Appreciate Yourself

 As I continue on the Simple Abundance Journey, I am learning to appreciate myself. I am discovering my authentic self and understanding what makes me who I am. 

Each of us come from different places. We've all had different life experiences and no one responds the same to any situation. As we travel through life, things happen. Things change us. Life is the journey. On the journey we all take that side track from time to time. Sometimes the side track turns out to be the perfect direction to go - and sometimes not. When it's the latter we can be left feeling shamed, inadequate, humiliated, confused and guilty. And we respond to these feelings in a myriad of ways.

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!