Bumps along the road

I was driving down my road thinking about nothing in particular. And then I heard the voice of Dave Dobson say,

Did you ever notice that when you hit a bump on the road, you keep going? You don't stop and go back and examine the bump. You don't count all the bumps as you go down the road. You don't need to know all the details of the bump. It was just a bump and you keep going. Some people like to make their bumps bigger or more important than they really are. Or they look for someone to blame for the bumps. Or they think about all the other bumps they've experienced. And it keeps them stuck on the road, instead of recognizing that you are actually going somewhere. Now, you're going to hit a few bumps along the road; everyone does, that's just a part of being human. So, when you get on the road, it's important to remember where you're going. And you may even find that those bumps begin to lose any meaning. You might even begin to enjoy the process of becoming a better driver as you navigate those bumps, so that they really are just something along the way that happened way back there.

:-)

I made a quick trip to Richmond on Sun. p.m. to be with chiro-sister for the delivery of her baby at home, yesterday a.m. :-) 9.3 lbs. with a 15 inch head! Ruthie says it's all those fish oils she took--he has an uber-sized brain.

Mum holding grand baby #7.

Heading back down my road today . . .

So beautiful.

Waiting for the Spring Thaw.

Confederate Snowstorm 2009

Went for a walk Sunday a.m. Neighbor Dave plowed on Sat. so it was only a foot to walk thru down the road!

Down my road.

What you don't experience is the exquisite silence. Snow softens and blankets the noise.


So that when I stopped to take this picture, I could hear the creek across the river babbling.

Down my road . . .

to the river. BEAUTIFUL.

Autumn Day

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile. ~ William Cullen Bryant



This is my favourite season; the colours, the fresh apples, the crisp air... il fait frais! It's raining which we desperately need. When it's sunshiney again, I'll take a pic of my wild pear tree in the front yard. Such a show off with the colours! Back tomorrow . . . .

Day of Rest

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. ~Edward Abby

End of Summer

We are into my favourite time of year: Autumn. Crisp breeziness through glorious colours. We've had a bit of a drought and my 7 miles of gravel-and-dirt road is mostly dirt. If a truck is ahead of me I have to slow to 15 mph. Ah, but it's so pretty:

It's a dusty Christmas . . . er, shrub!

I would prolly not appreciate it as a hiker along the road, but I accept it as part of the journey out & back. I'm reminded of something John Morgan said to me in a phone convo:

I wish it was the way it isn't.

So it's dusty. It's changing seasons. I can lament or I can accept. One is closed, one is open. One is rigid, one is flexible. One rejects, one accepts. Lamenting prolongs our misery. When we have our focus on what we think should be, we miss what is right in front of us. Worse, we miss the opportunity to shift into a different awareness. Acceptance is the first step to awareness.

This is the part where Mum says I sound more and more like John's Grasshopper Notes. Perhaps. :-) Back tomorrow with some cool labyrinth projects I've been working on. In the meantime, may your day be the way it is.

Dee's Visit

My dear Reiki friend, Dee came for a weekend visit. We walked the labyrinth after we arrived:

Went for a walk and found:

Went for a longer walk . . .

to the . . .

In the gazebo of the wrap-around porch

Dee demonstrates proper T-Tapp form!

We found evidence of mice in my pantry! And determined that they were coming in under my door because the weather strip was not secured. All I needed was Dee and duct tape!

THANKS, Dee!

This mouse was on my doormat!

Cute when it's outside, vermin when it's in my house.
I'm paraphrasing Mum.

This is what we found in the pantry:

Mouse house from dust mop!

I didn't take a picture of what else we found.

The weekend was too short, and yesterday we traveled back down the road; s-l-o-w-l-y to conserve gas. I was on empty--YIKES! I've never done that before--not the place you want to run out of gas. We made it to the gas station with .45 gal to spare. YAY, us!

What a LOVEly visit! Here is our reminder to:

That's right. Stop and smell the roses!

Day of Rest: Down My Road

It's on the verge of spring. I can feel it, even tho we're in a final cold snap & had a dusting of snow. The birds are singing more to wake the trees from their slumber and all around we're waiting for the world to awaken once again.

Sometimes you'll see these cows standing in the river, drinking.

There's not a lot of colour going on, everything is muted shades of browns & grey. But the light this time of year is spectacular and it draws your attention more to all the textures going on. There's also a clarity and crispness to the air that's hard to describe.

Here's a study in negative space! And the sky was SO BLUE this day!

Final bend around my road.

I see hearts wherever I go. :-)

Seasons

My heart is heavy. The content doesn't really matter, it is more of a wishing things to be other than they are. John says in today's BRILLIANT blog post:


Accept natural endings and you’ll never endure the pain of staying at the party too long.


What good does it do to complain about the leaves changing? Time to focus on the BEAUTY of Autumn. Time to focus on gratitude. Time to look beyond myself.

Home

On the way to my postbox

I'm back in the wilderness after a month of being out in the world. When I first moved here a year ago, if I ventured out, I was exhausted and ready to be back at the end of the day. I kept waiting to have that feeling as I was traveling around. You know, when you just want to sleep in your own bed? But it didn't come. I slept better in my brother's bat cave guestroom than I had in a while.

And I loved spending time with my sibs & the nieces. I took my nieces out for dinner at their favourite place, Ukrops, a local grocery store. We all had sushi, except for Z, who's 4 years old. She had chicken. As we were eating, this was the conversation:

Z: Auntie Halimah, does chicken come from real chickens?

Me: Yes.

Z: Oh my God! Really?

At this point I was expecting her to say, Eeewwwww! But she said, Mmmmmmm....

Hahaha That's my brother's daughter. He told me that after they found the Ganesh statue I'd buried for their treasure hunt, that they would play the Bury-Ganesh-in-the-desert game and rebury him and rediscover him.

Anyway, back to the idea of home. If home is where the heart is, then where is my heart? Connected in nature...which is everywhere. Something to ponder....