Mixed Blessings

My husband and I are soon to start a new adventure in our life. We will winter in a different place away from our beloved immediate families and friends and our place. We are looking forward to the new sites and adventures. We are grateful for the opportunity to be able to experience all this adventure.
Meanwhile, hard health problems persist for many. The dichotomy of experiencing fun and joy while such severe suffering goes on is difficult to reconcile.
I wish there was a magic wand to cure all pain, rid the earth of great personal agony and insert joy instead.
So, for Uncle Bob...I wish thee great health and peace and blessings; For my friends dealing with surgery...now and future, I anoint thee with magic fairy dust to promote quick healing and better than ever use of limbs.For everyone with pain- physical or mental, may sun lift your sorrow and let it go away.
If it was only so easy.

Laughing Trees of Summer

"That tickles" giggled the tree, as the sprinkler showered droplets of water on the grass at the base of the sturdy trunk. "It makes my toes laugh". Leaflets wiggled with joy in the summer breeze. A gold finch twittered merrily high in the branches. Frogs croaked in the shadow of the moist roots.Thats what I imagine the tree outside my kitchen window was saying this summer. It was such a happy site. I was sure the whispers were giggles.

Why are we important?

Picture the universe as a dress. A single thread woven into fabric does not seem like it makes any difference. Picture a slight pull on a single thread; a significant flaw appears in the outfit.We are like the threads. Each one is important for the whole, maybe not notable unless something goes awry. But the strength of each fiber makes the whole strong and long wearing and beautiful.

DEATH

This seems a bit grim for a spring day topic. But the more I consider it's fabric in life, I get that it's Ok to die. Eventually and far down the road I hope. But, it is OK. If you believe in a religion or not or care how you end up for eternity isn't really the point. It's that in this reality, as we inevitably age, we get cantankerous about new ways of doing things and look contemptuously at the young and bold. We get to like the comfortable and old and familiar. We must make way for the young and new. Our model of evolution must continue to evolve. It's Ok to let the young take over. If they make a mess and have to re-learn all the lessons....I guess that is not different if this is Rome, Greece, or New America. Our aging brains rarley take to new fangled stuff. We drag our feet at leaning new tecniques. Why is that? And maybe, at last, we don't want to know how it all turns out.I'm hoping for a front row seat though on a nearby cosmic cloud with a long lens to peer at the antics.

Lessons

Why must we have to re-learn the same lessons again and again. Why can't the mind and heart absorb the deeply painful and soul stabbing life lessons the first time? I think we should have a buzzer when we react badly that makes us recall the corrected behavior pattern without having to go through all the painful stuff again. I vote for that.  Put my buzzer right on my forehead . Quickly before I say somethimg really dumb . Again.

Silence

I learned a good lesson about what silence means the other day. Raised an only child , I wasn't around noisy people growing up. My fellow graandchildren lived far away so few episodes of running, frolicking cousinry are in my memory. I love my neices and nephews and grand nephews and neices to pieces....but they are noisy. And in big colorful bunches the decible volume goes over my staid,sensitive limit.
The other day our kitten became lost for 20 hours. Instantly, despite the pack of two other adult cats and two other adult dogs...the house was too quiet. We slept with one eye open , and an ear tuned for a little mew. Nuttin. QUIET. No balls rolling down the halls wooden flooring at midnight. No earrings swishing off the nightstand at two a.m.. No loud sucky noises on the fuzzy blanket, near your ear at three a.m.. I can hear my friend Susan saying " And that's why I don't let the damn cats in "!! And I smile. But, the other night it was too quiet. I didn't know it could be too quiet.
And then baby kitty was found and rescued and brought home. And I was busily shouting"No! Kitty no-no" again. And my husband looked at me and said, " That's what it was, you werent yelling at the cat all the time!"

Let it Snow

Snow is falling. And falling. And stacking up! Its a nice powdery white that drifts and hides all the bad spots I never got around to in fall clean-up. But dog poop shows up quite nicely. Ugh.
It is winter. And its not officically winter yet. It is interesting to see how the season shapes up. Is this the one with mountanous piles all over town for months or the big storm and then everything melts and just looks dull all the rest of the time? I like that I have more time indoors and dont feel guilty because the sun in shining and the weeds are looking me in the eyes! It's time to enjoy the fire, good books, those sewing projects I've put off too long.
The Grosbeaks landed at the seed feeder today. Zeke went running hard to the back corner and then skidded to a halt in the powder and flopped upside down for a good snow massage. Tanzy chased the quail hiding in the remnents of the rasberry rows. Christmas songs are on the radio and the neighbor put up the Christmas lights. I suppose I'll have to dig out the ornaments now! Hmm, a good stew needs to appear in the crockpot.And now that my friend gave me a real old fashoined iron fry pan, I can try out that recipes for apple tart. OOOhhh, covered in cream straight out of the oven! Love the seasons!!