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 - January 19th 2020 - My Search Continues...

My Daily Search for … Continues…

What am I searching for…?

When I was a new family and marriage counsellor I had a young client.

She came out to South Africa from Holland? Germany? and found herself

in a complex situation she could hardly have imagined.

She looked at me earnestly and said “All I want is a nice quiet life…”

We worked together to deal with her newly realised reality.

I’ve pondered her words lots in the intervening 30+ years.

“Yes.  That’s what I want too.” I remember thinking at the time.

“ And now I have the words to express my deepest desire.  Thank you!”

In some respects my life is not what others would call “quiet…”

What then does “quiet” mean to me?

Sufficient harmony within myself and with those I live and work with.

And I have that most times these days...

I conserve and nurture my goodwill with myself and with particularly these others. 

I create the peacefulness I need, within myself, and around me every day.

I heard someone talk recently about important “holy habits” and “righteous routines.”

I have developed what works for me and gives me pleasure.

Tai Chi every week is important to me.

It helps me be physically and mentally more peaceful.

I found my Tai Chi group I used to belong to at the Botanic Gardens this week!

They meet an hour earlier!

That’s why I have missed them since we got home!

Happy Day!

Steve, one of the leaders, said “I can see you did Tai Chi while you were in KZN…”

Indeed, I did, every week.  Sometimes on the beach, sometimes in the garden,

sometimes in our apartment, sometimes on our West balcony.

One of my righteous routines…

The group has progressed to level 4.  I am well-schooled in levels 1 and 2.

On Tuesday I was delightfully clumsy in the next two levels!

I giggled and giggled as I tried my best to follow.

As you know I have difficult with my left and my right.

So when Lynda said “drop your left hand and circle your right” it was

a significant mental feat for me to follow her…

There’s a child-likeness to not knowing that is very blissful for me.

Another righteous routine is a bath in the afternoon.

It helps me physically and gives me a good soak.  “Relax.  Unwind.  Soak.”

Oh yeah…!  Thank you Dianne for “Relax. Unwind!”

She has those words on her bathroom wall.

What are you searching for, reaching for?

How’s your search going?

Some searches take a life-time… and beyond…

“A happy life must be, to a great extent, a quiet life – for it is only in

an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.”

Bertrand Russell said in “Boredom and Excitement” –

(Reader’s Digest – How To Live With Life, p 219 “Slow Down - and Live.”

May we all prosper in the deepest meanings of the word this 2020.

Love

Mom / Judy

Yep... it was chilly enough - in January! to wear a cardigan on Sunday.

PS We began functioning as Young Single Adult advisors…

A Whole New Learning Curve for Us!

Working together… that is a new one…

We’re good at parallel work… Now we’ll get to working on companion work…

Here’s hoping… 

I liked these companion sculptures at

The newish Cradlestone Mall Muldersdrift, near Krugersdorp.

For Me To Come Back To...

When I feel homesick I will enjoy these pictures and remember...

Botanic Garden - My Place of Refuge...

Raucous Hadedahs...

Replaced footbridge at the entrance.

Warm sunny view...

Winter is tapping so we enjoy the warm spots we find.

I shall miss visiting every week!

Wild Arum lily.

Tall grass ready for the winter fires.

The Garden does controlled burning each year.

I took the top road this last week.

I enjoyed the view.

The Dancing Trees...

Propped up to help them survive.

I love the sound of the water wherever I am in the Garden.

Thank you gardeners who keep the Garden lovely!

Being here is a great blessing in my life.

Botanical Gardens after Torrential Rain!

Last Tuesday...

The sky so clear!

The guineafowl so content!

The trees so yellowing!

Tai Chi-ers so happy!

The waterfall so gushing!

The flowing water so clear!

The new footbridge to the waterfall so coming along!

So many children in the Gardens that day!

The 'hat-parade' always so interesting!

I just clicked this unobtrusively...

How do you take photos and not disturb...?

The grass so long!

So many weeds!

The flowers so cheerful!

More of the so-long grass...

The sleeper footbridge being repaired...

Taking so long!

The trees so un-dusty after all the rain!

So many cars there that day!

I Go To The Hills...

I was singing that song in my mind when I visited

the Botanic Garden on Tuesday!

Lovely place to be after all the rain.

It was very hot yesterday, and today it is raining right now!

For every drop of rain...

We are very thankful.

My Tai Chi group.

I had very little energy yesterday

so I excused myself early.

The footbridge being repaired.

The 'gate' was open for construction vehicles so I could see more clearly. 

Always very good to be at the Botanic Garden.

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!

It's In The Details!

Shadow patterns on the bricks...

I love the reflection in the canal in the foreground 

and the sound of the river in the middle ground.

Lovely negative space and curious grass blade-shapes.

I sat in a dell and... looked up.

I loved seeing the sunlight through the leaves.

When I sit here it reminds me of Crawford's Burn in Northern Ireland.