

I feel like some hands-on might be comforting to me.

Reading the scriptures comforts me.  

I’m reading in Moroni in the Book of Mormon and the Epistle of James in the Bible.  

There’s much that reminds me there of how I want to live my life.

Learning comforts me – it either confirms what I know already or it adds to what I know.

Knowing my children and grandchildren are living their lives comforts me.

Walking out in the garden comforts me.

Walking in the Botanic Garden comforts me.

My daily bath comforts me greatly.

Being warm comforts me.

Weighless comforts me.

What’s the difference between comfort and satisfaction?

Hmmm…

Comfort - the easing or alleviation of a person's feelings of distress or grief.

Satisfaction - fulfilment of one's wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this.

Getting done what needs to be done comforts me, or does it satisfy me?

Both.

And I figure out sooner or later who/what will help me, and I get it, give it to myself...

Or, I have been able to so far…

May it ever continue to be so…

Thank God for the compassionate ones of the world…

And… may we become among them…

What comforts you when you need comfort?

How can you ask for help when you need it?

Remember always - I love you!  Forever!

Mom / Judy / Gran Judy

Sunday Afternoon - February 24th - Amazing!

I’m amazed…

I made an N.O.T. kinesiology appointment for Wednesday.

I’m amazed at how much more peaceful my body feels!

Beyond words I know to describe my sense of well-being.

I think there are “more things in heaven and earth… than are dreamt of in our philosophy…”   (Shakespeare) (No – actually, I know that.)

I was amazed at the breathtaking beauty of the full moon earlier this week.

I am amazed every day on the site to realize all that goes into any building we use.

I’m amazed at how many people of all talents and capacities add their ‘little bit’ to the whole.

I’m amazed at how important each of these individuals is…

I’m amazed to realize we’ve been here as long as we have, and it feels like home…

I’ve come to realize that “Home for me is wherever I am…”

And it’s good to know I have a home in Discovery, and I will be going back there sometime this year.

I’m amazed at how trees and plants grow!

When we get home I will need to organize some SERIOUS pruning after three,

maybe four, Augusts of it not being done…

I’m amazed at how frail Vi looks.  Is.

I’m amazed at how our children’s and grandchildren’s lives are unfolding!

I’m amazed seeing Kieran and Cheryn’s little ones – how they grow!

When I look back at my Durban Temple Construction Week 1 and the other early reports I wrote…

I’m amazed at how my writing, photography and technology skills have been honed –

one week at a time.  I’m grateful my writing needs less editing than it used to need!

I’m amazed at how comforted I am that professionals, who do their work every day,

also ‘miss’ this or that.  Being on the site has been an education!  In many ways!

What amazes you?  Thanks for being your amazing you!

I love you!  And I’m grateful for you!

Happy Birthday Les!  For the 23^rd…

Love

Mom/Judy

 Reflection of the early morning full moon seen from our spare room balcony sliding doors.

You can see one of my sixteen toy snakes reflected too – 

they deter the birds and monkeys from making a nuisance of themselves on our two balconies - 

and from coming in our flat to snatch fruit or food.  

They are canny, and bold!  So far, I’ve (or the snakes've) outwitted them…

Some of our front balcony snakes.  I'm quite fond of them I must say...

Winter Peace...

The replaced foot bridge is now open.

No steps any more.

Side view.

My little retreat spot available again.

 

Someone's ladder washed away and come to rest.

 

And I leave again from my interlude!

I will avoid the botanic garden on Saturdays in future!

Winter Splendour

Gorgeous flowers!

Gorgeous Creeper

I saw this at our friend Gail's home.

Almost the last of Autumn splendour.

  Temperatures dropping to around 5 and 19C.

Time for more and more layers of clothing early and late.

Time OUt...

I paused yesterday and visited Kloofendal

for some time out of my time.

It was worth out.

Autumn Hillside

A piece of our beautiful hillside.

Rain Rain!

We recently had two days of gentle soaking rain.

We went to help our friend Gail with something

and then take her out for birthday lunch.

We will be away on her birthday so this is pre-birthday...

I noticed the droplets on the bush outside her window.

Beautiful!

I tried to photograph it - both pictures less than I would have liked them to be.

Lovely memory!

Autumn is so Gorgeous!

This Virginia Creeper is a delight every Autumn!

So warmly glowing with rich and splendid hues...

And one blustery day... the leaves will all be gone!

I shall enjoy them as long as they last!

Aloes in the back blooming, this one will bloom soon.

This time of the year reminds me of the poem "To Autumn" that 

I grew to savour and love when I was in High School.

To Autumn

John Keats (1820)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,    Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless    With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,    And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;       To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease,       For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?    Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,    Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,    Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook       Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep    Steady thy laden head across a brook;    Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,       Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?    Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,    And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn    Among the river sallows, borne aloft       Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;    Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft    The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;       And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Ah... Autumn...

And to my loved-ones in the Northern Hemisphere:

Enjoy your Spring!

Saturday Afternoon Drive

These trees are flowering all over.

Glorious!

Autumn glowing across Florida Lake.

Lots of fishermen.

Afternoon sunlight through the trees.

Marvelous Meander Homewards

I went to get quotes for repairing my hail-damaged car.

My drive took me past Florida Lake.

Touches of Autumn tinging the trees.

I took a left turn and drove alongside the lake.

Lovely place!  Many memories.

A brief pause to refresh...

Thank you God for everything.

Promise of Rain...

We went down to Thyme Restaurant Little Falls for supper last Friday.

Gorgeous promising clouds...

very little rain.

We are thankful for every single drop!

We went for a meandering drive Saturday afternoon.

Wonderfully cool and cloudy.

Very little rain...

And periodically a drenching downpour!

"God's in His heaven... all's right with the world."

from the book "Pippa Passes."

A Needed Weekly Retreat

On a bench at the Botanic Garden.

"All the flowers of all the tomorrows

are in the seeds of today."

Indian proverb

Indeed.

I enjoyed watching the family of guinea fowl near the waterfall.

I'm so glad I took our children paddling in the waterfall pool before they closed access.

A little boy was crestfallen to spill his crisps on the grass.

I was glad to be able to take a couple of pictures

of the group of guinea fowl from closer up.

This is for you Samuel and Isaac!

Clouds! So Welcome!

We have had very welcome rain the last week or so...

When I took Les and Sally to the airport (Lanseria) Thursday 14th

I meandered back through The Cradle of Humankind.

I stopped and enjoyed the cool, the silence, 

the alone-ness, the expansive vistas, and the clouds.

Good for my Soul!