Good morning dear friends

It is another bitterly cold day here and I am so grateful that, as I type this, I can feel the warmth of our home’s baseboard heat on my toes. Grateful too for the flannel pajamas and thick wool socks I am wearing and that my husband is making a fire for us in our kitchen’s wood burning stove. I will join him now to sit at the table to do the Sunday crossword puzzle. This is one of my “happys”..to sit by the fire, with a cup of coffee, music playing, content to be doing nothing else on this cold and blustery winter morning.

~Grateful for hygge sensibilites! Sending warmth and coziness to you all, with love.

An Ode to Green (making this up as I go!)

Dear green….how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love all that you represent:

.Chlor0phyll residing in the leaves.
Gives us oxygen to breathe.

O evergreen tree, the holidays are near.
Your lovely scent fills our home with Christmas cheer.

Farmland and fields where the horses graze
Their beauty brings joy to my days.

Going Green is the way to live!
A gift to our planet….oh humans won’t you give?
Earth needs your loving care
Be mindful, be aware!

O green of every hue
Nature’s given this gift to me…..and you.

Hope….such a powerful word. I actually gave my youngest daughter the middle name of Hope because we literally hoped and prayed her into this world. I remember when, unexpectedly pregnant with her at 39 years old….on my way to the hospital because I was developing complications…my then 9 year old older daughter ran to the car and put something in my hand that she had made in Sunday school. It was a little plastic word “hope” that she had painted in bright colors. I kept that next to me during my subsequent 2 months in the hospital and….22 years later it is still next to me on my nightstand. So this word holds so much meaning for me.

Today, what makes me hopeful is the assurance that I am not alone on my journey. I am hopeful that each day is a new beginning and, since I am still here, I am hopeful that growth is taking place…even when I can’t see or feel it. God is so not done with me yet!

Dear Sylvie…thank you for sharing this lovely painting. How wonderful that it is hanging in an office building! The people who work there are blessed to be greeted with this image as they start their workday! I think that we here in the U.S. have much to learn from our Italian/European friends.
My heart’s desire for years has been to visit Italy where my dear Nana was born. She was from Bedoinia in Parma, Northern Italy. I have great grandparents that were born in France and in Switzerland. Sadly, I have never been to Europe and I pray I make it there before I get too much older! But…..I am learning that God has His own timing and things happen when/how they are supposed to for our highest good. I am choosing to believe that He will bring me there at just the right time.

~Blessings for a new year filled with joy and hope Sylvie.

Dear Pilgrim….it was a blessing to share the poetry e-course with you and Anna. And I feel your loving presence here in this sacred space even when you do not post. I hope that your medical situation resolves itself and that you are feeling well and strong. How lovely to have had a visit from your daughter and her partner…it’s always a special blessings to have our loved ones near during the holiday season.

~I’m wishing you much peace in your own life and join you in wishing peace in our world for 2018.

Dear Aine….I am with you my friend. Not there yet….but learning!

Thank you for your kind suggestion for my husband’s miserable cold. He spent the night on the living room couch again last night because he didn’t want to keep me awake with his coughing. Like you, I am eternally grateful for my husband…we are coming up on 39 years married! As you shared, it has sometimes been a “broken road” but we are, by the grace of God, still traveling this road together.

I wish you did live close enough to run over your blackberry cordial! I’ve often imagined how wonderful and miraculous it would be if the souls in this beautiful community could be physically together! Perhaps in our next life. 🙂

So grateful for you Aine. I am praying for your pain to alleviate….I understand how exhausting and discouraging it can be. I so admire and am inspired by your open heart and your resilience and determination to live a grateful life no matter the circumstances.

~Wishing you a peace-filled hygge day and lots of doggie love!

Kathleen….reading what you have shared I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Mother Teresa. She said: “We cannot all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love”. I try to remember this in my life when I am feeling overwhelmed with the enormity of pain and suffering in this world and tempted to think that I can’t possibly make a difference.
Anything that you do that comes from a place of love and compassion in your heart will always be a blessing…sometimes in ways that we may never see or know.

~Thank you for bringing your own unique light into the world.

Trevor….I can’t thank you enough for your words. They resonate strongly with me. While I am grateful beyond measure for the gift of my “five senses” I also have the desire to “fine tune” what the author has referred to as the “senses of our souls”. These are the senses that, it seems to me, bring an extra dimension of richness and quality to our lives. but we need both an awareness that they are inherent within us and also a conscious effort to embrace and nurture them….they don’t necessarily come naturally like our other senses.. I don’t know if I’m articulating exactly what I mean but just writing this has inspired me to be more mindful of my soul senses.
Thank you for that Trevor.
~Blessings