Spring is just four days away and so much of the world is waking up. It makes me so happy – almost giddy. This past weekend, I participated in our annual St. Patrick’s Day race downtown – a rite of passage into spring. While I had a great time as so many people filled our…
Category: nature
Everyone
“Be brave because you are a child of God. Be kind because everyone else is too.” I’ve noticed something about myself lately that bothers me a lot. I have a really bad habit of assigning character traits to people based on a single behavior that I’ve witnessed – especially people that I don’t know well…
Whoo’s there
Check out this spectacular visitor to my back yard over the weekend. He first dropped in late Friday afternoon, his arrival announced by a flurry of irritable crows and bluejays squawking and bouncing about. When he showed up again on Saturday, he had an even crankier antagonist — a very large red-tailed hawk. I couldn’t…
Sunday Smile
“Earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson And Finnegan is here to remind everyone that laughter is contagious.
What to do with 21 bananas
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop For whatever reason, I was thinking a lot today about little things we can do to brighten each other’s spirits. The other day I found a handmade gift of a ring for me and a collar for Finn on my front porch…
Invitation
Oh do you have timeto lingerfor just a little whileout of your busy and very important dayfor the goldfinchesthat have gatheredin a field of thistles for a musical battle,to see who can singthe highest note,or the lowest, or the most expressive of mirth,or the most tender?Their strong, blunt beaksdrink the air as they strivemelodiouslynot for…
Present
“If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you must look forward, do so prayerfully. However, the wisest thing you can do is be present in the present…Gratefully.” – Maya Angelou The best part about long walks outside with my dog is that it is the one time I am sure to be fully…
13 Necessary Virtues
Today I stumbled upon something kinda neat on LinkedIn. It was a more extensive post than what I’m including now, but below are the 13 Necessary Virtues according to Benjamin Franklin in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Some pretty lofty standards for moral living, but I also thought it was timeless food for thought and effective…
Frosty
A frigid, frost-filled walk through the park this morning. Mother Nature is such an amazing artist. I couldn’t decide which was more fascinating – the fuzzy frost or the patterns in the ice. I have no idea if Finn’s shirts and sweaters actually keep him warm, but he sure looks cute.
Imperfections and grace
“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging. Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we are all in this together.” – Brene Brown Lawd have mercy, I have been SO aware of my imperfections lately. And for whatever reason, I’ve been thinking about it a…
Visible
“As the world fights to figure everything out, I’ll be holding doors for strangers, letting people cut in front of me in traffic, Saying good morning, keeping babies entertained in grocery lines, stopping to talk to someone who is lonely, being patient with sales clerks, smiling at passersby. Why? Because I will not stand idly…
New Year
Our first walk of 2023 was a strange and wickedly wonderful little adventure in the fog – below are just a few of the photos I took along the way. I know I should write something about resolutions or goals as we begin this new chapter, but I’m not in a new-year-new-me state of mind….
14 years
WordPress reminded me yesterday that I first posted with them 11 years ago. Prior to moving over to this platform, I’d blogged somewhere else under a different title. In all, I’ve been blogging for 14 years. Some more diligently than others, but 14 years. I briefly scrolled through my first posts and I started thinking…
Saturday Impressions
Just some fun finds along a frigid morning walk in the park.
Beautifully
You know what’s great about sunrises and sunsets? It’s that no matter what lies ahead, the day can begin beautifully. And no matter what happened over the course of the day, it can end beautifully. And today, well… today began beautifully. Like jaw on the floor beautifully.
Happier
“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” – George Santayana This park looks so cool any time of year. Fascinating shapes when the trees are completely bare. Nature’s garland. Perfect reflections. And always a smile.
Frost Flowers
I’m a little behind, but I really wanted to post these images from the other day. With the first real cold snap in the area, the air was frigid, but the ground still hadn’t experienced a hard freeze — which makes for ideal conditions for a frost flower bloom. (Or so I’ve been told.) So…
Kindness
Today is International Kindness Day! To mark the occasion, here is a fun mural I saw over the weekend during a road trip, along with a list of “seven ways to start making kindness the norm in your daily life” (according to a very nice random Instagram post I spotted this week): 1.) Send an…
Reality
“Your brain will constantly rewire itself to suit the information that you feed into it. If you constantly complain, gossip, find excuses, etc., it will make it much easier to find things to get upset about, regardless of what is happening around you. Likewise, if you constantly search for opportunities, abundance, love, and things to…
That’s about right.
A squirrel’s interpretation of Monday. And I am totally feeling it.
Sunday Scenes
Today’s leaf report: while most colors are past their peak, there’s still quite a bit of beauty and the gingko tress are just getting warmed up. There’s still some red out there! And hearts, of course.
And it was all yellow
Today’s leaf report: Gingko trees are starting to let go. Even the damp, dreary morning couldn’t dull this display. This is not my house, but I could not resist taking this photo on my way home. You know how Christmas cards sometimes depict a sweet little house enveloped in a fresh blanket of snow? This…
There it is
Today’s leaf report. I had to take the photo inside because I collected these leaves during a walk that I couldn’t finish before dark — for the first time this season. I’ve been dreading this. Although I did manage to spot and take a photo of a little tar heart before I needed a flashlight….
Magic
“If you look closely, you can find magic tucked inside of ordinary moments every single day… You can see it in how your momma looks at you with boundless love, even knowing your entire story, faults and all. You can feel magic as the sun rises, filling the air with endless possibility at a new…
hey there, friends 