Sunday Morning Reflections

Gratitude ~ I have so much to be grateful for. My cancer year is over; even though I tire easily, my health is good now; I'm working on being able to tolerate my medicine and feel sort of proud to have persevered.

My neighbors are wonderful. Yesterday, Joyce graded my roads. I went to see her just to say hello, and before I knew it, she attached the grader to the rhino and took off. 

She did such a good job and looked like she had a lot of fun. 

And I went on Amazon and entered - Bed & Body Works and ordered their Signature Collection Cucumber Melon Gift Set.

I hope Joyce will enjoy it. 

I'm grateful for my friends of so many years, around the world and here in the canyon. 

And all of you, my friends on the blogs. 

And I'm forever grateful for Faith, all 67 pounds of her. Yes, she went to the vet and got weighed. 

Faith: Mommy, please don't discuss my weight on the blog!

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

Reflections of the setting sun on the hill outside my bedroom window.

I have been reading Mary Oliver's poems recently and I'm glad to have discovered this American poet I didn't know about earlier.  

Nature walks sustained her. Her nature poems sustain me and remind me it's time to get up and take my morning walk with Faith. 

The Summer Day may be one of her most read poems, with one of the best endings ever: 

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life."

~ Mary Oliver

Sunday Morning Reflections

 Photo by Vince or Jane

As I write this post, I'm reflecting on why I'm not blogging on a regular basis right now. 

A lot of it has to do with the fact that I can't get photos from my phone camera to my Chromebook. 

This happened at the first of the year and I have no idea why. I also haven't taken an interest in finding out why and how I can get it fixed. 

Posting photos that I just took to my blog was such a big part of my blogging experience and of course I know I should have fixed it, but things happen, things get delayed and so on. 

And maybe a lot of my energy went to healing and feeling better. Not something you think about when it happens, but looking back I think that also was a big part of it. 

Now I hope to slowly come back to blogging. 

I would also like to have another blog, even though I've been warned it may be too much. 

Right now I see another blog as a place where I can post stories, memories, essays, just anything I may want to write about. 

We'll see...

Sunday Morning Reflections

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

"It does not matter how slowly you go

as long as you do not stop."

~ Confucius 

Sunday Morning Reflections

 "Emotional well-being is more than the absence of mental illness. It's that resource within each of us which allows us to reach ever closer to our full potential, and which also enables us to be resilient in the face of adversity."

~ Vivek Murthy

 

Sunday Morning Reflections

Sharing a winter picture Errol took many years ago of our dog Princess in a snowy landscape. 

Sunday Morning Reflections

 On Kindness

Here I am, home after my surgery back in November and still loopy from the drugs. Kindness comes in the form of the wrap that Jeanne crocheted for me. It's huge and warm, I use it as a robe now on cold mornings. One of many large and small acts of kindness from Jeanne.

 

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

On a Sunday morning, I'm sharing reflections of the setting sun.

Have a great week. 

Faith says: Catch many balls, walk a lot, and enjoy your lives. 

Sunday Morning Reflections

I have no words to go with this sky. 

Sunday Morning Reflections

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I'm thinking of the importance of early detection.

I was recently diagnosed with this cancer, which I also had 23 years ago.

Both times the cancer was detected early.

How? 

Through my annual mammogram.  

Please get one if yours is overdue.

Here Faith chews on a pink nylabone that I got for her in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Have a nice Sunday!

Sunday Morning Reflections

  

                         By: Jane B.

Jane sent this picture she or Vince took while they visited Torrey Pines Natural Reserve Park in San Diego. 

I loved to hike around there when I lived in San Diego, it's a truly beautiful place along the Pacific coast. Above it too with spectacular ocean views. 

The hawk inspires me to gather my strength for my upcoming surgery. It looks so peaceful there too, doesn't it? 

I love the sun warming its chest. 

Thank you Jane and Vince, my blog always gets better with your contributions. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, I will think of Errol today on his birthday. He would have been 76. 

I'm glad I had the hawk to post on his birthday, he would have liked it a lot.

Sunday Morning Reflections

Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where.

Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and the stars.

This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.

~ John Muir

Sunday Morning Reflections ~ Remembering

Thinking back on September 11, 2001, a day no one who was alive then will ever forget, instead of thinking about how it changed our lives forever, today I just want to remember those who lost their lives or suffered injuries. I will think of their families, the children who lost a parent, the wives and husbands who lost a life partner, parents who lost a child. 

Looking back, it all seems so long ago, yet so present, still. 

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee:

because he trusteth in thee.

Isaiah 26:3

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:

The Lord make his face shine upon thee,

and be gracious unto thee:

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, 

and give thee peace. 

Numbers 6:24-26

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

I saw two clouds at morning, 

Ting'd with the rising sun;

And in the dawn they floated on,

And mingled into one...

John G. C. Brainard, "Epithalamium,"

Occasional Pieces of Poetry, 1825

Sunday Morning Reflections ~ Drought

 

I've been thinking about this drought, about all the animals that have disappeared. Today, I saw a single California quail in my front yard. In years past, this time of the year, there would be coveys of quail with their youngsters, anywhere from 25 to 50 birds. Today, there was one, bravely pecking away in my yard. 

D. H. Lawrence famously said: "I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself."

I believe he was right, but I cannot help feeling so terribly sorry for them all. 

And for a future when I no longer will be alive, a future that will be this, this drought, and so much more, so much worse. 

As you may have realized from my Memories posts, I've had a tendency to up and leave when a place no longer works for me. 

To fly away like this hawk. It has never hurt me to do this. When I came up against the great Pacific Ocean and could go no further, I found that I was happy and didn't want to. 

I'm still happy with what is inside of my soul and my mind. And I can deal with this, with living here. I have no choice, really, so I must.

But what I have been wondering lately is this: If I were, say 60 years old, alone, but with a dog, would I leave?

Yes, I would. 

I would find some rainy place, with mountains and lakes. 

And I would leave...

Sunday Morning Reflections ~ Karma

 

I have a difficult time asking for help. In order for me to be more receptive to her help, my friend remarked that her good deeds will come back to help her in her time of need.

Karma -- action, deed, and more, with the intent behind the deed being of importance.

During my car problems, I can safely say that my own Karma affected me in a most positive way, as I found myself on the receiving end, so to speak. And got such great support from my friend Jeanne, most of all. And from Joyce too, always there to help. 

Then the guy at the body shop only charged me $185.00 of which $82.50 was for parts! For all that work! He had quoted me $300.00 and Jeanne, who knows about cars, thought it would be more. 

My Karma is good then, or so it seems.  

I spent a part of my 4th of July morning thinking about this.

And realized that:

At the end of my life, the cause and effect of how I've lived my life will be between me and myself.

My Karma...

Sunday Morning Reflections

 

Wise words for a small man in charge of the largest country in the world:

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things

he can afford to let alone.

~ Henry David Thoreau