When it’s Time to Move On

How do geese know

when to fly to the sun?

Who tells them the seasons?

How do we, as humans,

know when it’s time to move on?

As with the migrant birds,

so surely with us,

there is a voice within,

if only we would listen to it,

that tells us so certainly

when to go forth into the unknown.

-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

I wanted to create a card to go with this incredible quote I found for my son.  He is young and has a dream job with a great tech company in Seattle.  But for over a year now, he has felt that it is time to start his own company, to launch his own ideas. Financially it makes no sense, yet the feeling has persisted and has not gone away  This week he leaves a generous company and a group of co-workers that have become close friends, to “go forth into the unknown.”  For many of us our co-workers become our clan, our community.  Sometimes we can’t stand them, but when it’s time to change jobs and move on, there is always a bit of grief involved. Not only for ourselves, but for those that are left behind feeling the empty place a friend and coworker left.  Transitions are never easy no matter how much we have longed for them.

I wanted to have a picture of geese flying to go with the quote, but I didn’t have a stamp for that.  I could have ordered one, but I wanted to get the card to him this week. I remembered a vintage copy book I had bought,  Birds and Butterflies by Nancy Rosin. I made a color copy of the geese and mounted it to the card stock.  Inside I wrote the words to the quote, and a note for my son.  Sometimes we spend so long on the card, that we neglect the content.  What are we trying to say…is there a quote that could help me say it?…what is my intention with the card?  My intention was to honor his choice and encourage him.  Just a few minutes ago he called, “Hi Mom, thanks for the card, I really needed that!”

God Speed to you Tyler, as you go where your heart is whispering for you to go.

Lavender Fields

“Ladies fair, I bring to you lavender with spikes of blue; sweeter plant was never found growing on our English ground.”  Caryl Battersby

I have been driving by the lavender fields at a local farm that sells produce and have been longing to stop and walk in the fields of lavender.  Sunday afternoon I went to the  farm and stood among the lovely lavender blossoms.  The air was alive with the hum of bees and the unique musky fragrance of lavender.  I came home with several small bouquets of cut lavender to dry and hang.  I love lavender season, like their cousin the lilacs, they bloom for a short time but the memory of their beauty and fragrance lingers through the other seasons.

Sacred Life Sunday: Children

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Make A Magazine Cover

Mary at Little Red House (http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/) had a challenge to make a magazine cover with your blog.  I went to the site at flickr and gave it a try, then my husband gave it a try, then we kept playing with the pictures, the colors, well….you get the idea.  It was fun and rather addicting.  It makes you ready to give Country Living a run for their money and produce your own magazine!  I can see doing this with a cute picture of your children for the holiday season and sending it out as an email card, a graduation announcement, a new home photo, all sorts of things.  What are your ideas on how you could use this?

Sacred Life Sunday: Serenity Prayer

Full Original Serenity Prayer
by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

It’s been one of those weeks.  I am middle age now, which for me, doesn’t seem to be so much about age,  as much as it means being in the middle.  In the middle of aging parents and young adult children launching into the turbulant seas of adulthood. Being in the middle of seeing those I love have hardship and trials, and not being able to help or fix it for them.  Being in the middle is not always an easy place to be. This prayer never fails to bring me comfort, acceptance, and a reminder to live one day at a time, one moment at a time.  To accept what I can’t change, to change what I can.  To accept what is happening now, bless it and surrender it to God.  Sometimes a simple prayer in a turbulent week is enough.

Blue Skies

Yesterday was the last day of our 4th of July holiday. The yard didn’t get mowed, the fence didn’t get painted, the garden never got weeded.  But the sun shined, the sky was blue, we hiked in the mountains, enjoyed the river, and went for a drive. We went to the Tall Ships  Festival with our daughter’s family and enjoyed being with them. We walked along the sound smelling the cool sea air and watching the ships come in and out of the harbor. It’s back to work today, but it is was good to take a break, get out into nature, and just spend a few days together.  Here are a few pictures of the last few days, with a pirate thrown in just for adventure!

And the Winner’s Are…

Home for me is a mixture of the places I have loved, and have been planted in. Perhaps like the rose that gets divided and transplanted, part of me remains there, and part of me is here, blooming in two places. The dividing was painful and at times I wasn’t sure I would live through it, but my soul continues to bloom.-Journey to Home by Gayle Roberts

The Virtual Tea House hosted a writing contest called “Where is Home.”  I entered it, writing about my “Journey to Home”, from Oklahoma to Washington.  While I didn’t win, or even get honorable mention, I did get posted along with some wonderful other posts.  Make yourself a glass of tea, sit in the comfy chair, and follow this link for some great stories about home.

http://www.virtualteahouse.com/blogs/beth/archive/2008/07/06/where-s-home-category-2-home-is-a-place.aspx

Sacred Life Sunday: Rich in Roses

I’d rather have roses on my table
than diamonds ’round my neck.
Emma Goldman

My roses have brought me such joy this summer that I would have to agree with Emma, I’d rather have roses than diamonds.  As we appreciate the wonderful blessings we already have, our heart expands to recieve the happiness and joy they bring us.  What are the blessings you have that you’d rather have than diamonds ’round your neck?

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing  all of you a happy 4th of July!  I am working the holiday, (sigh… nursing is 365 days a year) but we will have a long weekend and hope to relax, do some work around the house, and visit the Tall Ships as they come in through the sound this weekend.  Have a blessed holiday, say a prayer today for our country, for the men overseas, and for peace.

Let’s Do Lunch!

In Webster’s dictionary, the definition for hospitable is wedged between the word “hospice,”‘ which is a shelter, and the word “hospital” which is a place of healing.  Ultimately, this is what we offer when we open our home in the the true spirit of hospitality.  We offer shelter; we offer healing.-Karen Burton Mains

My girlfriends and I frequently stay connected by “doing lunch.”  We get together, go out for lunch, and visit.  Sometimes we visit a little shop on our way home and look for  treasures.  Last week I wanted to get together with a girlfriend but after balancing the checkbook, I realized there was not enough money to go out to lunch.  I had plenty of leftover soup, and greens from the farm, so I called and ask her to lunch here.   It was a simple healthy lunch, that we both thoroughly enjoyed.  We didn’t feel like we had to rush to free the  table at a restaurant.  We lingered and talked, drank a cup of tea, then strolled out front and looked at the roses. Today I got together with another girlfriend, and decided to have lunch here again.  I set the table with my “new” vintage plates I bought at a garage sale, picked some roses for the table, and put a teacup down for each of us.  For lunch I made a pasta salad with enough left for dinner tonight. I served last nights loaf of bread, and a veggie plate.  For dessert we had fresh strawberries that were left from yesterdays jam project.   Later we went shopping at a thrift store and found all sorts of inexpensive treasures.  It  was another lovely afternoon and lunch.  With the economy making it harder to stretch our paycheck, I have been rediscovering the joys of of hospitality.  It is a lovely thing to take care of your friends by fixing them  lunch, setting the table in a way that only another woman can appreciate, and lingering over good conversation at the kitchen table.  And as only our girlfriends can do, we always leave our time together feeling joy in the shelter of each other, with our joys shared, and our sorrows lighter.