Dreams

Beautiful  isn’t it!  What I would give to get to live in a place like this. I have had dreams of a silent retreat, a place to recoup and refresh. A place like in Tolkien's words "a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or storytelling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all." This has been my dream for many many years. But ( I hate buts) it is still just a dream. I wrote a poem about dreams the other day it is not a very happy poem and I am a little afraid to share it with you because it shows some of my worst sides, anger, disappointment, jealousy. I would assume you like my funnier side. Will you stay with me if you know my darker side? I think I will risk it.

Dreams , I think are haunting spirits.
Not the dreams of sleep.
The deep, longing , dreams of when you are fully awake.
Dreams you can see in that other eye and feel on your skin and make you scream inside for things far from reach.
Dreams , I think are haunting spirits that suck the air from your lungs,
That tease and taunt and call to mind all that isn't.
Dreams are soul stealers that keep you from living what is called now.
These are dreams , I think .

Not everyone gets to live their "dream" so maybe we can just live now. Peace . 12:44 AM 4/13/2013

Well are you still there? I don’t always think sweet birdsong thoughts but it doesn’t make those thoughts any less true than the ones I have here. I still dream of a place like Rivendell but maybe it isn’t on this side. If I find it here you are more than welcome anytime. Peace, till we visit again!

Adventure in the neighborhood!

I told you that I was going to try to make everything into an adventure so I decided that taking a walk could be an adventure! I worked all morning trying to learn to work my new camera then took off outside around the house!

These beauties were one of the first I saw!  Beautiful weeds in my front yard! I won’t mow till they are gone! (Our neighbors love us)

The pic above must look like a blob of greens!  But the stalks are growing and the ants are coming (they can’t bloom without the ants helping them) and they will soon be beautiful pink and white peonies! My absolute - almost - pretty sure my favorite flower!  When I was a kid there was what I called “the peony patch” Just down the hill from my house.  I loved going down there when they were in bloom. It was an adventure! It was always near Mothers Day so I would get on my bike and head down the hill to the patch and  pilfer through the buckets and buy the best of the “seconds” for my mom!  (The first grade quality went to florists around the area). It’s kind of sad that now you can get peonies almost year round.    Now they are grown in several different states and countries with different growing seasons like Washington State, Oregon, South America, New Zealand, Israel and Holland. I just look forward to them in my yard in May! ( I’ll take a picture when they bloom )

• Can you see what I caught in the lens? It's a May Fly I think on this Japanese Maple!  I’m still in my yard! I guess you don’t have to go too far to  find an adventure! This bush is heavenly when in full bloom!  Its name is “Bridal Wreath”. I just gush over it when using it in a wedding.  It leaves a little snow of blooms following the bride down the aisle!

I finally made it out of my yard and 3 houses up the street!  I’m curious if the folks inside were looking out their windows as I wandered into their front yards!  This is a Dogwood, and the state flower of Arkansas and  also a symbol of the Church.  I love the symbolism of the crucifixion of Christ, nature has done a beautiful depiction of a horrific experience.  Check out this description of the symbolism: http://www.visualforces.com/christian/photography/nature/the-dogwood/.

Last but not least the lowly Dandy Lion! Unless you were just overwhelmed with allergies as a child this little bloom was a wonder! Fully bloomed you would pluck it up and blow! Wonder of wonders as you watched the individual petals drifted up, up and away!

A walk in the neighborhood can be an adventure as well as a walk down memory lane so get out there maybe take your camera and share with me  what you find! Peace, till we visit again! Happy Trails To You!

What If's and Promises....

I woke up from a nap this afternoon singing "what ifs and promises" I scrambled to the computer thinking it was the "Love Story" theme. Not that! So I typed in random words I thought I knew and it was "We've only just begun" by the Carpenters."What if's'" must have been in my thoughts because I had planned to blog about them again today. What ifs and promises, a kiss for luck and we're on our way, we've only just begun. It's "white lace and promises" dim whit! ( Me not you my precious readers)! It sure did seem to fit what I was ready to blog about, shoot I thought I had the perfect segue into my blog!
I feel like I need to apologize to my readers. I almost feel like I lied to you, but I promise I will never ever do that!
If you remember in the first blog I laid out a plan that Hartley and I thought we would be following. It was kind of a list (without the bullet points because I hadn't learned about this at the time). Then we talked about the what ifs, remember? The list started off with "what if Hartley doesn't pass the course?". It didn't even occur to me to start that list with "what if Hartley doesn't get into the program?"  This is a very very smart man we are talking about! He has a B.A., M. Div. and a Th.M. That last degree was from Duke I am very proud to say! This is no dummy but he was not accepted into the Bridge CELTA program in Denver. Needless to say we have had a very upside down kind of a few days. I didn't want to blog because I was embarrassed and felt like I had misled you in some way. Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind I thought this could happen but I didn't give it much weight at all. If I had given it any weight you would have known about it. We were banking on this. Hopes were high, dreams awakening, adventure was just ahead!
Now what? Now that we have sort of caught our breath and almost stopped wanting to hurt someone Hartley is looking at other certifications. These may not carry the same weight as a CERTA but folks are teaching English all over the world with less.
My blog started out with us going on an adventure and Hartley reminded me that anything can be an adventure. My pledge to you is to look for an adventure in everything I do and hopefully inspire you to the same.

"Sharing horizons that are new to us. Watching the signs along the way. Talkin' it over, just the two of us. Workin' together day to day, together, together"

Read more: THE CARPENTERS - WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN LYRICS  A little corny but a little inspirational too!
Peace, till we visit again! Thanks for reading today!

          

I'm a leaper!

Good afternoon! You need to know something about me. I have a little manic tendency to jump into something with both feet. No research, study, not much thought, I'm a "leaper". It seems no medicines, husband, friends can stop me before I leap!
My blog for example:
Post #1 I heard some words from a friend's mouth and by that evening the first post was up for the world to see! I didn't know about formatting, how to add color (properly), didn't use spell check (I didn't know where it was and I was afraid if I didn't push publish it was never going to happen), didn't have a real "theme" that would make my blog followable, I just jumped in!

POST #2 still hadn't found spell check but I loved playing with the colors! I have no idea how I ended up with such a mishmash! There was also this problem with random bold print showing up here and there! I was trying to stick to a themeish (my word) sort of line but I am not really sure it happened.
The theme "Adventure Awaiting." Hartley says that can be anything from getting married to learning underwater basket weaving! I have to have a solid theme(it's yet to come). I figured out the bold bit! This laptop (bless Charlotte for it) has spirits living in it and when you press certain buttons like B for example words turn bold,sometimes.
Post #3 found spell check! I also found a customize your format place! I can't always get back to these places even if they are right in front of me! It's a learning not leaping kind of thing now! I still don't know how that 14" of blankness got on the end of my blog!
Post #4 spell check checked! Got a new font from a spot at the top of my blog that says Design! My whole world changed! Colors, new fonts, customizing my blog, (each area can have its own font how cool is that!) And then there were "gadgets"! I wanted every gadget I could find until I looked at the monster I had created. Things were flashing and moving along the sides of the post that made it totally unreadable! It was fun though! Another "leaper" kind of behavior!
Post#5 Looks good and since I like to hear myself talk I think it sounds pretty good too! Yeah! Spell check! Now is there a button for commas and stuff?
Post#6 Love what I've got to say and looks good too! Now for a theme.
Peace until we visit again! Happy April Fools Day! I'm not really looking for a theme!!!