In the Quiet

In the quiet of the evening 

it is possible to conjure up 

all manner of 

troubles and worries 

just as 

it is possible to conjure up 

all manner of blessings and joys

To choose which of these is good, 

is seldom difficult 

when we set such a choice in front of us.

“I was quiet, but I was not blind.”

~ Jane Austen,  Mansfield Park

Merry Christmas to all………….

 …..and to all a good night!!

From a Distance

From a distance of today 

I see my past, 

a long dark tunnel 

with twists and turns,

bright spots and dark corners. 

To drift along that corridor without holding today’s confidence can be dangerous, too easy to slip 

into dark corners that beckon. 

are the bright spots figments of my imagination? 

I remember that naive girl, 

who still lives inside me….. 

In the sunlight of today, I count my blessings, and am grateful.

“Maybe, I thought, it’s not distance 

that’s the problem, but how you handle it.”

~ Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares

Stillness ~ 2

Eyes opened to 

blessings of stillness

from an uninvited

expanse of time.

“Among my stillness was a pounding heart.”

~ Shannon A. Thompson, Seconds Before Sunrise

Thriving Thistles

Heat tolerant and tough,        

     decorative thistles 

       await a display 

of pretty purple blossoms

“May your blessings outnumber 

the thistles that grow and 

trouble avoid you wherever you go.

~ Irish Blessing

A Turning

Over the vast prairies

Sunshine lights up the land

I turn my face up to its grace.

Over granite mountains

Sunshine sketches sharp relief

I turn my face toward its artistry

Over sparking waters

Sunshine outlines each wave

I turn my face toward its brilliance.

Over land, mountain or waters

Sunshine, always a welcome blessing,

brings warmth to my heart and my soul.

“Ô, sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.”

~ Roman Payne

A Vintage Story ~ Keeping the Books

We all know that our lives are blessed with instant electronic

communications. Well, not always a complete blessing with the rain of less than subtle requests to let go of our hard earned dollars! Today, while reviewing writing exercises that I had done in August of 2007, I came upon a very interesting bit of history - recent, I know, but in the electronic world 12 years is considered vintage! The exercise? Write a story of the person keeping business accounts for one week. This story also uses a couple of terms that could be considered as vintage as my 10 year old laptop! Makes yesterday’s blog about reducing and reusing seem almost futuristic? Here is:  Keeping the Books.

Keeping the Books 

The week’s worth of invoices and neatly clipped piles of cash register receipts sat patiently on the boss’s desk. I stared back at them. I was the boss. The first week of my business opening had been full of the excitement of accomplishment that comes with the realization of a dream. My sister had been there and had done all of the keeping of accounts while I was still whirling in the reality of customers investors and advertising. Now she had returned to her own small business and although she had set up my accounting system and given me many contact phone numbers including reminding me of my accountant’s phone number. I felt paralyzed. Part of my paralysis was exhaustion from the incredibly long hours with very little sleep. The other part was a realization of the responsibility I had taken on. I picked up the first invoice just so I could connect with just one piece of paper. It was plastic bags - one thousand of them. I wrote it down faithfully in the ledger. Those clear plastic bags were for the loaves of bread that came from my bakery. The next invoice was for a similar amount of brown paper bags, also for the golden crusty bread that we slid off of the baker’s trays to cool on the shelves. ‘Here’s an invoice for the shelves. I thought that one was paid for? Oh, no that was an earlier one.’ We had added more only after that first week when we realized more storage space was needed in the pantry. ‘Enter it in the ledger. Write a cheque. Put the cheque in an envelope with the receipt. Address it. Stamp it. Put a return address on it. File in the out-basket.’ The first three or four invoices were slow and filled with hesitation. Each one was a reminder of the costs of my dream. The very reality of my dream: a kitchen of my my own that I could share with the neighbourhood. As I paid out the bills with cheques, I felt once again the building of this dream, piece by piece, in the very boards and nails, paint and shingles, ovens and flour, milk and eggs. Each one attached to both dream and reality. When that stack of invoices was complete, I moved to the cash register receipts. A little wavering question mark, wearing a sinister smile, danced in the back of my head. “You won’t make enough money to cover all those bills you just paid. Ha!Ha! You won’t be able to keep this dream alive. Ha!Ha! You’ll have to go back to your pathetic little life working for someone else. Ha!!” ‘Shut up and go away!’ I yelled out loud hoping no one could hear. I was alone in my little bakery - I hoped. It was well past closing time. I picked up the first clip of receipts, balanced them and entered them in the ledger. Bread - sold. My soups - sold. The pies and cakes - sold. Slowly, slowly the amount grew. This part of it seemed heavier than the paying out of money. As the total grew, the heaviness slipped away as I saw the totals beginning to become level with each other. It was a new business, so I didn’t expect it to make money immediately. Although disappointed that the cash flow did remain on the negative side, once all the receipts and invoices were tucked away in envelopes and files, a final walk through the bakery, smelling it’s newness and the drift of bready, yeasty aromas, I was gratified.  Any questions in my soul were settled.

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

~ L.P.Hartley, The Go-Between

All the Things

December, 2007  - Journal

If all the things I count as baggage had not happened when they did ~

if they had not happened with

such force and terror 

would I have paid attention to

my life? Would I have learned

the things I’ve learned, 

the ways I erred ~

to lose myself 

and to find myself ~ 

A journey interesting and long.

May, 2019 - Perspective

If all the things I count as blessings

had not happened when they did

if they had not happened with

such surprise, gratitude and joy

would I have paid attention to

My life? Would I have learned

the things I’ve learned, 

to change the ways I’ve lived

to find parts of myself that

I thought were lost or never there?

Short or long ~ that journey is fascinating!

“You can add up your blessings or add up your troubles. 

Either way, you’ll find you have an abundance.”

~ Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway

A Blessing

This is the best I could do after a long week's work!

Unique

we are

each of us

inside and out

from tastebuds

to our toes

from our feet

to our nose

a special ingredient

nourishing our loved ones

blessing the world with peace.

“The only one youer than you is you.”

~ Dr. Seuss

In From the Cold

Lights bathe the room in steady glow

from baseboards, 

heat warms and comforts

windy rain or driving snow, 

walls, doors and windows protect

roof seals in shelter, light and warmth

ticky tacky boxes, grand mansions 

or homes stacked to the sky

confident in our infrastructure or……

taking our blessings for granted…….or both?

“It’s not a bad idea to occasionally spend a little time 

thinking about things you take for granted. 

Plain everyday things.”

~ Evan Davis

Reality as a Blessing

Reality as a Blessing

The fire burned low in the hearth. Darkness had long since settled all around. Crunching snow under my boots, now lay dripping wet at the door, and was all but a memory. Dregs of hot chocolate lay damp in my Christmas mug, the last sweet taste of a quiet day in our little log cabin. Reality, the long sought after and much abused worklife, would return in the morning. Details of the world built with our own heads, hands and hearts would continue to furnish our family’s needs, many 'wants' and many things to share with others.

But tomorrow was not yet here and my pillow called. My old dog, Andy, was already curled up on the braided rug by my bed. My wife and children ‘all snug in their beds’ had eaten more sugar plums than their tummies really wanted. Putting my book away, letting the fire die out and checking that doors and windows were closed and locked, I climbed the stairs up to bed.

“Sometimes we focus so much on what we don’t have

that we fail to see, appreciate, and use what we do have!”

~ Jeff Dixon

Walking in Ross Bay Cemetery in Two Short Chapters

Walking in Ross Bay Cemetery in Two Short Chapters

Chapter I

Dimming Victoria sunshine strewn

beneath spreading boughs and gray skies.

Damp, softened furrows of red and golden orange

roll and stretch down winding paths

single splashes of damp sunshine

lie lightly on granite markers and monuments

blessing those that have gone before.

Chapter II

It is still 

save for an antlered young buck 

picking his way quietly between granite marked graves.

Testing and tasting he wanders

until at last a low hanging branch

offers a late fall snack.

Reaching with soft snout

he stretches 

to nibble from the tip 

of the life offering branch.

"A healthful hunger for a great idea

is the beauty and blessedness of life."

- Jean Ingelow

After the busyness...

...of a welcome and challenging

work day, it is time to rest

where sea and sky

like each human cell

blend colour and shape.

Each of us but a speck

on the horizon float 

at the mercy of movement

  ~ calm or wild.

Tonight all is calm.

For that I am grateful

Another day seizure free is a blessing.

“What is without periods 

of rest will not endure.”

 ~  Ovid