I had a date last night! Actually, it was yesterday afternoon. Since I get off work early in the day, my husband, Ron, met me at work and took me to the IMax theater at the Minnesota Zoo to see Born to be Wild. It's a movie about Daphne Sheldrick and her lifetime of saving orphaned elephants in Kenya, and Birute Galdikas and her work with orphaned orangutans. I was so excited that I spent the day at work telling everyone about the date! I love elephants and orangutans, but part of the excitement came from going to see a continuation of a book I read - "Walking with the Great Apes" by Sy Montgomery. The book, published in 1991, is a triple biography about three women who dedicated their lives to research and care for a single primate species - Dian Fossey, mountain gorillas; Jane Goodall, champanzees; and Galdikas, orangutans. I was going to see some of what Galdikas has done since 1991! Orangutans are an amazing animal. They look a bit awkward as they lumber along the ground, but their is a slow, patient gracefulness as they move about in the trees. They also appear to have a sense of humor. One orphan who was rescued and kept as a pet tore the kitchen up, dumping flour … [Read more...]
Morning work
The sky is dark as the balcony door creaks open letting the cool breath of morning air filter into the bedroom. It is early, earlier than I should get up considering I closed the store last night and didn't get much sleep. I'm not one of those who can come home from work and go directly to bed. Anyway, my mind would not let me sleep as it tossed around the projects I could do on my day off like stones in polisher. A smile crossed my face as the breeze brushed my skin while I dressed in the dark. Moving down to the kitchen, the plan was to make zucchini bread and then work on a writing project due today. Alas, the zucchini bread is done, but the writing project has just begun, with this being a warm up to the story I need to write. Taking the fruits of my labor from the gardens and turning them into foods that can last has been a weekly event lately. For a few weeks in a row, I have been canning tomatoes, four to six pints one morning a week. That's not a lot, but it helps over the winter, both financially and in knowing what is in our food. So far, I have jars of plain tomatoes, tomatoes with basil, and salsa made from my garden produce, with the exception of the garlic. I … [Read more...]
Little wonders
Finding the right words is a challenge today, as I spent the majority of my work day learning bookkeeping at the Home Depot where I work. The trainer is good, and I am catching on fast, but it is draining on the brain. I am now at home browsing through the photos I took on Monday and the words to accompany them are stuck somewhere in the fog that's left in my head. Words like awe, or wow, or cool, or peace. Not for the photos themselves, but for the subjects in them. I took my mom to the University of Minnesota Arboretum in Chanhassen, where we spent the majority of our time in the gardens behind the main building. In one area, lantana lines one side of the walk squaring off against the huge dahlias on the other a little farther down. The butterflies, hummingbirds, bees and other insects were enjoying the bright colors and wonderful scents as much as Mom and I were. I sank to the asphalt path and poised my camera toward the lantana, searching through the lens for split seconds of stillness to capture. The wind was blowing, and the hummingbirds flitted so quickly it was difficult to get a shot of one in the air. I finally got one after we moved to the dahlias, but it … [Read more...]
Peace of mind
What is peace of mind? Why do some people have it and others don't? That question has been around as long as people have, but a quote posted by Healthy Holistic Living peels back all the layers and gets to the core. Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be. - Wayne W. Dyer Peace of mind, like happiness, comes from within. No matter what is going on around us, we determine how we look at the circumstances. Yes, things hurt, and yes they can derail our plans. But it is up to us to choose whether they derail us and rob us of our peace.? Thanks for the reminder. My peace has been slowly disintegrating, and my way of looking at the world has changed a bit. There is little I can do about the physical changes I am going through, but there is plenty I can do about how I view the changes. Nature and beauty feeds my soul. I can stop to absorb the soul food when I'm outside, which I am a lot. Being grateful for the bountiful blessings God has given me always brings peace. I can make sure I don't forget to be grateful. Especially when the money I earn pays the bills and little more. The roof needs work, and … [Read more...]
Taking time out for creativity
As I write this I hear a pop, then another, then another. That means the effort I put forth this afternoon chopping peppers, garlic, tomatoes and onions to make salsa worked! The seals are taking hold, and I will be able to move the jars into the cupboard. A successful project! A couple of weeks ago I completed another project that took me into my creative mind. It felt good. You ?know how creativity always seems to take the back seat to taking care of everything around you - the house, the job, the yard, the laundry, paying the bills, etc.? Then the relationships, which really should be the top priority, also get in the way. Well, enough is enough! I hadn't done anything with art in so long, I was wondering if I even could, so I signed up for an acrylic painting class at an open studio in Minneapolis. Since I paid for it in advance, there was no backing out. Nothing else was going to wiggle in and steal my creative time, not even being exhausted from working all day. The tiny class of four started with us choosing a canvas board with a pencil outline of a rabbit or a calla lily. I was hoping the class would not be a paint-by-number session, so I was a little concerned. … [Read more...]
Event, after event, after event, after event, after…
Today is a beautiful day with the sun leaping down through the trees, one leaf at a time until it touches the grass. The temperature is moderate, a far cry from the heat and humidity we have had recently, and the sky is a gorgeous blue with white lambs wool sporadically wiping it clean. It is a good day for reflection about the many blessings that abound through the chaos... Does your family have a period out of the year where everything happens? Ours is right now! It started the 10th with a grandchild's birthday, two anniversaries the next week and my mother's 80th birthday open house is on Sunday. My husband and I celebrate our 32nd anniversary the 29th, my mother-in-law's birthday is July 1 and our son is getting married July 2. And it continues with a several birthdays in the next couple of weeks. At the end of July, we have three more birthdays, and the Johnson family reunion (my dad's family) will be here. How is a person supposed to work full time, plan birthday parties, take care of the gardens, do the household chores and still be sane? There are so many blessings causing the events: My mother making it to 80, the children and grandchildren, and the growing … [Read more...]
Distractions
Here I sit amidst many distractions trying to wrench the right word out of air thickly laced with rock lyrics and confrontation. Images, words and music are flying around, encircling my consciousness with ridiculous rhetoric, making meaningful work nearly impossible. I thought I could get an article written while mechanics comb over Mom's van, but I guess my ignoring-with-the-best-of-them skills are defunct. My waiting-room mate is watching Judge Allred, and songs like "White Wedding" fly through the air between the rhetoric of the radio DJ and energetic advertisements. How can I ignore them when a man who has 21 children (in 14 years, mind you) is trying to recover child support paid over five years for a child the current DNA test proves is not his? Or the woman who is trying to recover the cost of new upholstery because a friend urinated in the front seat of her new car after a night at the club? I don't watch Judge Judy or Judge Allred or any of the reality judge shows, mostly because the situations are so ridiculous. But I can see how people get drawn into the stupidity of people. Can you imagine urinating in a friends new vehicle? Or suing someone because they did? I … [Read more...]
Winged blessings
Sometimes I really wish I could just stay home to work in my garden and write. Then I get a customer who really appreciates my help and my knowledge of gardening, lawns and landscaping... I really like working in the garden center at Home Depot. One of the many blessings of my job, besides the great customers and co-workers, is the creatures that visit the gorgeous plants we have. When I water early in the day, the birds greet me with their morning song, and when I water in the evening, the hummingbird moths gather around the flowers, especially the azaleas. The first time I saw a hummingbird moth was in Kentucky or Tennessee. It was early morning and I had no clue what this flying striped body was. It flies like a hummingbird in about three-quarter time, and the wings are smaller in proportion to its body. The body is shaped like a moth, but the wings flap so quickly, they streak the air with color. Last week, I was watering the perennials and petunia hanging baskets under the shade mesh and one of the moths started flitting from flower to flower, sticking its long skinny tongue into the flowers to collect nectar. I felt privileged to observe, slowed the water and … [Read more...]
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
By Grace Lin Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is an enchanting book for young readers, taking them on a journey with a young girl, named Minli, to find the Old Man of the Moon. Living in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain, Minli and her parents spend their days working hard in the rice fields and their nights listening to folk lore stories about the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon told by her father. Her mother’s discontentment with their meager living comes out in angry sighs and critical comments about filling Minli’s head with fantasy. Filled with questions, Minli takes it upon herself to change the family’s fortune by asking the Old Man of the Moon, but first, she has to find him. On her journey, she finds an extraordinary cast of characters that help her along the way, including a dragon who cannot fly. Her giving heart and quick mind carry her through the journey’s ups and downs. When she finally meets the Old Man of the Moon, she is allowed only one question, making her ponder between her family’s fortune and a friend’s need. The well written book weaves a wonderful web, subtly connecting the tales interjected throughout the journey. The characters grow … [Read more...]
Change
Moving into a new home brings with it many challenges in the yard. The previous owners did little to take care of the yard, though I could tell, the property was loved at one time. I have been gradually changing some of the landscape to meet me, instead of leaving it the way it was. Most of the time, I am content with just about everything, but having hostas in full sun doesn't work for me. My garden bed along the south side of the house needed to be redone, and I decided this was the spring to begin the process. The hostas, which burned last year when the heat finally hit, had been there so long, they were in massive clumps that it took an entire day to extract. I finally got them out of the below holes and was planning on moving them all under the tree, but there were too many. I gave away a huge clump, as well as planted them in clumps, and still had enough to plant hostas about 15 feet along the retaining wall. I didn't expect to have so many, but it turned into quite a blessing. The next project was to thin out the plants to the left and split the Chinese … [Read more...]
