If we were having coffee: Quiet week edition

Foggy, dewy morning in the meadow.

Part of doing something is listening.  We are listening.  To the sun.  To the stars.  To the wind.

~ Madeleine L’Engle, Swiftly Tilting Planet

Friday morning meditation.

If we were having coffee, tea, water, wine, beer, or whatever your beverage of choice happens to be, I would be happy to see you again.  I would also advise you to keep your distance.  We’ll save the hugs for next week (if you’re amenable to hugs, that is).  A virus has invaded my body, and I have been sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and feverish.  I am much better today than I was earlier in the week.  A little TLC (Tender Loving Care) and some hot & sour soup from Lynn’s Kitchen (where they “cook with love”) have helped the healing process along.  I swear by hot & sour soup when it comes to curing the common cold.  Miso soup works, too.  I would have made it myself, but I wasn’t feeling up to it.

How are you?  In fine fettle, I hope.  What have you been up to lately?  Have you gone on any great adventures?  Traveled somewhere new?  Spent time with family and/or friends?  Have you read any good books or watched any good films?  Taken any good walks?  Discovered something new or rediscovered something old?  Let’s go have a seat on the porch and chat for a while.

Morning rose.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that it has been a quiet week here on the Wabi-Sabi Ranch.  There have been no guests, no travels for M and me, and I’ve done only the bare minimum of chores.  In some regards, I didn’t even mind being sick because it forced me to rest and relax.  I’ve been spending a lot of time inside of a good book (The Abominable by Dan Simmons), catching up on my magazine reading, looking up things that interest me, and practicing Italian.  My accent is atrocious, but who cares?  I interrupt those activities occasionally for a porch nap.  The milder weather has made the porch a great place to be.

Side note:  I love that the dictionary definition of atrocious is “horrifyingly wicked.”  It’s the perfect word for how I speak other languages.  My accent is nothing less than horrifyingly wicked no matter how hard I try, and I’m fine with that because it makes me laugh.  It makes others laugh, too.

Spirit dancing

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I have been listening.  That’s why I chose the opening quote for this post.  I have been listening.  To the sun, to the wind, and to the stars, yes, and also to the fog, to the birds, to the growing grass, to the morning dew, to the trees and grasses, to the meadows, to the woods, to the water in the creek and lagoon, to the house, to the crickets, to the clouds, to the cats, to my loved ones when they are speaking and not speaking, to the critters that cross my path when I’m out for a walk, to the voice within.  I think listening requires you to surrender, don’t you?  Maybe not total surrender, but at least enough to put yourself aside — put your ego aside — so that you can truly hear.

A glimpse of the greenhouse.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I have received good news this week, although I must warn you that I can’t let the cat out of the bag yet.  It is news that makes me cautiously excited, and then I question why I am being cautious.  It doesn’t make sense to be cautiously excited.  Either I am excited or I am not excited.  What is this halfway in between business?  On the other hand, sometimes it’s best not to count your chickens before they hatch, and this is just such a case.  I hope to be able to share some super good news with you sometime within the next month, but for now, let’s just delight in having some mysterious good possibility floating around out there in the universe (which is true no matter what, now that I think about it, and isn’t it wonderful to think that there is always a mysterious good possibility out there, waiting for you to receive it?).

The jewels are reappearing in the meadows.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I am going to spend time at the beach this weekend.  They say that salt water heals and I believe that to be true so I am going to wade and swim and let the ocean work its magic.  Now that summer has been tempered, I don’t think we’ll have too much swimming time left (unless, of course, you like to swim in shockingly cold water).  I am going to play while I’m there, too.  Discover seashells and build sand castles and play in the waves.

A weave.

We need deliberately to call to mind the joys of our journey.  Perhaps we should try to write down the blessings of one day.  We might begin; we could never end; there are not pens or paper enough in all the world.

~ George A. Buttrick

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that throughout this week I have been schooled a number of times on why I should choose gratitude over whining.  I don’t know why it is so much easier to complain about having a measly cold/flu virus than it is to rejoice over the hundreds (thousands? millions?) of other gifts present in my life.  I have done enough reading to know that the mind, strange universe that it is, has a natural tendency to veer towards the negative.  One theory on that is we can conjure up positive thoughts simply by changing how we think in a conscious manner, but the negative stuff bubbles up from the subconscious swamp where we store old patterns, habits, and hurts.

In the abstract. (Ripples and reflections on the surface of the lagoon near sunset.)

There was a small epiphany there.  Did you catch it?  I did, but in the way of epiphanies, it’s difficult to explain.  Sometimes when I ramble on in this manner, small insights crop up and, in this case, it is related to being cautiously excited.  I think it is time to explore some swampland.

Just for fun. (Turning ripples and reflections into something else.)

If we were having coffee, I would think I’ve taken up enough of your time on this glorious September Saturday.  Thank you so much for visiting.  You are welcome to stay longer, if you like.  Perhaps we’ll wander down to the Point for sunset.  The sunsets have been amazing lately.  I’ve watched from in the house, and was happy for the view of colors sweeping across the sky behind the leaves and branches of the tall trees in the backyard.  It would be nice to see the bigger picture spread out over the water at the Point.  Sunset is around 7:05 this evening.  We’d better put on some insect repellent.  The mosquitoes have been swarming lately.  Or we can take what my oldest granddaughter calls a “smoke stick.”  It’s a stick of incense, and it not only smells good, but keeps the mosquitoes away.

The asters are blooming.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

Golden hour glow.

This post is in response to Part Time Monster’s #WeekendCoffeeShare.  Put the kettle on, start the coffee maker, open a bottle of wine, or whatever your preference is, and join us.  I’d love to hear all about what you were up to this week.