these days

These days I am savouring...

• back yard creatures...turtles...dragon flies, northern orioles, egrets...and yes my raccoon friends, even your shenanigans are worthy of my admiration. 
• an entire morning spent with my Mom...breakfast, garden centre and lunch together - garnered out of the side of truck. 
• perfect laundry hangin’ days. 
• hot tub time...our girls, their daddy, and a Sunday morning ritual. 
• hands in the dirt and the joy of planting. 
• returning to whole foods again...and again.
• the anticipation of our best tomato crop yet...after a wonderful visit to Twig and Tree Farm.

How about you? What are you savouring these days? Share a list or a link!

I fixed my comments so that anyone and everyone can comment simply using your name!

feeling deeply

I fear feeling this deeply...
It’s the stuff I’m made up of...vast heart.
Once in a gathering of leaders I was affirmed as The Heart in a room full of Heads.
I winced. “I’m a thinker too you know!”
I often resist, deny, and recoil from it’s depth. My heart.
Perceptions of being too sensitive, too emotional...equated with weakness in a culture placing salient value on rational, logical and intellectual smarts.
This journey of embracing my emotional depth and strength is filled with holy tension, trans-formative process and hopeful possibility.

I fear feeling this deeply...
It triggers the mind chatter, the incessant ruminative analysis and replay.
It quickens the habitual vibration of anxiety and overwhelm.
It’s like dense matter...deep, heavy and blue.

I fear feeling this deeply...
I long for spaciousness, shelves to place the countless layers.
I wait for windows, doors and portals to move through...
opening opening opening
to that breezy, golden eventide
the cool afterglow of relief and inspiration 

after making it through a long hot day.
I watch for signs, lovely gifts, unfolding paths, sacred reminders.
I turn to silence, to the well spring within.
I listen.

It speaks.
It is beloved. My heart.
It reveals Divine whispers.
It teaches, creates, nourishes, nurtures, and inspires.
It loves.
It’s gifts of equanimity, connection, wonder and creativity have been many.
It allows me to hold space for others in compassion and with tenderness.
It recognizes the loneliness in another.
It allows me to offer radiant companionship.
It is a light as we make our way out of dark places and become more alive together.

And I remember...
I need heart...lots of heart. We all do.
I need art, music and story...soul sustenance to inspire, to awaken, to remind me of my humanity.

And I remember...
When I open up my heart...offering vulnerability and emotion...
I find a community of Yes, a sigh of relief in another, a sweet Amen.

It’s part of why I write here. To provide a Yes and Amen.
To those who speak the Amen to me...

To the artists, musicians and writers, the highly sensitive, the intuitive...

To those willing to open up the vast measures of their hearts...

To you I say...

You are Light, You are Loveliness, You are Strength. You are Inspiration.
To you I say...Yes and Amen.

Loving this song "Amen" by Sarah Slean...it's inspiring strength and poetic ramblings on my journey into feeling deeply.

Thanks to my SoulFriend who played Sarah for me on our SoulDate.

insatiable

It's insatiable...
Their love for books. I never dreamed that I’d have to put limits on reading and writing time at our house. If you ask Karis what she wants to be when she grows up, you’ll hear...”Massage Therapist and Author/Illustrator!”

Selah wants to write children’s books and to be a teacher. She had the opportunity to attend a literacy conference hosted by our school board last week. She was over the moon with excitement.

She met and cartooned with author, illustrator and familiar CBC Radio voice Kevin Sylvester who has written one of her favorite book series, the Neil Flambe Capers. She came home totally inspired.

Neil Flambe and the Aztec Abduction is up for the 2012 Silver Birch award...it was the Niagara Regional Winner at the DSBN Literacy Conference.

I love it. I love the creativity and imagination in their writing and illustrations. 
I love how they get lost in a story. 
I love easing into a restful evening with all 4 of us cuddled up reading quietly. 
I love that each of us are now most concerned with what books we’re bringing along when we’re packing for vacation.
 
I hope I can help to feed their passion and see them grow with it!
 
If you have a young writer in your life, here are a couple of links to fun, on-line writing sites:
Little Bird Tales - create, record and share stories on-line - upload your own photos or illustrations.
Storybird - a fun space to compose art inspired stories.

What creative passions are calling you? How do you feed your passion?
What recent reads do you recommend for kids or adults?

these days

These days I am savouring...

• parties with friends and family, birthday cake, cupcakes and laughter, celebrating the one who makes me laugh and loves me well...husband and daddy. 
• track n’ field day and a longed for ribbon for a sweet girl. 
• lush Spring greens. 
• time around the table with new Canadians...sharing English, conversation and friendship. 
• faces. I’m looking forward to learning more and working on portraiture. 
• the process. Planting seeds of courage in my soul...speaking my truth & embracing freedom of expression. 
• water. Our cistern was empty last night but we awoke to a sweet rainfall that had fallen all night long...filling our tank...allowing for hot showers. Awareness of something that we often take for granted and that so many go without.

What about you? What are you savouring these days? Share a list or a link!

weekend

The joy and wonder of welcoming a sweet new baby. A cousin by heart.

 Muffin kindness shared with friends. Our all time favourite Spelt Pumpkin Spice and our new favourite Quinoa Blueberry Pecan...so glad that my foodie friend Jenn shared this recipe! With their protein power packing punch these muffins are sure to be a regular in our home. Good for nursing mommies too!

 Seedlings peering out...kitty peeking in. 

Yes, my windows really are this dirty...ah the freedom of priority management.

Instead of polishing windows...we are dreaming, sketching and making plans for our veggie garden!

 Finishing off last year's preserved harvest...

while enjoying a tart & tangy, refreshing start to this season's bounty!

 Weekending moments savoured.

What moments are punctuating your weekend?

a boy and his briefcase

While hiking with friends over Easter weekend, one of our favourite people brought a new treasure along with him. A special gift received from his Grandpa just the day before. 

It gave everyone such joy to see him diligently and proudly carrying his briefcase along our rocky path. 

What a great reminder that many of life's little joys are simple and often second hand. 

What an inspiration to boldly love the things that feel like treasures to us...the things that awaken our sense of possibility and wonder...the things that remind us of our uniqueness and importance as we traverse life's path.

april

I sit listening to the patter of rain, sipping from a freshly brewed pot of tea, lost in gratitude for April’s gifts. I revel in the news of the birth of a dear baby...excitement building and arms itching to gather him close and welcome him later today. But first, some April moments in reflection...and then some baking, shopping and wrapping!

I have known years of the angst that accompanies theological deconstruction. It has at times made Easter weekend tricky for me in light of evolving Christology and Atonement Theory. This Spring, I have felt the reverberations of this hard soul work soften and quiet. A fresh April breeze has blown and I breath deeply of the freedom moving me beyond words and ideas and deeper into mystery and wonder.

 

I am savouring many sweet April moments of freedom, wonder and joy...
Getting up before dawn and meeting with dearest friends to await the sunrise. Singing to the dawn...heralding new light, resurrection and abundance. Enjoying a river side breakfast picnic and egg hunt, then gathering around the bonfire to tell an enduring story of surrender and freedom. Pondering Jesus’ path of non-resistance, life leading to death, death leading to life. Hiking together to the rushing waters of the Gorge, sun on our faces. 

 Waiting - Watching - Light - Journey - Community 

This April, our house is filled with eggs, nests and birds reminding us that tender fragile hopes nestled in faith and tended with love often give way to winged and wonderful realities. 

This Spring I am celebrating a fledgling Community of souls whose wings are stretching out and whose flight is imminent and looking beautiful. 

I am giving thanks for my family who speak truth and life into each others' hearts. 

I am filled with gratitude for the children in my life and for the joy and imagination that they share!

 

 

Freedom, Wonder and Joy to you in this new week!