Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Black & White Wednesday ~ This Year's Word





{On January 2nd of this year I wrote...}

I have tried, for days to UN-choose the word TREE as my word of the year.
Alas.
It seems that TREE has chosen me.
I can't get enough of them. Of looking at them. Wondering about them. Marveling. I love this time of year when the branches are bare. When I can see the outstretched limbs...the strength of the trunk. The delicate, intricate, interdependent branches. It is in this state that a tree seems most alive to me. Like it's doing all it's hard work now. Quietly. Underground, behind the scenes....because that's just what it does.

Yes, TREE has chosen me.
It's not a very active word. I kept thinking I could go with something like "rooted" or "branch out" or "reach" ... but none of those words said it all. 

I want to learn from the TREES
I want to nourish my roots. Nourish the deepest, most essential parts of myself.
Spiritually, emotionally and physically.
I want to go out on some limbs.
I want to bloom where I'm planted.
I want to weather the seasons. 
I want to provide a nesting place for those I love.
I want to bend without breaking.
I want to learn from the TREES.

As this year draws to a close, and the trees are, yet again, beautifully exposed....I have a full heart. I don't think I've ever looked back at something I wrote at the beginning of a year and felt that every word of it was fulfilled in the year that transpired. I'm astounded. It's as if I wrote the words as the year ended to describe the year that was. There has been nourishment - deep and new and oh-so-good! The limbs looked more like really tall rocks...but challenge myself, I did. Seasons have been weathered...though none were harsh, no winds bent me to near breaking. I continue to love our home and the family we've built is a haven. I'm at peace with where I'm planted, and look forward to more blooming and limb climbing as the new year dawns!

Of all the lessons I gleaned from paying attention to the trees this year, I most enjoyed watching how their differences work together to create the beautiful scenery we cherish. Each tree budding, blooming and changing color at their own pace....no comparing to the tree next to themselves. No hurrying up or keeping up. With all the different kinds of trees, there is no discord or competition. Instead, each does their part, and the natural harmony colors our world. Patience, acceptance and playing our part....these are virtues to which we can all aspire!

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree."
Joyce Kilmer, 1914


Stay tuned...working on choosing a word for 2015. How about you?


My Memory Art
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I'm also linking up with
and


Seasons




How do you measure, measure a year?

In seasons...
                        Seasons of love!



Joining Kathy for this year's last

Monday, December 29, 2014

The Blues and the Browns


It's been way too long since my camera and I took a long, long wander together.
Saturday was a sunny day.
Haven't had many of those lately,
so I spent some hours outside soaking up all of the vitamin D that I could.
It felt so good!



I wasn't the only happy one -
all the critters of the pond were out enjoying the air!
Swans, ducks, otters, geese, sea gulls, bunnies, squirrels and many little birds,
kept appearing to me around each random bend of the path.





It was wonderful, soul soothing medicine...as always....
to have this fun, freeing time with my camera!
You see,
these blues and browns,
the hues of this time of year, 
are my favorite.



"I prefer winter and fall,
when you can feel the bone structure in the landscape...
the loneliness of it...
the dead feeling of winter.
Something waits beneath it...
the whole story doesn't show."
Andrew Wyeth



Joining Tamar for this year's last link up of
The Good. The Random. The Fun.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Six Word Fridays ~ Gift


Nothing more precious than the gift
of time together as a family.





My Memory Art six word fridays

Please join in the Friday fun!
Caption a photo, share a poem
or tell a story. Just remember,
only six words in each line!



Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas!!


Christmas morning.
Means lots of quiet...
lights
and coffee in my favorite mug.
Annual puzzle got started last night
and will keep us busy today.

Though the weather outside is dreary,
the spirit inside is cheery!

Hope your are enjoying all that this day brings your way.
Merry, merry!




Joining Kim for

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Black & White Wednesday ~ Christmas Eve


Christmas Eve
at our house means
beef fondue,
candle light,
the opening of one present each,
games,
favorite videos,
 a Buche de Noel
{Yule Log}
and
laughter...lots of laughter.

From our home to yours
Merry Christmas!



My Memory Art
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Black & White photo!


Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Without any fear....


So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year older
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
The rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear...
{John Lennon}


The older I get, the harder it is for me to simply be "merry" during the Christmas season. Grateful? Yes. Profoundly. Tender and generous? I sure hope so. Busier and overwhelmed? Sure. Sadly I allow the stress in...though I try and keep things simple, that desire to create the "merry" seems to agitate the stress demons and dare them to come out and play. There's a personal melancholy that can haunt me a bit during these weeks...a longing for far-off family and friends mingles with a yearning to slow the passing of time...and even the twinkle lights can't completely cure the wistfulness that finds its way into my heart.

But more than all of this, it is the clamor for things, the heightened expectation of perfect meals and outfits and gift-wrap-themes that becomes, for me, less and less merry every year. I want to be a giver. And express my love and gratitude for dear family and friends. All that's good. But I know, deep down, that I have not been an agent of change in the world around me over the past years. I do not serve my community nearly enough. As I listen to the lyrics of this {let's face it...melancholy} Christmas song, I can't say I've done much of anything lately to help anyone around me live with less fear. And the world's too messed up right now to sit back and do nothing.

So...these next days, I will gladly celebrate with my family. In the warmth of our home, with an abundance of laughter and food, a sprinkling of gifts and all the "merry" we can muster. And I will pray for those who can't....who are alone...who are without. I will surely pray for them. Then, when the wrapping paper has been torn away and the tree is on the curb, I will make some choices about how to better serve those all around me. It's time. I am more 'whole' than I have been in a very long time, and I'm ready to give away my heart again.




Joining Kathy for 
and linking up with

Friday, December 19, 2014

Six Word Fridays ~ Merry


This time of year, on the
darkest of nights, twinkle lights keep
the town square Merry and Bright!







My Memory Art six word fridays
Please join in the Friday fun!
Caption a photo, share a poem
or tell a story. Just remember,
only six words in each line!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Christmas at the Coffee Shop


To tell the truth,
I invent reasons to run errands after dark.
Because all the lights
in the town center make me so happy!


Joining Kim for

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Black & White Wednesday ~ Simple Treasure


I was so surprised, as I opened the boxes of Christmas decorations, how pleased I was to see these nativity silhouette blocks I made two years ago. Just a few glass blocks, some black paper and modge podge...put it all together, add a few twinkle lights, and a pretty manger scene comes to life.

Something about the simplicity of the silhouettes...reminds me to step back and keep it all simple.
Something about the simplicity of the baby in a stable...reminds me that we have all that we'll ever need.
Something about the simplicity of those who came...reminds me to be a giver in this 'gimme' season.

Wonderful, isn't it, the magic we can create with the bits and pieces we have around us!!




My Memory Art
Please join us and share your
Black & White photos!
And I'm sharing my 'DIY' with

The Best Gifts

The best gift
That I ever got
Didn't really weigh a lot
It didn't have a ribbon 'round
And it sometimes made a terrible sound


The best of all it seems to me
It wasn't 'neath the Christmas tree
And yet, I guess I'd have to say,
That it made all the other presents twice as gay


The best gift that I've ever known
I'd always wanted most to own
Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice
I never thought it could be so nice


The best gift that I ever get
Was sometimes dry and sometimes wet
Was usually pink, but often times red,
As it lay so innocently in it's bed


The best gift of the year to me
The one I hold most dear to me
A gift that simply drove me wild
Was a tiny, newborn child...



An all time favorite Barbara Streisand song...
My two all time favorite Christmas "gifts"...
And a little nostalgia on a Tuesday morning...




Joining Kathy for
Song-ography
and Mama Kat for her
Writer's Workshop

Monday, December 15, 2014

This Year's Project 365

In addition to this blog,
I also have a Project 365 that I keep up with throughout the year.
{link in side bar}
This is very GOOD for me....
I tend to dislike routine and don't often succeed when trying to form daily habits.
{cough cough}
This year I chose to match photos with a quote.
Every day.
{I'm about a week behind at this point, but I will finish!}
The photos I chose at RANDOM,
the quotes I chose to express something that I felt coming from the photo...
or from the moment that I snapped it.
Here's one of my favorite posts from this year.
The scenery is all Oregon -
our summer-FUN-home-away-from-home.

Enjoy!
{don't hesitate to sing aloud}
{or offer suggestions for next year's 365!!}


Oh beautiful


for spacious skies,


For amber waves of grain,


For purple mountain majesties


Above the fruited plain!


America!


America!


God shed his grace on thee


And crown thy good


with brotherhood,


From sea to shining sea!
Katharine Lee Bates



Joining Tamar for
The Good. The Random. The Fun.