Tag Archives: spirit

photo friday

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Today’s word on Photo Friday is Exercise, something I should do more often. Still, the little yoga and stretching I do works wonders on keeping the aches and pains of Fibromyalgia and old(er) age from taking over. My birthday is in two weeks and this one will herald my final year in my forties. The idea of aging has never really bothered me since there’s really only one alternative! I think having lived a good part of my life dealing with health problems has given me a different perspective than some of my friends, I know first hand that how old you are in years doesn’t really matter, it’s how you feel. My mom seems to be a bit better as she settles into the nursing home for some rehab. The goal is to get her strong enough to go home. If she rallies that’s the plan, if not, we may have to begin hospice care 😦

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. ~Albert Schweitzer


wednesday meditations

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I can sometimes sit for two hours in a room with almost no thought. Just complete stillness. Sometimes when I go for walks, there’s also complete stillness; there’s no mental labeling of sense perceptions. There’s simply a sense of awe or wonder or openness, and that’s beautiful.

Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence. ~Eckhart Tolle

fragile beauty

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When I was dealing with chronic health problems some years ago my mom once told me that she didn’t know how I did it. She said she wouldn’t have the strength or courage to do what I did, which was to go on. She has been very ill for a year now herself. This past week was particularly rough and she ended up spending twenty-four hours in the hospital. Yesterday, she said that a year ago she expected that she would be healthy by now and back her normal life. Now she is facing the reality that perhaps she will have to accept a new “normal”.

I remember struggling with the idea of acceptance and hope when I was sick. I think that when you face an illness, or most any other great challenge in your life, you need to embrace a little bit of both. You also learn that courage has nothing to do with strength or weakness, it’s really just a choice: to do the right thing, to find the blessings in the worst of times, or perhaps to simply choose to go on.

Mr. bookbabie took the photo above. It’s of a baby crane near his office that fell out of its nest is now living rather precariously in a small tree. The mother is still caring for it and we hope that it can survive until it’s big enough to make it on its own. Isn’t it beautiful?

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow. ~Mary Anne Radmacher

play ball

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I’ve been thinking about grief and stress and how people deal with life when things go very wrong and whether you can really “choose” your reaction to the curve balls that life throws you. And life will throw you curves, that’s a given for all of us eventually and one that I sometimes think we try too hard to shield our children from, especially here in 21st century America. Everybody has “stuff”, so I wonder, why do some people’s knees buckle under the weight of all that stuff, while other people seem to accept that weight, do a few push-ups, and use it to grow stronger?

It’s not the load that breaks you down – it’s the way you carry it. ~Lou Holtz

6 words to grace and back

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Elizabeth Minkel at Smith Magazine recently wrote a nice article about their 6 word memoir book and the meme I started. It’s been a blast for me to follow the meme as it rippled its way across the vastness of the blogosphere. I’ve mostly read and commented on the memes that linked directly back to my original post because it would be impossible to google and read every single blog that has played! I thought it was time to do my own random list of some of the bloggers who played the meme, so here we go…

The very first to play, Melynn: A work in progress, be patient.

Fighting Windmills: Just six, can’t I have seven?

Julia: Can I be a cynical optimist?

Seabrooke: From deep within, a quiet song.

Phil: Looking at others looking at me.

Carol: I have become mother and daughter.

Dave: A migration never limited by horizon.

BustedBabyMaker: I cried. But new smiles awaited.

Zack (the 5 word rebel): Help people. Be useful. Improve.

Adam: Being active outdoors justifies fried food.

Lisa: Searching for happiness in ordinary moments.

Lori: An imperfect soul;observing God’s fingerprints.

Brent (another rebel): A cult of multiple personalties.

Kerri: I don’t know, but I’ll try.

Stephanie: Just let me finish this chapter!

This is obviously a very short list of people who have embraced the 6 word memoir meme, however, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has played so far. I’ve traveled far and wide tracking the meme as it left its memeprint on mom blogs, birder blogs, photography and book blogs. I’ve read the blogs of those dealing with health issues, the trials and joys of home schooling children, and the trials and heartbreak of those struggling with infertility. I’ve read angry, funny, sad, and hopeful memoirs, but the one thing they all have in common is that they all offer a six word glimpse into that messy, lovely, vibrant, indomitable, grace filled thing we call the human spirit.

hummingbird dance

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A couple of days ago I was watering the clematis in the photograph above. It grows up against the house next to our front porch. I was standing out on the driveway, staring at the water from the hose as it arced up and out toward the thirsty vine when out of the corner of my eye I saw a glistening emerald green hummingbird fly up to the spray. It hovered a few inches from the water and then it flew over it and then under it and then back to center, eye level with me again and only a few feet away. It did this delightful little dance several times.

As I watched the tiny bird play in the pearly mist, I realized he had no idea I was there, he was just as mesmerized as I had been by the stream of sunlit water. Do you ever have a moment you wish would last forever? When everything is exactly as it should be and you don’t want or need anything “more”? That was one of those moments for me. Watching that delicate little bird bathe in a rainbow of sun-drenched water then sit on a tree branch next to me and fluff and preen his miniature jewel like feathers—it was the universe at its best—it was perfection.

spring wildflowers

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Every spring I can see these white wildflowers blooming in the commons behind my house. This year I walked out and photographed them so I could find out what they were. I discovered a great web site for identifying wildflowers, My Wildflowers.com where I figured out that they are Sanguinaria canadensis, commonly known as Bloodroot. Turns out they produce a rather nasty toxin called Sanguinarine, which interestingly enough the FDA has approved for use in toothpaste as an anti-plaque, antibacterial agent. Hmm, think I’ll run up to the health food store and get me some Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste.

We are all trying to stay busy around here, trying not to live completely in our heads and reliving the pain of the past week, yet leaving ourselves time to honor our sadness too. The baby was due a week before my birthday on September 7th, which this year also happens to be Grandparent’s Day. Our lovely daughter-in-law’s birthday is coming up soon and me and Mr. bookbabie decided to take the kids on a short trip, we all feel like we need to get away.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

inspire me

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I haven’t posted a generator in a while, or a Clooney pic, so here’s two for the price of one! Big Huge Labs has a fun photo generator that let’s you make motivational posters with your own photographs. It’s easy to use and you can link directly to your Flickr or Photobucket stream for fast and easy creations and saving. The quality is good enough that you may want to print them out and tack them up over your desk for inspiration. Click on either of my creations for the link and go have yourself some fun:)