May 22: I could not have asked for a more perfect day to honor my dad and indirectly, my grandmother and grandfather. I can’t help but think they are smiling down at us because finally we are in the town where my dad grew up and meeting some of my[…]
April 23: I’m a little late writing about this gratitude moment, mostly because it was difficult to write about on the day of its occurrence. Gratitude can sometimes be bittersweet. Three years ago my brother gifted me this blog so that I could write about a hobby that unbeknownest to me,[…]
April 9: We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds. ~ Anton Chekov
March 24: These vibrantly colored Gazanias are in full bloom right now. They line the walkway to my door inviting all who approach to smile. I can’t sneak by. It doesn’t matter how pre-occupied I am, the flowers just beg to be noticed. Gazanias symbolize richness. I didn’t know this when I bought them;[…]
March 13th: On this day in 2005 I was in Paris, on this day in 2009 I was in Banff, and on this day in 2013 I was in the Galapagos. For very different reasons these were three very significant trips. Two of them included my husband and another couple.[…]
February 27th: I am grateful, on the anniversary of my father’s death, for the soothing poetic words of Sarah Blondin. To my lover, my husband, my wife, my child, my dearest friend, my mentor To the stranger I pass on the street, the kind eyes who met mine, the gentle breath shared while[…]
February 26th: This is a strange time. I’m helping to plan a Celebration of Life for one of my oldest and dearest friends on the first anniversary of my father’s death and while my husband recuperates from surgery to repair a severed tendon in his hand. I’m wrapping up a year[…]
February 10th: Today I am grateful for the thoughtfulness of my sister-in-law. Yesterday, out of the blue, she sent photos and a nice email regarding an Apple tree that we had planted in her yard last October. Two trees were actually planted, one in honor of my Dad and one[…]
January 30th: One year ago my husband and I took my Dad and stepmother to McDonald’s. In my world this was a significant event. Dad’s broken hip, followed by an unsuccessful pin and a desire to faithfully research options resulted in 7 months of extremely limited mobility and a desire not[…]
January 24th: Today I am grateful for cameras and my love of photography. My memory has never been first-rate. It’s a frustrating trait, a trait I attribute to multi-tasking and difficulty living in the present moment, a trait that prevents me from being a viable Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy contender. There[…]
January 19th: This morning I visited a gravesite that I have not been to in 41 years, a gravesite of a dear friend that I lost when we were both teenagers. I was there to visit his mother, Bobbie. Bobbie extended a hand of friendship to me, a teenage girl, at a[…]
Dear Friend, One last note before I put my computer away for the weekend. Our recent conversation about saying goodbye to loved ones brought to mind the person I referenced in my recent blog post, the one about the love of letter writing. The friend who I exchanged 100’s of[…]
I’m mourning the loss of 7 chrysalises due to a predator previously unknown to me. My tendency is to photograph and write only about the wonders of the butterfly’s development because it’s the beauty of change that inspires me. But this morning as I gathered the infected chrysalises in a bag I realized that[…]
A friend of mine lost his battle with cancer this week. The day he passed a female butterfly arrived in my atrium laying eggs on my recently regenerated Milkweed plants. The butterflies have symbolized life and death from the beginning. Not just within their own life cycle but also in relationship[…]