The Merry Season

How do lift yourself in the dark as the days grow shorter? Like many, the celebrations of the season keep me happy and busy. After Thanksgiving cards were hand-made and sent out, now it is Christmas cards, even purchasing an inexpensive paper cutter to cut all the new cardstock so shiny and glittery.

Though the huge fake tree had been taken down to half size it was still too heavy to carry up from the basement so this new on folds down fitting into a shirt sized box weighing less than a pound. Adding some copper string fairy lights, and voila!

Each day the sleep issues challenge me, but it isn’t really that, more so the decades of repressed trauma and what it has done to all my body systems. Everyone has struggles and this one is mine. Manage not cure. And in that acceptance comes a more joyful view of my world.

Let the Inner Child Play

Making cards has become a favored past-time. Now that Thanksgiving is completed, it’s on to Christmas. The kid in me enjoys it thoroughly, and the grand-kids too when they delight in opening them.

Though it has taken a month and half, walking the meadow is done now without feeling woozy, along with my sense of smell, now able to soak in that woodsy aroma as my feet kick up fallen leaves and crunch nuts beneath my boots.

SELF-CARE

Walking the meadow, the question rose, ‘Do you want to feel better?’ The solution is doing things that lead to that and paramount is self-care.

Taking the day at a slow pace after a difficult week, feelings improved, though the battle over negative thoughts is managed not won.

PHOTO BY PATRICIA

BOREDOM or PEACE?

BLACKBERRY-PINEAPPLE from home-grown berries…

If all that is accomplished today is to breathe, that is OK. But some things are done despite the rainy day. Walking during the lulls, time under full spectrum lighting, meditation, and BAKING!

A quiet day causing restlessness, then a whisper of knowledge floating up from the wise place; it’s OK to go slow, to just be, and it does not mean boredom, it means peace wrapped with gratitude.

My anxious filled life is used to just that, anxiousness, moving beyond the moment. Now the moments come one by one and are cherished.  

THE FRUITS OF FALL

Rather than deny the coming of fall, complaining, it is welcomed by bringing up fall décor, this year keeping it simple by placing my fat plumped hand-made cloth pumpkins atop the existing cloth rather than changing that too.

It looks pretty just as it is, and the simplicity of it is doable. Already my drop in mood is noticed plummeting like a barrel of rocks. Walking helped repair my mood, the activity enervating with a sheen of sweat satisfying my need to be productive.

Standing all morning over my sieve letting the blackberry puree deseed, my feet began to throb from the standing.

“I’m not doing this again!”, adding, “All this work for so little?”

Samuel just nods and makes a noise, as usual, but at least that’s something. The purple puree from the blackberries is exotically scented filling up the house with it, and next year it could happen again, the picking, the torn skin from the brutal thorns, the tiny ones burying deep in my skin requiring soaking, antibiotic cream and band aids.

Oh, but the pie to come! The cake filling, the blackberry frosting, all kept frozen till a special day comes for celebration. And other fun things; pumpkins, squash, and making applesauce.

Moments are to be cherished even while my mood drops. Do the activities that lesson its effect; continue with full spectrum lighting, exercise, and meditation. Do the work to care my body and spirit.

TITILLATING TUESDAY

From green Sycamore leaves to copper filagree. Thank you beetles…

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MONDAY MIRACLE

Nearby a tiny weaver at work too!

PEACEFUL BEAUTY

The morning opens invitingly causing an urge to capture its beauty.

SUMMER GOLD

MY SECRET GARDEN– photos by Patricia

And so, the summer slips away as little signs show its passing, the sun moving southward each night setting a little further over. My arms want to grasp the birds, don’t leave, don’t leave, don’t leave. But soon, and not as far away as most might think, they will be leaving, my friends, my morning orchestra.

Yet each day is taken as gold, and used as fully as possible depending on the quality of sleep the night before. Yet even then, the belief is driven home that the day can be turned around and made a diamond too.

A hot morning digging dirt, saving the many tiny bulbs to replant later, hours of digging merrily then splashing in the pool to flush away dirt, sweat, and heat, then back to more digging.

My tiny garden so easily filled with weeds is beginning to take shape. Hard to weed if one cannot bend over to pull them due to arthritis then days of aching afterwards.

So, grass thrives in my little garden until my spirit kicks in and says, NO MORE! And it’s not work, it’s magic. Laying there beside the work zone on my side, the ache never comes, just a good night’s sleep and beauty the next morn.

THE GARDENS

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