a spirit of simplicity

  ~ ~ ~ Barbie weekend at Hopie's house! I surprised Abigail and Natalie with new Barbies and a new purple jeep for them to drive around in. Pretty fun. ~ I raided my daughter's garden when I went to pick up the children. We had beans and tomatoes for dinner and a vase of fresh flowers on the bedside table. ~ I met my daughter at a Massachusetts trustee of reservations property on Sunday.  We walked around enjoying the property, which was absolutely beautiful.  Afterward I went to a poetry reading on the property.  Various authors from a newly published poetry book read. The book is called, Leaning Toward Light, Poems for gardens and the hands that tend them. It was a beautiful evening. I'm so glad I got a chance to do it. ~ On Tuesday night I went back to the same property to attend an autumnal equinox sound healing.  It was a guided meditation with drums and bells. It was beautiful and relaxing. ~ I have been getting to work about a half hour early because of the timing o

~ ~ ~ t He made the storm be still,  and the waves of the sea were hushed.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Psalm 107:29 scripture and a snapshot

  The last of the summer gardens are blooming. Do you wonder if the flowers understand that this is the end of their season? This may be the very last coneflower before the cooler weather comes and it all goes to seed. Perhaps I think of these things now that I am in the autumn of my own life.  Now I appreciate the bright colours of a summer flower and also the beautiful brown of a seed pod. Now I am mindful of a quiet and still Saturday I allow the rush of getting everything done to pass me by. This is a joy of 60 years. This is a quiet contemplation in a garden toward the end of summer.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Love is all around I am grateful for a tiny green heart in the middle of a yellow leaf. ~ ~ ~  Little things Thursday Thankful Thursday thursday favorite things

 ~ ~ ~ I leave a bit early for work now to avoid the school traffic. We have at least 5 schools all starting at roughly the same time and all within a mile of each other on the way out of town! Oh, and did I mention that we don't have busses?  It's crazy trying to get out of town to work! So...I get to this beautiful beach about 20 minutes early every day and I park the car and walk the beach. It's a beautiful and calming way to start my work day. ~ We have 4 of these big, sort of ugly, bottom feeders in our fish tank in our classroom. They had babies!  Now we have 6 or 7 little baby bottom feeders! We will have to give some of them away as our tank isn't big enough for all of them.  ~ One of my co-workers this year is a paid intern attending the same state college I attended as an adult learner in 2013. In class one day we all signed a photograph waiver. I never gave it a second thought until the following semester when a class mate told me that she had seen my picture

 ~ ~ ~ A small vase of flowers on the kitchen table always cheers me. Makes me think of Proverbs,  A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. It was Verne's first day of first grade! My daughter grew peppers in her garden this year and they did very well.   They looked so pretty hanging in her kitchen.  I hiked with my brother, sister-in-law, and a family friend on Sunday. It was a beautiful day. At the beach with friends! Friday fave fives

 ~ ~ ~ Most mornings I leave for work about 15 minutes early. This leaves me time to beat the traffic and stop at the beach along the drive for a short meditation or walk. I won't complain about my commute.  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Nature notes communal global my corner of the world Wordless Wednesday Wednesdays around the world