Tag Archives: gratitude

Begat ~ Advent Sunday

Onadvent

Only my kids will get the meaning of this.  It is the first advent Sunday. We would have a special dinner and light the first advent candle. We always read from a special book for Advent. It was an Anglican book actually but don’t tell them. We always made Cowboy/Papa/”Walt” read the first Sunday. The reading talked about the lineage of Jesus; it was full of who begat who and how they ended up going to Bethlehem, the city of David.

This year’s first advent Sunday falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Unknown events when my kids were growing up.  In those days Boxing Day sales had just started. But, somehow Boxing Day sales begat Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It has become a pilgrimage to shopping or should I say consumerism. A quest to find happiness in things and saving a lot of money by spending money we don’t have.

My nostalgia for the days gone by and the condition of the universe today makes me hope that gratitude can prevail and that somehow we can all encounter everyday epiphanies, and find blessings in the abundance  we already have.

Gratitude

 

gratitude

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, more will be asked.

……Luke 12:48

“My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure”

……Oliver Sacks

A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other people, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the full measure I have received and am still receiving

….Albert Einstein

All Will Be Well

hunter-moomAll shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well….for there is a Force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go.

 

….Julian of Norwich

 

I took this picture of the full moon last night. To me, it looked like the eye of creator watching over us through the dark storm clouds. It felt peaceful. Thanks to Gratefulness for the quote.

Happy Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving

grateful

Wild Turkey

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Hey! Are You Looking At Me?

Black Bear

I have been feeling guilty. It has been over a month since I have written a blog post. I have thought of many things to write. The thoughts haven’t made it to the desk to compose themselves. What have I been doing? Were people judging me for being lapse or lazy. Really? In the big scheme of things I think that everyone has enough on their own plate.

Mostly I have been looking at my world around me and revelling in my fortuitousness!! This is what I have been looking at and what has been looking back at me!

Our little friend “Baer”. He is a cub from last spring or so and has taken up residence in our back property. The buffet here is great when you are getting ready for a big sleep..

black bear yearling

“Diana”, a mom with two fawns has also taken up residence in our back yard.

deer doe

deer doe

 

 

The new additions to our front yard have been growing in leaps and bounds.

The Nigerian Dwarf goats Mocha and Latte have now grown big enough to run and forage in the big fields. Don’t you love their turquoise eyes?

 

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The baby chicks that came home at two-day’s old  in June are now safely ensconced in the barn, with nesting boxes and a big run with access to a chicken run outside with a door that gives them the barn yard to run free. We are lucky because out of the six chicks, we only acquired one rooster. He is a Black Copper Maran and his name is Satchmo. The girls are Mukluk, a Cochin, Lavender and Flower, Orpingtons, Brown Betty a Breda and Mumbo a Maran hen. They are all addicted to watermelon. The brown stain on Mukluk’s breast is watermelon juice!

Satchmo

Let’s not forget Scarlet, our ringneck pheasant. I had to clip her wings: harder on me than on her, I cried.

ringneck pheasant

I haven’t been the only one looking either. Grommet is very attached to his girls.

bernese mountain dog and goatnigerian dwarf goat

I have been looking at bees and butterflies. All the work I put into building a garden for them really paid off this year.

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I have been admiring our new garage. What a handy man my husband is, right down to the hand-built sliding barn door with a deer antler handle!

Can’t you just picture my new horse with his head peeking out the top of the Dutch door next year?

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We have been busy!]

It’s September 1st  and the first hint of fall is in the morning chill. I have had an amazing summer creating Mimi’s little farm. I only have gratitude, not guilt.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wild Turkey“Thankful for vegetarians!”

                                                  Tom.

Freshet and Flieder

waterfall-pinantanSome people are celebrating the beginning of summer, others the full “berry” moon, many are suffering the devastation of floods and fires.

I am happy just to have a full on spring. We had one hot week in May and I spent the whole week planting, mowing and enjoying my garden. It has rained almost every day since then and the weather has been cool. The grasslands are still green and lush. Spring run off is still flowing and the rivers are high. Freshet is beautiful this year. Ten years ago we were not so lucky. The hills burned in August with a devastating fire,  that the wind kept moving. Evacuation due to natural disaster  is a face to face with attachment and letting go.

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Today I am just grateful to have flowers in bloom to pick and bring into the house.

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Compassion for those not able to be in their home right now.

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My Driveway and Patience

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It’s been a long day. A full day of work and a Food Policy council meeting after work. I love being on the council; food is what I do. I can’t feed the world’s hungry but I can make sure that no one in my community goes hungry. I believe in sustainable, 100 mile diet, local, non GMO, organic, free range , grass-fed and all the good things. I love food and cooking, I love to try new things and tastes. I read this blog post today and it really resonated with me. I concur that I am not a “foodie” either.

When I am tired,  my drive home, my 25 km driveway usually brings me back to the present. I am so grateful to have the time  and the view from my windshield. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t see some form of wildlife, farm life or nature that delights me. It is so easy to become habituated to our surroundings. Living on auto-pilot, lost in our minds.

See what I see on  my driveway and everything becomes connected.

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“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

Emerson

Dust Bunnies ~Dog’s Tails ~Impermanence

“We change, whether we like it or not”

I live in a dust bowl in the grasslands of British Columbia. Dust is everywhere. It doesn’t help that I live with a menagerie of dogs, cats and a bird. There is no getting away without dust, dust bunnies created from hair, feathers, seeds and dander, flying everywhere. It is a constant challenge to stay on top of it.

I was sitting at the kitchen table reading, something I love to do but  gets pushed to the side by other life commitments, when I noticed huge dust bunnies and sand swirling around the table leg. It was annoying, not because it caught me off guard but it was a reminder that I was lacking in the cleaning department. I went back at my book and kept reading. When I glanced  down again, the dust bunnies and sand had moved on. They had moved to the other side of the room with the swoop of a dog’s tail. In a matter of minutes everything had changed; the dust bunnies and sand as well as my feelings of guilt.

I have a difficult time with the concept of impermanence. I know that it’s the nature of things to come together and move apart but I keep looking for solid references of an unchanging world or even an unchanging self.

I tend to suffer doubt when it comes to impermanence. I know that I am not the “queen” of my domain, so I suffer anxiety because I want to organize my life around an “enduring self” in a concrete world, even though it is only ideas and forms coming in and out. and that’s the truth. Nothing is permanent. If it was there would be no birth or death, no need to eat, no feelings.

Through meditation and contemplation I am beginning  to see the interdependence of phenomena (the dog’s tail), I am beginning to see the selfless nature of everything. It certainly helps to calm anxiety and “monkey brain” I have no need to control thoughts, emotions, relationships and events. My actions change and my priorities become more focussed. I am not fixated. I develop an appreciation for what I have and I can relax.

Gratitude  for dogs tails.

Beginnings

 

It’s all about the dance.

I am a large woman who finally lives in a tiny house. I do not take advice from throw cushions or coffee cups. I am dedicated to learning and expanding with the univers. I am an solid introvert verified by Meyer Briggs and an Enneagram 9. I like to follow St. Francis, through Father Richard Rohr, I also love me some Ignatians like Father James Martin, Benedictines like Sister Joan  and with the benefit of Thomas Merton I can love  Buddha, Gaia and native spirituality.  I want to leave this part of the journey with a small environmental footprint and an ever-expanding and colourful aura. There have and  will be  many lessons along the way. I am here to learn and share. If I can be  light on the path, especially for my grandchildren I will be very happy to move on the journey.

I try every day to create beauty around me and to share the beauty I see around me. I am dedicated to encouraging gratitude and forgiveness in all things. I am crazy about nature, wildlife, and the natural world. I love my dogs , horses, cats and canary.  I dedicate this blog to my grand children especially Gigi, Stella and Charlotte in hope that my life will encourage them to be all that they  can be.

I am an artist who needs to show the beauty of all creation through art, music, writing, nature and photography.

My thoughts occur randomly and that’s how I will write.  I do know that sense will be made of them.