LoLaSuzanne

GiST 251: Oak Mimosa Magnolia

2010-07-11T22:47:00.005-04:00

My Oak at the farm has fallen. It is and always has been my favorite because it is home to a Mimosa growing out of its trunk and a magnolia in the V of its top branches, I've watched that little magnolia reach up out of the bough of this pin oak for ten years. I know exactly the summer it was born. Exactly how long it's grappled with its decaying cradle. The oak has been there since my great Uncle Henry's time. Around 1900. That's the Mimosa towering over the top of the tree. That's the Magnolia peeping out of the V in the center of the photo.

1. Nothing stays the same

2. Everything lives on the back of everything else

3. This is me

4. This is you

5. We are the same.

GiST 250: Barn Swallows

2010-07-10T08:31:00.002-04:00

Grace in Small Things 250

Now that Grandma's barn is abandoned, the swallows are building hundreds of intricate mud nests.

The barn on the left in the back is where I photographed the swallows.

There are also owls in the top of the silo. A bleached pile of mouse bones lay at the bottom of the ladder well.

The swallows are in these rafters

Funny how the barn falling apart is representative of how I feel about Grandma who is 99 next month and hanging in there, but the swallows remind me that life is built on impermanence and the resources left behind.

Fluent

2010-07-06T22:30:00.002-04:00

Fluent

I would love to live

Like a river flows,

Carried by the surprise

Of its own unfolding.

~ John O'Donohue~

Signs and Visitations in San Miguel de Allende

2009-10-28T21:23:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, after the drama of the storm, it rained steadily for some time. At about 9 o'clock last night as I took Choco out for his walk, it was still raining lightly. I opened the front wooden door, and then the outer metal door (which is sort of an open gate/grate-like thing.) We went out. I then closed the wooden door behind us and reached to close the metal door and there was a rather large lizard (well, not iguana-size, but not chameleon-size, either -- probably 8" long and a US quarter-size diameter) right by the latch (where I had just had my hand.) Startled the beejabbers out of me.

Frankly, I don't know how I hadn't knocked it off. My hand must have actually touched it. At any rate, I gasped. The lizard looked at me. I looked at the lizard. The is something so very, very old about a lizard's gaze. The lizard didn't move. Okay. I thought. That's weird. It was on the door, but didn't move when I rattled and slid the latch, swung the door open and shut. Maybe it's dead, I thought. But no. It was clearly looking at me. I looked back. Okay. I thought. I'll walk Choco and it will be gone when we get back. It wasn't. So I had to gingerly get in through both doors, then latch and close and padlock the metal door (which I do at night) which involved putting the lock on less than an inch from the lizard. Hell, less than 1/2" from the lizard. I really didn't want the lizard to panic and run up my arm or something. It didn't. I was relieved.

I kept thinking about the lizard. It wasn't dead, but maybe it was injured. No. What would an injured lizard be doing on a crossbar three feet off the ground on my door? Maybe it really was dead and someone had put it there as a hex. (I do live in a neighborhood of curanderas and witches, and this is not as completely far-fetched as it might seem...) Don't be ridiculous, I thought.

So I went upstairs and puttered around for a couple of hours. At about midnight, I was starting to get into my nightie and get ready for bed and I decided to go see if the lizard was gone. It wasn't. It looked at me. I looked at it. Back upstairs I decided the storm had either knocked it off an upper terrace or it had been washed out of somewhere and had climbed on the door to get safely out of the torrents of rain. Then I remembered that lizards are like snakes in that they go into a state of torpor when cold. The lizard must have gotten wet and cold and then crawled onto the metal door, which undoubtedly made it colder. Okay. I went to bed.

I got up at 8 to let Choco out. The lizard was still there. It looked at me. Shit, I thought. I carefully opened the door and closed it behind us. The sun hadn't yet cleared the hill and it was still cool. We walked. We returned. The lizard looked at me. I carefully opened the door and closed it behind us. I decided to wait until the sun had fully hit the metal door for at least an hour and the door and the lizard had a chance to warm up. At about 10, I went to the door. The lizard was gone. I looked everywhere around the door. Gone.

Pondering the Visitation of the Lizard, I consulted my Medicine Cards, which reminded me that Lizard is the Dreamer and the energy is from the Dream World of Symbols and Shadows. Pay attention She said, looking at me with her old, old eyes. To your Dreams, your Fears, your Synchronicities, your Inner World. Pay attention.

--Hope Swann

Love Thursday Eleven: Me, Mammers, and a Balloon

2009-10-14T23:03:00.003-04:00

See how happy Mom is after riding in her birthday balloon?

More Love Thursday at Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday Guest Post: Gideon's Bowlful

2009-10-08T00:00:00.005-04:00

I slept all the way to 6 AM this rainy Monday morning, and I might have slept longer if the demon I adore, a big black cat with a deviated septum who snerks and snores and stakes out the best part of the bed, hadn't begun wailing for food. He can't smell, and although his bowl is rarely empty, he lives with the persistent notion that there is no food left in the universe. I usually give in and get up and march him to the laundry room and put his hard head down in his bowl, and he snerks and snorts and dives in, eating like a stray who hasn't seen a meal in weeks.

But blissfully, this morning Gideon meandered heavy footed down the stairs, wailing all the while, and presumably found his way to his own bowl where there was no doubt food waiting. I rolled over in my warm bed next to my warm husband (who also snerks and snores), and he cuddled closer, waking briefly to say "We had a good weekend, didn't we?". I nodded into his shoulder, a strange feeling spreading in my chest - was that - could it be - happiness?

We had a completely unremarkable weekend by most standards. I went shopping for baby clothes with my pregnant daughter, an errand more of fun than necessity since the wee bairn is just now the size of a small apple, and Sunday night I cooked meatloaf and mashed potatoes for my son home from college. But I got out of the house without a panic attack, and I didn't cry over the baby clothes, or have a fit when the grated carrots went all over the place, and for two nights in a row I slept. Remarkable.

For a long time now I've been wandering heavy footed and wailing, certain that there was no sustenance for me in the Universe, and even when some well-meaning person shoved my head down into my full bowl, I refused to eat. I don't fool myself into believing that a handful of meds have healed me completely, but this morning Gideon found his own way and I went back to sleep, hopeful that I might be finding mine.

---J. Caroline Boatright

Carlos' Trick

2009-10-06T21:26:00.004-04:00

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

--Carlos Castaneda

Beckon Lovely Again

2009-10-02T08:40:00.009-04:00

I'm still crazy about Amy. (see old post here.)

Once again Chookooloonks has reminded me about Amy Krouse Rosenthal's wonderful videos 17 Things I Made and The Beckoning of Lovely. Here is her The Beckoning of Lovely one year later...

AND Amy is making a movie, but she's not doing it the Hollywood way...

Kids on the Ocean

2009-09-23T09:33:00.002-04:00

I've stolen these from my friend Sue Camarados who found them on the web. I'm grinning. Thought you might too.

Children writing about the ocean:

1) This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly, age 6)

2) Oysters' balls are called pearls. (Jerry, age 6)

3) If you are surrounded by ocean you are an island. If you don't have ocean all round you, you are incontinent. ( Wayne , age 7)

4) Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson . She's not my friend any more. (Kylie, age 6)

5) My uncle goes out in his boat with 2 other men and a woman and pots and comes back with crabs. (Millie, age 6)

6) When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes when the wind didn't blow the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would have been better off eating beans.. (William, age 7)

7) Mermaids live in the ocean. I like mermaids. They are beautiful and like their shiny tails, but how on earth do mermaids get pregnant? Like, really? (Helen, age 6)

8) Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves into chargers. (Christopher, age 7)

9) The ocean is made up of water and fish. Why the fish don't drown I don't know. (Bobby, age 6)

10) My dad was a sailor on the ocean. He knows all about the ocean. What he doesn't know is why he quit being a sailor and married my mom. (James, 7)

Grace in Small Things #197 of 365

2009-09-19T01:26:00.002-04:00

1. How the internet can make me laugh...

2. This post showing yoga having the same benefit as drinking...

3. This post of Carrie Fisher's about her weight and shape.

4. This post about trying to open plastic packaging

5. Sophia the Beagle's amazing chicken wire climb

Grace in Small Things #196 of 365

2009-09-17T21:52:00.002-04:00

1. Laptops with cameras!

2. Punk, supplier of infinite inexpensive entertainment

3. Judge rolling in the grass. Even after spine surgery, he's still got it!

4. Calling Cambo on his new cell phone he got for his FIFTEENTH birthday!

5. This blue lamp which gives me a little bit of joy everyday when it clicks on at 5pm and clicks off at 11.

Grace in Small Things

Grace in Small Things #192 of 365

2009-09-13T20:16:00.001-04:00

1. Me and My first best friend

2. This swing on Grandma's front porch (looking through the old parlor windows.

3. This painting Lisa is working on in my studio

4. This dog sitting on the bookshelf at the farm.

5. This glass heart

go to Grace in Small Things

Love Thursday #12: Grandma turns 98

2009-09-09T23:12:00.007-04:00

Grandma turned 98 last week and we had a big party at her farmhouse.

Grandma's greeting party as she comes down the van lift.

Grandma with one of her great grandkids and pooch.

Grace in Small Things #171 of 365

2009-08-23T22:00:00.001-04:00

1. This night sky in North Carolina Blue Ridge

2. This ampi-theater where I got to tell my stories on Saturday night

3. Mountain and foothill loot:

4. My loving cousins who loved on my dogs, spic n span'd my refrigerator, organized my studio, all for love. My ten year-old cousin left me her hand-drawn kisses:

5. Welcome home greeting party:

Grace in Small Things #169 of 365

2009-08-20T21:33:00.002-04:00

1. creamy goat cheese and pears, cold dry white wine

2. girls at any age sitting around the pool catching up

3. male forearms

4. excellent words whose sounds match their meaning like buzz and zing and sanctimonious

5. bedside tables

Love Thursday #11: Blowing Bubbles

2009-08-13T09:53:00.003-04:00

Don't you just love bubble blowing?

But it's hard work...

For more Love Thursday, Checkout Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #10: Stone Fruit

2009-08-06T00:00:00.008-04:00

Keb Mo played on the stereo and a terrific thunderstorm pounded outside while I made this

Stone Fruit Patchwork Bake. Something about baking a simple peach & cherry cobbler with

folks you love in mind--it feels important.

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #9: Grandma at 98

2009-07-30T09:07:00.005-04:00

Grandma turns 98 in August. I'm lucky to have her around.

We're throwing her a party at her house which is down the road from the rest home. She and her wheel chair will ride in a van with a lift. Her daddy built the house and many others in the area almost 100 years ago. She's still running things, so we won't be bringing any presents, just a bunch of love.

For more Love Thursday, checkout Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #8: Maters

2009-07-23T12:00:00.003-04:00

My friends who farm shower me with tomato love: Heirloom, Pineapple, German, Roma, yellow, cherry...

Kristin and Marc Daly's dining room table with bounty from their Albemarle, NC farm.

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #7: Grandma and Grandpa's Farm

2009-07-16T00:00:00.003-04:00

Visiting my Dad's parents when I was a kid meant climbing in the hayloft, riding on the back of a tractor, simple meals, and early bedtimes. Years later, I moved into the farmhouse for a time. Even now, I recognize the farm as being the only constant landmark in my life.

The spring pasture and Judge

The now dilapidated barns and silo viewed from the house

viewed from the pasture

The hayfield

rainy day cows

For more Love Thursday, checkout Chookooloonks.

Grace in Small Things #144 of 365

2009-07-12T19:03:00.005-04:00

1. Blowing Bubbles

2. Kristin's Tomato Pie, Mama's basil:

3. Kate's Wannabee sewn and sculpted all by her lonesome:

4. Backyard blooms despite the heat

5.Punkadoo (click to get a better look.)

Love Thursday #6: Watermelon!

2009-07-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks!

Grace in Small Things #139

2009-07-07T22:04:00.003-04:00

1. This cashier

with July 4th Hair.

This girl.

These gals.

4. and this studio

These parents.

Revisiting Max Ehrmann

2009-07-07T13:22:00.003-04:00

Because it's still inspiring...

Desiderata

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Love Thursday #5: Purpley Certain

2009-07-02T01:00:00.001-04:00

My friend Hope decided I must have her purpley chair. She and her husband dropped it off at my house Sunday. I christened it with my favorite blue pillow. Then spent the rest of the night walking in and out of the sun room to look at it. I get a little jolt everytime I see it's bright bold poofiness.

For more Love Thursday, checkout Chookooloonks.

Grace in Small Things #131: It's Always the Little Things

2009-06-30T00:01:00.007-04:00

Grace in Small Things is a place I visit most days to list five things

for which I'm grateful. You can do it, too. Follow the link.

I've made it to #131:

1. This Book in which today I

cracked the spine, burned, spit,

and drew a purpley chair on a page

dripped candle wax on a page

smashed olives between pages

and tonight I'm sleeping with it.

2. This Procrastination thing. Always turns out to be for the best. Now if I could just roll with it!

3. This Magazine. I especially like the "Readers Write" section where readers tell stories on given topics. Real eye into the soul stuff.

4. This Woman who flounced around in Deep Water Aerobics today.

5. This Place where I work.

Where I was so happy to be tonight (and not just because I was procrastinating a deadline!)

A Gift from Elspeth

2009-06-27T11:37:00.006-04:00

LoLaSuzanne photo of flowers by the Rio Grande

Our simplest gesture or gift, freely given, without expectation of return, can deeply touch someone and lift their spirits. We never know.

Before I "went off to do my own thing" I used to work in advertising. Sometimes at lunch I would go and pick flowers with some of my friends/co-workers, then we would pile into my car and drive around, stopping to give flowers to random people standing at the roadside. Suspicious of being given something freely by a complete stranger, some people would either take a while to accept the flower or would not take it at all. Most people, however, were touched by the gesture and would accept the bloom with a smile and an expression of gratitude.

My clearest memory is of the old man standing on the sidewalk, wearing a suit, holding a large briefcase. I pulled my car over and one of the girls hopped out and gave him a flower. He thanked her and, as we drove off, I looked in the rear view mirror. I saw him smiling at the flower. Then he opened his briefcase and carefully placed it inside.

--Elspeth in Trinidad and Tobago

Love Thursday #4: Traveller

2009-06-25T00:00:00.009-04:00

He can't walk, but he can ride.

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks.

Daddio

2009-06-21T00:01:00.002-04:00

Grace in Small Things One Hundred Twenty Three

1. The way he called me Laurie when I was a little girl.

2. The way he built a dog "structure" for Tuck, my first dog.

3. The way he is conservative but genuine and open minded and fair.

4. The way he looks after my stepmother.

5. The way he looks after me.

Recycling Daffodils

2009-06-20T00:00:00.011-04:00

In 1926, men built Highway 21 right smack dab through the tiny town of Harmony, North Carolina and straight up Great Granddaddy's farm. The mules and plows kicked up the buttercups Great Grandma planted at the side of the country road and flung them to the wind.

Now ninety years later, they show up everywhere--the middle of the hayfield, against the gutter of the old Baptist church, and here next to cowpath way out in the pasture.

Great Grandma's Buttercups wind up in Pasture photo by LoLaSuzanne

Love Thursday #3: Heir

2009-06-18T00:04:00.003-04:00

my backyard gardenias passed down from a long line of grandmas (photo by LoLaSuzaanne)

My great great grandmother gave her six year old granddaughter Lucile clippings from her gardenia bush. Lucile nursed those budlings until they were big enough to plant around the brick farmhouse her daddy built.

Grandma Lucile eventually rooted clippings from the same bushes for her own grandkids including me. The smell of these June blooms in my backyard reminds me of my connection to this line of practical gardenia-growing women. The ones who, despite a scarcity of funds, found a way to share beauty all the way down to me. The original bushes, still at the farmhouse, are not as prolific as they once were but have progeny across the land.

At almost 98, Grandma can't see the buds anymore but when I visit her this week, I'm hoping she can still smell the clippings I'll bring along.

**Check out more Love Thursday at Chookooloonks.**

Love Thursday #2 Being Goofy

2009-06-11T00:01:00.006-04:00

Remember how you used to play with funny eye-glasses just to make your cousins laugh?

...and your little dog too?

Love Thursday is a Chookooloonks creation.

New Under the Sun

2009-06-09T13:07:00.007-04:00

Costa Rica photo taken by LoLaSuzanne

You think in your idle hours that there is literature, history, science behind you

so accumulated as to exhaust thought and prescribe your own future.

In your sane hour, you shall see

that not a line has yet been written:

that for all the poetry that is in the world

your first sensation on entering a wood or standing on the shore of a lake

has not been charted yet.

It remains for you;

so does all thought, all objects, all life remain unwritten still.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walden: And Other Writings

June

2009-06-06T22:09:00.000-04:00

"Each flower, leaf

And blade of turf --

Small love-notes sent

From air to earth."

-John Updike

At Home or Abroad

2009-06-05T23:59:00.001-04:00

Choose

The single clenched fist lifted and ready,

Or the open hand held out and waiting.

Choose:

For we meet by one or the other.

--Carl Sandburg

Love Thursday #1

2009-06-04T09:47:00.020-04:00

Thursdays, the soulful Chookooloonks publishes a post, a photo, and a song she loves. I'm not as prolific as she, but I'm inspired to have my own Love Thursday.

Judge at six months.

I can think of no better place to start Love Thursday on LoLaSuzanne than with my favorite four-legged creature. Especially today, when my little Judge has returned home after 4 days in the hospital. He's had spine surgery and now resembles Frankenstein's dog with his staples and shaved back, but he's home today! I'm confident he will recover fully as I've spent the last nine years under the spell of the resilient Judge.

Direction

2009-05-23T20:10:00.007-04:00

Making Peace

2009-05-18T22:16:00.005-04:00

Human Peace Sign--Budapest--2006--Google Images

I don’t recall meeting my biological father until I was about twelve years old. My mom met my stepdad when I was four days old and he was the man who raised me as his daughter.

My two older sisters remember our parent’s marriage. I do not. They clearly resemble our bio-dad, but I do not. This never bothered me, until I moved out of the house. As a child, I learned bio-dad wasn’t well thought of in our home and that he had been known to mistreat people once or thrice. The message I got was that he never deserved to be in our lives.

No longer living at home, I made a decision to get to know my biological father better, to complete that missing part of my DNA. I knew we had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and migraine headaches in common. It would take many years before I would find a more admirable connection with him.

As I started my relationship with him at 22 years old, he would tell me stories about the feral cats that began showing up in his back yard. At first it was one or two cats, then they began having babies. Hearing about his wild cats was pleasing to me, and in some way I felt closer to him because of it.

Many years later, a feral cat showed up in my backyard. His coat was matted and part of his ear was missing. I made friends with this cat and his health improved. He let me pet him and care for him. If you’ve ever nursed an animal back to health, you know that’s a special relationship.

Only recently did I make the connection that my fascination with animals, and taking care of them was something I shared with my bio Dad. I’ve chosen to see his more admirable qualities, knowing that there is at least a little good in anyone if we look close enough.

--Leah from The Daily Piglet

Thank your Lucky Stars

2009-05-17T22:51:00.010-04:00

photo by LoLaSuzanne, outside Johannesburg, South Africa 2008

Serendipity

--the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely

--wikipedia definition

Simple

2009-05-08T20:32:00.014-04:00

my backyard LoLaSuzanne May 2009

I crawl out of the car, haul out purse, various files, loose papers, slam the door shut with my hip. I catch a heel on the curb, throw out my arms for balance. Files somersault and papers billow out to horizon and float to lawn. I roll eyes to sky. I’m so tired I consider walking away.

Instead, I pick it all up, drag myself to the front steps. I'm forced to drop the whole business on the porch when I discover I have already misplaced my keys. The guys painting the house stop pretending they're working and openly guffaw.

I sigh big. As in everything-is-a-production big. The keys turn up in my purse and I nod at the painters as I twist the doorknob.

Inside, I promptly drop an earring in the toilet. Failing to take into account the degree of misjudgment possible, I lean over the bowl, bump my head on the raised lid, fall into the wall, and while steadying myself, use the commode handle for leverage. The earring floats in a little circle before it disappears.

Through the den’s glass doors, I catch sight of one of the workers on the rear deck. His face is ruddy and wrinkled. He’s sitting on my railing staring into my house. I almost march out to the deck and explode. Almost.

Just then the sun glints off the object of his concentration. Oh. The wind chimes. I collapse on the sofa and watch him watch the bells. He steps down from the railing and shuffles closer. There is no wind and I wonder what he sees in the stationary metal and glass. With a single finger, he thumps the mobile’s center bar. He's all grin and dimples as the bells and crystals sing at once. When the chimes quiet, he picks up his paint bucket and leaves the deck.

--LoLaSuzanne

(another version of this piece published in Moonshine, 2007)

It's All Art

2009-04-26T20:27:00.001-04:00

The pattern created in a Swedish forest by logging tracks and trees downed by Hurricane Gudrun

in January 2005.

"It's as if the heavens had sent a message to the forest industry reminding them that, in this area, deciduous trees would have withstood the winds much better than pine."
—Joakim "Jocke" Berglund, who took this photograph from a Cessna aircraft

Sigh

2009-04-23T22:32:00.002-04:00

SoulCollage by LoLaSuzanne (using others' images.)

: )

2009-04-22T13:51:00.004-04:00

You make me smile all over my face.

--Ian Hobson, Age 5

from the Kid Quotes card at Kate Harper Designs.

Home

2009-04-19T01:53:00.002-04:00

Today is my 44^th birthday. Before now, I have thought of 44 as number on the back of Michael Jordan’s jersey, but today I can’t remember if he wore that number while in Chicago or Chapel Hill. This is what it’s like to be 44.

44 is a very balanced number. Other balanced numbers: 11, 22, 33. At 11, I was a Little House on the Prairie fanatic. I wore granny dresses and bonnets to school and carried my lunch in a tin pail, only things Laura Ingalls would have eaten. At 22, I owned my first car, a 1980 Buick Skylark that my dad convinced me was the perfect vehicle, even though I considered it an old-lady car. At 33, I was ten years into my career as a teacher, the one job I said, back when I was 22, that I never, ever wanted. I taught for 17 years but don’t anymore, surprised to find that I don’t miss it.

At 44, there is little I want. I am content, blissful at times, with daily pleasures: morning coffee that my husband makes and brings to me in bed, the New York Times crossword puzzle, the smile of my dog, good wine, good words, books on shelves in every room. I have become what I never thought I would become: a homebody. Chicago, Chapel Hill—who cares? 44 years from now, I’ll be happy to remember who Michael Jordan is.

--Jennifer Hubbard

So What is There to Realize?

2009-04-16T17:04:00.005-04:00

Peonies bloom on peony trees.

A cat doesn't become a chicken.

Tulips are tulips, not roses.

Why can't we realize this true fact?

I am blooming as I am in my life, just as a peony blooms on a peony tree.

Further, a beautiful peony flower does not worry about when it will wilt and fall to the ground.

It does not compete with the flower next to it; rather it blooms with its whole self.

~Sensie Ogui

Whole Hearted Spring

2009-04-14T12:04:00.012-04:00

Spring from my window--LoLaSuzanne

Below is from the book Oneness, Great Principles Shared by All Religions:

Be Wholehearted.

Wheresoever you go, employ all your heart.

--Confucianism

He who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

--Christianity

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.

--Judaism

Free yourself from doubt and you will find your life quickened in the goodness of God.

--Shintoism

Neither eating, nor fasting nor penance, nor sacrifice, nor observance of the seasons, purify a mortal who has not conquered his doubt.

--Buddhism

Beckon Lovely

2009-04-02T11:23:00.005-04:00

I am crazy about Amy.

Amy is a person who likes to make things. She made this wonderful video called 17 things I made which made me want to make things and make a video about making things.

But Amy's video went even further...it challenged us, the viewers, to meet her in Chicago to help her make the eighteenth thing and that video, The Beckoning of Lovely, is amazing and hopeful. I'm hoping to catch up with Amy to make more things when she gets to Washington DC in May. Here are the two outstanding videos.

17 things I made

The Beckoning of Lovely

Wanna be involved?

Check out Amy's website Who is Amy? Beckon lovely.

These Pants

2009-03-25T16:20:00.000-04:00

Grace in Small Things #Thirty-Four

2009-03-24T10:10:00.006-04:00

So far, I'm still cooking over at Grace in Small Things. There's something about noting five teeny tiny things a day that make you happy. Noting compels you to notice.

1. My shift at the help desk at the y. Assisting others is always upwardly mobile. Even a snippy customer pushes my growth.
2. Juan, the head yard dude, mowing and cutting and mulching and prettifying. I hope I get to keep him.
3. Opening ups packages
4. Co-worker greetings
5. Familiarity, not the "breeds contempt" kind, the loving kind: my bent paged journal, friends familiar with my tics, pets familiar with my habits, etc.

Mulling over others' GiST lists is a' whole 'nother joy. Check it out.

Read more: "Schmutzie.com: Grace In Small Things: A Challenge For All Of Us" -http://www.schmutzie.com/2008/11/grace-in-small-things.html#ixzz0AgHE3JMQ

One Prayer

2009-03-10T19:01:00.007-04:00

I am of the family of the universe, and with all of us together I do not fear being alone; I can reach out and touch a rock or a hand or dip my feet in water. Always there is some body close by, and when I speak I am answered by a plane's roar or the bird's whistling or the voices of others in conversation far apart from me. When I lie down to sleep, I am in the company of the dark and the stars.

Breathe to me, sheep in the meadow. Sun and moon, I smile at you both and spread my arms in affection and lay myself down at full length for the earth to know I love it too and am never to be separated from it. In no way shall death part us.

--David Ignatow

from Earth Prayers from around the World edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon

Snow & Beans in Carolina

2009-03-05T14:36:00.013-05:00

I know a lot of folks living here aren't from around here - and y'all have a big time when the locals get all excited at the mention of a little snow. I don't mind. Everybody seems silly to somebody over something sometime.

The truth for me is that I AM excited at the mention of a little snow. This morning while my coffee was perking I put a pound of pinto beans out to soak, humming a Hank Williams' song, one of my Aunt Pearl's favorites, and I can still hear her tuneless warbling - why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart? A really good question, but this morning there were bigger fish to fry, or at least beans to soak.

I bought smoked pigs knuckles at the Harris Teeter Friday, wondering all the while if I'd completely lost my mind or just found a particular brand of sane. My daughter retched a little when she saw what was in the grocery bag, but she always was delicate when it comes to animal parts, and I was listening to a Higher Voice anyway - the one that whispers - snow. Snow. It. Might. Snow. Put a pot of beans on, 'cause it might snow.

I simmered and stirred all Saturday evening, adding onions and salt and whatever else Aunt Pearl's voice in my ear said. I surprised myself and her with a near perfect round of cornbread baked in her iron skillet from ingredients I had in my cabinet.

I've got a pot of pinto beans cooked. Calling for snow. Why can't I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold cold heart?

--Caroline Boatright

Photos: snow dog by Christmas w/a K on Flickr
tulips by Alan1954 on Flickr

It all Matters, Even TV

2009-02-22T10:31:00.013-05:00

Grandma Gillespie was a semi-invalid curmudgeon, and in my senior year of high school, she moved in with us. Mom and my stepdad had started a restaurant business which kept them busy until late into the night. So grandma's care, from the time I got home from school until she went to bed, was left to me, the obstinate teenager. My twelve year-old brother Johnny was trapped in the crossfire.

Grandma hated having to be cared for and she hated moving away from her lifetime home in North Carolina. Her daily gloom infected Johnny and me, so our days were a series of scowling contests. The TV show The Jeffersons saved our lives.

We all liked to watch the show and I liked to make Johnny laugh, so I bopped around the den singing that upbeat Jefferson’s theme song into my hairbrush microphone. Mid-dance, I caught my grandmother, doubled over laughing. Eyes squeezed shut, tears rolling, laughing. In that moment, everything slowed down and I could hear my own heart beating. I saw that she was no crabby old woman who hated life—she was just a girl who was sad who wanted to laugh, too.

I realized attitude meant everything and when I changed mine, she changed hers. The three of us laughed regularly after that. I've never regretted that change of heart and Grandma's last year with us at home in Charleston was one of our best.

--LoLaSuzanne

SoulCollage Card by LoLaSuzanne (photographs originally from Nat'l Geographic Magazine)

Clutter

2009-02-19T09:03:00.004-05:00

Before he left, the man I loved told me all my faults. "I'm only trying to help you," he explained. I put the things he said in an imaginary box and jammed it onto a high shelf. At first it fell off a lot.

Each time, I had to examine everything that spilled out before I could shut the lid and put it back. Months passed. It almost never falls anymore. When it does, a lot less stuff comes out. Soon, I'm going to get rid of that box. I could really use the shelf space.

---Kathleen Stoner

originally published in the Washington Post

Grace in Small Things

2009-02-17T13:17:00.019-05:00

I just posted my first entry over at Grace in Small Things:

GiST Numero Uno (things I'm grateful for)

1. Judge and Punk, two little heartbeats running around my house making me smile, stamp my feet, crack up, and press on.

2. My brother, whose kindnesses match infinity.

3. Mom, who everyday, strives for a great attitude, and a fresh outlook, and works to buck up and who is always open to love.

4. Daddy, who everyday, finds a practical way to feed, make comfortable and love my stepmother who is classily fading into Alzheimers.

5. The yard dudes who swarm over the lawn like locusts, cutting and sawing, and trimming and leaf blowing. And then swarm out.

I know the above are all big things, especially the yard dudes, but how can you leave out your immediate family, at least on the first day? I'll write about that little guy at the drugstore who helped me clean up the mess I made when I dropped the Lysol bottle on aisle 3 eventually.

I love the idea of writing five things I'm grateful for every day (or, let's face it, most days) in a place reserved for honoring those things. If you'd like to get in the habit of writing down your five things-- here is a great place to do that.

--LoLaSuzanne

Photos: Boston Terrier Judge by LoLaSuzanne

Schipperke-ish Punk by LoLaSuzanne

Be Where You Are

2009-02-14T23:01:00.016-05:00

Where ever you go, dig your hole deep.

--Portuguese saying

Photo Costa Rica Ruta by LoLaSuzanne

How To Say It

2009-02-13T21:25:00.010-05:00

Speak at the proper time
Speak in line with the truth
Speak gently
Speak beneficially
Speak with a friendly heart

Speech having these five characteristics are words well-spoken, are not words badly-spoken, are blameless words that the wise do not criticize.

-The Bhikkhus Code of Discipline

Photo: Audience by LoLaSuzanne

All You Need

2009-02-12T23:25:00.011-05:00

A turning point in my life was when I became conscious of love.

I spent most of my early life in a "no love" zone. I felt like I was a burden to my parents. I felt like I wasn't worthy of people's love. My defense was that most of my life I kept love for others at arms length. And I used a 10 foot pole when it came to self love. One day I was sitting in a food court at a mall waiting for my wife. The mall was crowded so she came walking in looking around, but didn't see me. I just sat there watching her search and I felt the warm, wonderful rush of love. For the first time in my life I was conscious of the feelings of love.

After that I started thinking. What if I felt love for everyone in the food court? How great would that be? And it was great.

Since that day I've fed those seeds of love and they have grown in me. I love people so easy now. I'm a lot happier.

The freakin’ Beatles were right.

--Bob Hayes

Green Peace

2009-02-11T22:48:00.005-05:00

I found this on

http://www.molechocolate.com/?m=200610

World Directive

2009-02-11T08:35:00.007-05:00

My ex-husband was a pilot. We often flew in our small plane over the flat farmlands of Michigan. One day, in the middle of nowhere, we went over a stand of huge evergreen trees that had been planted, long ago, to read (from the air) BE KIND.

I was stunned. Who had planted them? and when? And mostly, why? It was in the 70's and I wondered why they (he? she?) hadn't "written" the word Love or Peace. At that time, I thought the trees were rather quaint. But over the years, they have haunted me.
I have thought about them so much that recently I began to wonder if I had imagined them. So I called Alan and asked him if he remembered the trees. He did. I wonder if they are still there.

Now, after 30 years, I know that kindness encompasses all aspects of love and peace and if I ruled the world and had to make one World Directive it would be just that: Be Kind.

--Hope Swann

Peace

2009-02-10T11:24:00.014-05:00

There is wisdom in accepting what you are...

It is difficult to be what you are not.

Being what you are doesn't require any effort.

When you become wise, you accept yourself the way you are, and the complete acceptance of yourself becomes the complete acceptance of everyone else.

-'The Mastery of Love' Don Miguel Ruiz

Photo: Walking Colorado--LoLaSuzanne

Namaste

2009-02-09T11:06:00.009-05:00

I bow to you.

The light in me honors the light in you.

All that is best in me greets all that is best in you.

I bow to the light in you.

Photo: Tree in Italian Switzerland by LoLaSuzanne

Anti-Gloom

2009-02-07T13:34:00.003-05:00

Winter got you down? Press here.