Tender Thursday

 I enjoy seeing the sentiments I sometimes feel expressed so beautifully by others on the internet.

The last few days have been tender for me - prompted by a question at work about my Mother last Friday.

I was transported back to my childhood, teenage and young adult years.  Even young and middle married years now that I think about it...

I love that this woman is walking by the seashore.  I am grateful to be near the sea for now.  I enjoy going down to the beach and watching and listening to the sea and feeling the breeze on my face.

I see the sunset every day if I want to, and most days, when I am home, I make the time to pause, breathe, thank God, and watch the (often) magnificent sunsets.

I am grateful too see the colours and the formations.  I appreciate that when there are clouds the sunset is magnificent.  The play of light and shadow is wonderful to watch.

When there are many clouds, as there sometimes are, I am glad to know the sun is there - I just can't see it.

Some days there are no clouds and it is not possible to "look" at the sun as it sets.  But, I can see the afterglows and enjoy them.

Sometimes in the early morning, I see the moon on the West as it seems to set.  Beautiful!

1

This morning when I saw Glenn off I noticed the sun through the clouds on the East.  Gorgeous again!

I just thought "God's in His Heaven... All's right with (my) world."  I'm grateful to feel that in the depths of my soul.

I don't know why the life that was mine, is mine, was and is mine.

I know I have learnt a lot.
Most days I am grateful.

Most days I really do enjoy the messy, imperfect and beautiful adventure of my life.  

Some of my life is not what I would have chosen for myself.  And - by living my life according to the values that are important to me, the way I choose to live it every day - within the confines I chose, and choose, to accept, or chose not to change, I acknowledge I am probably a better person than I suspect I would have, could have, been if I had chosen to live my life in other ways I might have chosen along the way.  

There is no way for me to know since this is the road I have chosen.  Perhaps I would have been as refined, as I experience myself, by other circumstances if I had chosen other paths I might have chosen to walk.

I suppose...  and trust God... the purpose of my life is to choose and choose, a day at a time, according to the state of being within my body, mind and Spirit, and without me, my circumstances from day to day.  I do that.  Some choices are just not available to me.  Some choices I choose not to choose.  And I have an array of other choices available to me every day.

Darn my tender heart... bless my tender heart.  I am grateful to be who I am.  I look forward to more joy, peace and healing along my adventurous road that is my life.

Thank you all who share my journey.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine... Let it shine, let it shine, all the time." (actually... when I can.)

Some Thoughts Today

I am valuable

I am a daughter of God

I am a daughter of my goodly parents

I am me - unique, special and irreplaceable

My dreams are real

I want to remember what my dreams are/were

I will write them or illustrate them and display them where I will see them

I will make at least five minutes a day on reaching towards them

I choose to read, watch, or listen towards fulfilling them

My dreams will evolve and adapt as I do, and as my life unfolds

My roles are important

I need to be clear on what they are today, this week, this year

I need to protect them so I do them as well as I want to

I will need to say “yes” to some people/things and “no” to others

My roles will change over the years, and change again, and again

My time on this earth is finite

My life and time are precious and I want them to be meaningful

I will use my time wisely every day, every week

This month and year will never come again…  When they are past they are past

I will make them count

My family is my treasure

I will cherish my husband daily – and show it

I will love and pray for my children, grandchildren and great grand-children daily

I will remember them all, and also my extended family, and bless them as I can

Everybody needs regular play-dates

I will make them with my husband

I will make them with my family members and friends

I will keep my play-dates

20^th July 2017 - Inspired by…

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/gospel-solutions-for-families/setting-realistic-expectations-with-self-spouse-and-kids?__prclt=rM9BSJXA

Magenta Love Potatoes

I bought some purple potatoes... they were on special.
I thought "Why not?"
Magenta Love cultivar.
Strange eating purple potatoes!
Texture is the same, taste a little sweet?

I might buy them again...
If opportunity presents itself...

Book: Half of Life is "IF"

I took this book out of the library because the title intrigued me.
I think it was not well edited (not that I really know much about these things - just my gut feel.)
I was disappointed, and I also appreciated reading it.
It is basically a collection of quotes from here and there - some not attributed that I could determine...

Some quotes I collected:

"Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere.  Self pity gets you no where.  One must be adventurous and daring and accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best."  Henry Emerson Fosdick p ?

"If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Sun Tzu 500BC p 80

"So why let yourself get angry?  The minute you get angry, you lose.  The action you take is not going to be as smart or appropriate as it would have been if you kept your cool." p118

"... don't get mad, get curious."

"Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing something worthwhile."  Sir Richard Grenfell p 125

"Be happy with your lot - not only in terms of quality, not only with what you have, but for as long as you have it.  Be happy with your future here and now - whatever it may be."  Ben Zomo p 160

"A wise man is one who can learn from every experience.  The rich man is one who knows how to be happy with whatever he has.  The power of the truly strong (person) is that he can exercize self-control."  p160

Forest Walk

Enjoy our two hour Saturday afternoon Forest Walk with us...

She is holding a grasshopper.

As we came out of the gate of the forest, this is the bank of creeper on the boundary of the house across the road.  Gorgeous.  About 4:30 afternoon light - darkening already...

It was good for my soul to be in this ancient, dry, coastal forest.

Book: Morrie: in His Own Words

Deeply worthwhile book about learning to die and learning to live.

At present I read in little snatches of time - but read I must for my mental health.

Some quotes I wrote down from this little gem:

"I let the tears flow until they dry up.  And then I   start to think about what I am crying about."  p30

"Dealing bravely with physical pain or accidents takes one kind of courage.  Facing life as it is, and accepting it takes another."  p107

Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live."

Book - Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

Pocket of time today - I am waiting for a contractor to come and attend to our centre-island kitchen countertop which is not attached and can tilt dangerously

So I thought I'd record one of the books I recently read.

I have enjoyed everything I have read written by Martha Beck.
I don't always agree with her views.
I find great value in the way she writes and what she proposes.

I enjoyed this book.


Some quotes I took from it:

"For wayfinders, skilful being must precede all doing." p xxv

"Playing to the point of enchantment is necessary medicine."  p29

"... learn to play like you mean it."  p29

"When did you stop feeling spontaneous joy? stop singing, stop dreaming?" p29

"Play can help our bodies and minds.... when I'm in pain, the way back to health is either deep rest or deep play."  p30

"When you want to dance, lying down is stress and dancing is stress release."  p30

"Determine your own play profiles, and then get busy playing, a lot."

"Death is the stripping away of all which is not you."  Eckhart Tolle

"Death is not the real terror, but (living) life - magically - is" Ben Okri p48

"Things once in contact remain in contact through all space and time."  Lynne McTaggart p59

"Maybe there's a simple, elegant, low-tech way to do something I've been doing in complicated ways."  p184

"All menders need mending."  p194

"By the end of the adventure (life) heroes can live in any combination of worlds, old or new, tamed or wild, combining the best aspects of both into one bountiful life." p203

"The road of trials leads to a life where all trials become blessings."  p203