Relax Again

Relax You're At The Lake

“the more relaxed you are,

the better you are at everything –

the better you are with your loved ones,

the better you are with your enemies,

the better you are at your job,

the better you are with yourself”

…..Bill Murray

 

I find the world today so….busy. I shouldn’t, I am retired. I can sign myself out of newscasts and social media but it seems that everyone around me is stressed…..and in a hurry. I live at a lake, calm, beautiful and serene. Every morning you can hear the loons, the geese, the ducks and the coyotes across the lake.

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When you drive the 26km from the lake to town you can see, deer, moose, bear, eagle , hawk, owl, wild horses, ranches, quails, kamikazes chipmunks, free range cattle, mountain vistas and lakes. Why are you in a hurry? Go slow so you don’t miss:

If you watch closely they all of a sudden pop out of a cattle guard, on their way to the lake, and not in any hurry. They even wait for the last duckling.

 

 

Or this:

 

Why Blog, Why Read Blogs, Why Comment On Blogs

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I swear that it’s been raining for 40 days and nights. You can sail a toy ark down the rivers in my driveway. A perfect day to be inside, catching up on online reading and writing. As I start to read the backlog in my WordPress Reader I got to thinking who we read, why we read, why we write and why we comment.

I am not a consistent blogger. Kind  of hit and miss. My blog has no real theme, I am all over the place. Sort of buttered all over the universe. I think sometimes I will get serious, but not today.

I read a very eclectic group of bloggers. Not too many; about 42 on WordPress and about 8 on my e-mail feed.  I have gathered them over the years either by reading something they wrote but mostly because they have stopped by my blog. Some I try to read every day that they post. One blogger is writing about caretaking for her aged mother. This one I don’t want to miss. I love her writing and I feel her suffering because I have done something similar in my life. I occasionally comment an encouraging word but don’t get into much dialogue. Another is a mindfulness blogger from Ireland. You can’t comment or like his blog in the reader. You actually have to open it up on the net to do that. I feel bad because I would “like” his posts every day but in the reader you just keep going. The other two are Seth Godin and Maria Popov. I get both in my e-mail feed and I read religiously every day. I don’t comment or like them either, I just read and enjoy.

I have a blogger who also follows me. When he started following he went back and started reading any and all my posts that interested him. It was amazing. I had to go back and read them again as well. It was pretty cool because I had even forgotten what  I have  written. Some of it was pretty good. I love his blog as well but he hasn’t written anything for over a month. I know he was going on a cruise but still you can’t cruise to Alaska for over a month. It made me think, who is this man, where did he go. It is easy to develop relationships with them in your mind.

I am sure the blog about fly fishing in Ireland wonders why this woman from the wilds of Canada  is following him. The truth is I am an avid fly-fisher, who ties her own flies.  (I never blog about it)

Another blogger has wonderfully a “curated” blog. Not like Brain Pickings but he has themes, daily interests, likes to read and quotes the books he is reading. The best part though is his own writing. These are the posts I love. He is a closet writer with at least five books  inside him. I can hardly wait till he comes out. I comment occasionally. There was one post he wrote about a conversation/encounter with his daughter. The writing and the perspective I thought were very funny but it came to a terrible ending of patriarchy/chauvinism almost misogyny. I wanted to comment with a BIG “Bad” but I didn’t know if he was just writing for effect or that’s the way it happened. it really made me think about  his character. And my lack of courage to voice an opinion.

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You see blogs are like that; especially for all us casual and light bloggers and readers. We get a little window into another’s world, thoughts, feelings, life. It brings out  our emotions, gives us a place to see a different point of view, a like point of view (hey, they are in my tribe), some humour, some beautiful pictures,  and a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Thanks to all my blogger friends.  We will probably never meet but I enjoy you in my life.

 

What Are The Answers? What Will You Do?

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.
………..Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
I don’t know how you feel after this last week? Questions? No answers? I love this quote because it puts us in charge, and in reality, we are in charge, we have to stop abdicating our responsibility.
What do you intend to do? Push for change or sit back?
Try this for an example:

27875407380_4048945369_oClick on the picture. It will take you to OnBeing and Courtney Martin’s blog post.

8 steps to happy laundering — Karen Maezen Miller’s Cheerio Road

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This is one of my favourite bloggers. She seldom posts but when she does it is so worth reading. For me she has turned the daily making of the bed into a meditation!

You might think I’m using a metaphor when I say that my spiritual practice is doing the laundry. Metaphor or not, laundry is the practice of seeing things as they are. Take a look at how to go from the hamper to happiness in eight steps. Empty the hamper – Laundry gives us an honest…

via 8 steps to happy laundering — Karen Maezen Miller’s Cheerio Road

More Littles

“There is a trend at Bernecho. Add more, have more fun. We acquired new chickens this week. We have a bad habit of taking things “sight unseen”.  Thought they would be older. Not little terrorists!

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We call everything that is a baby “a little” Well the morning after they arrived I was up at 5:00 am trying to catch them in the large front yard. Got through the fence. Back to re-fencing for two tiny chickens. But God they are cute. We have named them Muppet and Goldie. Muppet because she is a Frizzle and looks like Animal on the Muppets. Goldie because she is a gold Wyandotte as opposed to Lacey and Ŧilly our silver Wyandotte from last year. We also added two nondescript brown chickens who look like our Betty so we named then VeRONNIEica and Midge.

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So much fun, and fresh, organic,  free range (not vegetarian) eggs. Why would anyone want vegetarian eggs? The best chicken food is barnyard scratch: bugs and worms, YUM

 

It Is Never To Late

To brush up on your family of origin.

Family of Origin

Family of Origin

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16-30-63 Passion

For anyone who has read my blog for a short time knows I am passionate about human-animal relationships and nature. This passion has been life long. No more than my relationship with horses.

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no fear…no helmet..no boots

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No fear…introduce your baby to horse

 

 

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jenny-sleepHelmet, boots, and a trainer

Buy a horse that scares you! An alpha mare, you have much to learn and love! Be passionate.

Summer Is Here

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Summer solstice and a full moon, our weather should change tonight. It has been so cold and wet. What better way to celebrate the first day of summer than with Mary Oliver, A Summer Day. YES, what will you do?

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Thoughts On Fathers

Any man can be a father, it takes a special gift to be a dad. “On the beach at night, Stands a child with her  father, Watching the east, the autumn sky. Up through the darkness, While r…

Source: Thoughts On Fathers

Go Ahead

Give yourself permission to feel emotion, get curious about it, pay attention to it, and practice. This work takes practice. Awkward, uncomfortable practice.

….    Brene Brown, Rising Strong

Go ahead, give yourself permission.

Kick back, lay on the grass…heck why not roll in it. RELAX. Forget your responsibilities for a few minutes.  Eat that ice cream cone!