Goodthoughts

Walking in Sunshine

I loved the flying man image in my "7-Up Revival" collage and decided to try to use it again in a collage with a different story. Making art takes a lot of problem solving.   Especially when you're trying to make something old new again, like my flying man. I've learned I have to look at problems from more than one perspective.

Flying makes me think of freedom, transformation and joy!  I borrowed an angel head from one of my digital paintings and turned my flying man into a smiling girl! Doesn't that feel so much happier?

The old picture is me at 7 trying out my new Christmas umbrella on a sunny day. Lots of pictures were taken that day with my parents, grandparents and aunt. Family stories, laughing, love, chocolate fudge, belonging. "In the acorn lies the Oak." I've been an oak a long time, but I'll always remember that little acorn kindly.

This collage is a reminder to me. I've learned the sun is always shining up there somewhere. Even when the rain is pouring, it's up there. And that little Morton Girl taught us all, it's never too wet to spread a little salt around. The curved arrow image was drawn on the back of a love letter Chuck wrote me when I was just a sapling. It recalls the shared path we've been on and the many layers of our love.

I still carry that little girl with me wherever I go.   I'm glad that 7-Up bottle taught her to be bold and seize the moment.  She reminds me of that every now and then when I'm living on cruise control.  Seize the moment...that's where the love is the sweetest!

The art of soup

There's an art to making vegetable soup.  It's a slow and deliberate process.  Mindfulness comes in handy when chopping with a sharp knife!!

Being a full steam ahead kind of gal, it's good for me to have to shift into low gear and remind myself of the joy of being slow.  

Onion...chop, chop, chop...brings the familiar burst of pungent fragrance and watery eyes.  

Celery needs washing and stringing before chopping.  Today I cut off all the stalks, washed them and put what I didn't chop for the soup in a zip lock bag.  I looked over at the bottom of the celery plant that remained and noticed its beautiful flower-like pattern.  I'd never taken the time to notice that before. Interesting how God managed to create beauty in the most obscure places.

The onions and celery sauteed with a soft bubbly sound while I chopped the potatoes and breathed their earthy smell.  The finished carrots chopped in tiny orange circles sprawled on the cutting board waiting to join the soup.  

 

 

 

This soup is all veggie and loaded with beans, corn, okra, tomatoes, roasted red pepper, rice, and teeny farfalle pasta and enough paprika and cayenne to give it a little kick. A melange of smells, tastes and colors creating comfort food that nourishes body and soul.

So even though the funeral home clock in our little town says 104 degrees...it's soup day at our house!! And we have two things to be thankful for today...our yummy soup...and our air conditioning!!

God's Chat Room

I loved to play outside in our backyard when I was a preschooler.  Our yard was fenced in and had a swing and sandbox to keep me busy. 

But some of my favorite memories are of just being quiet and observing the world.  Being low to the ground myself, it was easy to look...really look....at leaves, flowers, rocks with sparkles, wiggly worms, butterflies, and birds. 

I planted a moss garden under my bedroom window of different varieties that I had collected from the woods.  My favorite was the kind with tall red hairs growing out of the velvet green.  I loved to just sit and run my hand across it.  I dreamed of having the whole backyard covered in moss! 

I had heard about God.   And God seemed very close by in the backyard.  I felt wonder when I looked at all the things he made.  Sometimes I would talk to him.  Sometimes I would just feel him...with me in a very soft way.

"You've always been there, Lord.
Before I met you, I felt you with me.
Before I could write my name or tie my shoes
I could feel you're presence close beside me.
I felt you mostly when I was outside
looking with wonder at the world you made...
running my hand over the soft blades of grass...
looking for far away places in the clouds...
feeling a gust of wind blow my hair...
You were there...singing your gentle heartsong...
when there was no one there to listen...but me.
It's melody stirred memories in my soul
of things my mind...was yet to learn."

Nature is God's chat room.  Spend some time outside taking it all in...waiting to hear what God is saying...when there's no one there to listen...but YOU!

Tending the path...again

I wrote this post back in February for our other blog, Eden's Path.  Since then, spring rains came in buckets and Chuck and I have been busy planting a new vegetable garden.  The labyrinth has taken a backseat to our other yard work.  The weeds have returned and I'm back where I started!  Our labyrinth is an ever present reminder that our spirits are a lot like nature...other things creep in when we're not mindful.  No matter how old or wise you become...life is always about... tending the path.

Late Monday afternoon, while Chuck was filling up the bird feeders, I grabbed my trowel and walked down to our labyrinth. It sits on the far end of our backyard where it’s peaceful and quiet…well, almost. There’s one exception…or maybe hundreds…it’s those screaming wild onions dancing down our peaceful path!

I do see the irony of it all. Me sitting in the middle of the labyrinth, thinking about life, being thankful to God, listening to the birds singing, and wondering how to kill the onions dead in a nontoxic, environmentally friendly sort of way. The vinegar I tried this fall only made them curly!

So, Monday I decided if the labyrinth is a metaphor for life’s journey…I’d better think differently about the onions. I started in the center and started digging them up with my trowel. Each above ground onion must have 25 to 50 underground bulbs! If this is a battle, I’ve already lost.

All I can do is tend the path. After about 15 minutes of digging, I thought this tending was going to be too hard to do. But then, I got my second wind and kept going. An hour later, Chuck helped me put the wilted onions into the wheel barrow. My back ached, but I felt better, more peaceful.

Chuck and I walked the labyrinth together as the sun was going down. A few onions I missed waved at us as we walked by, but they didn’t bother me so much as before. I think the tending was good for me.

Digging up the onions and seeing all those little bulbs up close made me realize how amazing they really were…they were doing a great job… of being onions! Maybe… the onions just need some fast growing neighbors to keep them in check. Maybe… we could plant some thyme, candytuft and creeping jenny on the labyrinth. And maybe… we’re learning a better way to think..while we’re outside tending the path.

Hope in a cup

Chuck and I have a vegetable garden this year...and we are rookies.   About 6 weeks ago, I planted 4 varieties of tomatoes in seed trays and sat them on the floor in front of the sunny den window and waited.  That's my favorite thing about gardening ...the hope and anticipation.  And guess what?  All the seeds sprouted!  We now have over 100 baby tomato plants...all alive and well and growing.

Our friend, Donnie, who grew up on a farm was looking at disbelief at all the veggies growing behind our sofa.  He told us his mother canned tomatoes for the year, fed a family of 7, and gave tomatoes to all of their friends and neighbors and only had 8 plants.  Ooops!!  We planted 8 tomatoes in our garden Saturday  which leaves us with a little surplus...of just over 90!

Now you might think this is a problem, but it's not...because my 2nd favorite thing about gardening is....sharing!  I guess this year we'll be giving tomato plants in paper cups for every occasion...the gift that keeps on giving...not only hope...but also tomato sandwiches!

My 3rd favorite thing about gardening is the mindfulness and creativity it inspires.   I decided to combine a little art and gardening today.  This drawing of one of our graceful little tomato plants was the result.  Chuck says we should use it as our label for all the jars of tomatoes that we'll can this summer!

I realized while drawing this tomato that art and gardening both call me to be mindful...to live in the present moment...where time doesn't exist.  Both bring a calm exhilaration.   I guess art and gardening use a lot of the same skills and instincts...looking deeply...arranging and rearranging elements in a pleasing way...thinking intuitively... and coming up with multiple solutions to the same problem.  A good way to approach art...gardening...and life.