Good Morning!

 

My Sacred Space

My Simple Abundance (Sarah Ban Breathnach) journey discussed the need to have a sacred place. A place to go to meditate, to be quiet, to pray - a place to simply be. This place needs to speak to me. It needs to trigger all those feelings of peace and tranquility, away from electronics and distractions. Decorated with things that have meaning; things that sing to my heart.

But where?

My front porch. It's outdoors. Outdoors always feeds my soul. There are birds to sing to me and flowers to perfume the air. But it needed just a little work. 

Before - This is the view sitting in my rocking chair looking out. 

Surviving the Wild Winter

 I can't believe I haven't posted since January!! Here it is March. The last month has been a challenge for sure. The weather coupled with covid quarantine, coupled with no power.... 

I live in the upper Willamette Valley and we had one heck of an ice storm. Although destructive, it was also really beautiful. 

We were the lucky ones. We lost power for only four days. Some people lost power for more than two weeks! We also have a wood stove so we were able to cook and keep warm. We loaded the cooler with the ice from the freezer (the only time we opened it the whole time) and all the perishables from the refrigerator. Then we set the cooler outside the door on the deck, right on top of the layers of ice. We love only a little food - again we were fortunate. 

And then the clean up. 

What do you need to be happy?

 The new year has certainly starting with a bang. But I am focusing on my new word - explore. I starting reading an old book I've had for years - Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach (1995). Each day there is a short reading. Some just give you pause for thought, some ask you to do something. Yesterday the question was, What do you really need to be happy? Not want, need. A pretty deep question.

 

The first thing that came into my mind was the basic needs. Food, shelter, love. Yes we do need those things to survive and for those things I am truly grateful. But beyond that. What do I need to be happy? I wrote what came to mind as I wrote, but it's certainly a question that deserves more thought.

Today the reading was recognizing even the little things every day. Life is short and we never know when we'll be moving on. The author used the movie Our Town as an example of how we take things for granted. The heroine dies in child birth and begs to come back for just one day. In that day she realizes all the amazing things in every day that are wonderous and how we are so busy with unnecessary peripherals, we miss it. 

“Let's really look at one another!...It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed... Wait! One more look. Good-bye , Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover's Corners....Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking....and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths....and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth,you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every,every minute? (Emily)”
― Thornton Wilder, Our Town

What is it that you need to be happy? How many magic moments have past you by as mundane? I'll let you know if I ever find the answer for myself and hope you take the time to ponder your own answers. 

Word for 2021

 On New Year's Eve in 2019, I reflected on my word (Dream) and thought about where I wanted to go in 2020. I spent the year 2019 dreaming - and boy did I dream. So many things I want to do. So the appropriate word for 2020 seemed to be motivation. I needed motivation to make those dreams happen. 

Here's how I started 2020

Winter Solstice

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice at 2:02 a.m. PST. It is the shortest day and longest night of the year. The solstice occurs when one the Earth's pole's maximum tilt is away from the sun. For the Northern Hemisphere, this happens in December and in the southern hemisphere it occurs in June. So for the U.S. (where I live), the winter solstice occurs in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.

 It is the first day of Winter. And to add to the excitement, tomorrow at sunset the "Christmas Star" will be visible!

Motiviation

 Every year, thanks to my friend Terri, I choose a word to focus on for the year. Then, as the year comes to a close, I focus on how that word impacted my life. Well, last year I chose Motivation. Motivation - the reason we have for behaving in a particular way or a willingness to get something done.

When I chose that word, I thought it would spur me into fulfilling directions - making dreams happen. But that isn't what happened.

The end of December my husband got really sick. As we moved into January things got worse, and continued to get worse. And then covid struck. The world as we knew it was turned upside down and inside out. As I think about all the events, the word that comes to mind is purge.

I purged my house. We took loads upon loads of boxes to the local thrift store.

I purged my yard. We finally tackled the ominous task of getting rid of English ivy and bamboo. A job I thought would be far simpler than it was.

I purged relationships. As tensions rose with the uncertainty, who we are showed itself. I lost friend who stabbed me in the back - I stepped away from a long term, toxic friendship - a relationship with no respect for differences and no interest in understanding.

And it hurt deeply. One I chose to move on from, others decided to move away from me. It's hard to understand why some people would rather be someone different to your face than when you are around. It makes me wonder what their "motivation" is.

Purging means getting rid of things that are unclean or undesirable. It means to purify or clear. So 2020 was really not motivation, it was purge. But purge taught me about my own motivation.

Why do I procrastinate? I know something needs to be done, but I find excuses not to do them. Why do I pursue those friendships that closed on me? Why do I want so desperately to stay friends with someone who's motivation is clearly self-serving?

That's when I started thinking about motivation. What is my motivation. I want my home to be inviting, but I don't know how to give myself permission to rest - So I try to do it all at once and burn out. Procrastinate. Why do I pursue friendships that have clearly ended? I want to be liked. I want people to understand me.

And so I am thinking about my word for 2021. So much has changed this last year. I think 2021 will be a year of rediscovery. A year of redirection. A year of transformation and balance. A year of harmony.