Category: writing

Thanksgiving is something that I should practice every day. Sometimes it’s hard, especially when things aren’t going “right.” Still, psychologists, physicians, theologians, and pastors all tell us that finding things to be thankful for can improve our lives.

We are at the end of the holiday season, and I am glad. Holidays are hard for introverts like me. I love being with my family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I can be overloaded by them. I actually look forward to the “ordinary time,” to use a term from the liturgical calendar, between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday to slow down (again) and reclaim myself. I told a new friend the other day that I am just “peopled out.”

Today, though, I will be thankful for

1. the time I spent with my family–at Sherry and Aaron’s watching Sully open presents and play with his new toys; sharing a meal with my brother, sister, mother, uncle, and in-laws; seeing my great-nieces and nephews as they grow up.
2. the rain that is nourishing the earth and filling the pond behind the house
3. the bluest skies. The air seems so much clearer in winter than in summer.
4. online connections with friends from college
5. time to sit with God throughout the day

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to work on my “One Little Word” book. I found an album and page protectors I like yesterday at Hobby Lobby. I will start putting in the January pages. I should say I am thankful for my word (manifest) as I am already beginning to see evidence of that word in my life.

Thursday gratitudes. . . . . Sometimes, it seems I write the same things over again: thankful for family, home, warmth on cool days, cups of fragrant hot cinnamon spice tea. I am thankful for these things. I am thankful for the orchid blooming in my living room window, for the gift of music (being able to perform as well as listen), for the beauty of the ponds in the back of the house, for the quiet of “country living.”

I am also thankful that I still have one parent. This week, two neighbors and friends lost their fathers; one of them has lost both parents. I know that bereft feeling of losing one’s father. I am thankful, though, that I had my father for more than half my life time; I am thankful that, when he did pass away, he did so with dignity–not attached to life support or in pain; that his passing was quiet and peaceful. And I am thankful that I was there, along with the family he loved so much. I am thankful that my mother is still with us. She is the same age that Daddy was when he passed away, and Mama is still going strong.

I am also thankful to have my father-in-law nearby. Though he is visibly aging now, he is still very independent.

I am thankful for my retirement. I did not want to leave my classroom when I did, but I see the blessing in it now. I have time to do things I didn’t do before. I have time to be creative. I’ve taken up drawing once again and make a drawing a day now. It’s fun; it’s relaxing; it’s meditative. Granted, I use image sources for my “creations,” but in a sense, all artists have image sources. I haven’t tackled portrait drawing nor animals, not even still lifes. I mainly do landscapes. Maybe one day, I will do some other types. We shall see.

Currently,

Reading The Way of the Fearless Writer by Beth Kempton. I just started it, so I can’t give it a review. However, I do like thte “contemplative” nature of the process she is describing.

Eating homemade bread. I made some sourdough starter this week, but I’m baking plain yeast bread for the time being. I’m using my bread machine that has been sitting on the counter for years.

Listening to Dolly Parton’s new Rockstar album. Her covers of some classics are wonderful, especially when she teams up with some of the original artists, like Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr for “Let It Be,” Elton John for “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” and Lynard Skynard for “Freebird.”

Loving the cooler weather.

Creating Christmas ornaments for John and art for myself.

I decided that I needed to give myself some grace. I discovered Liz Lamoreaux’s Here: Five Things in June. I’ve followed Liz off and on for years, first as a scrapbooker and then art journaler (at least I tried to be an art journaler). Then “life” happened. So, the Five Things came as a new discovery. In June, I had “social media envy.” I tried to create beautiful pages for my lists in a bullet journal. That lasted three days, and I gave up because I didn’t think my pages looked as wonderful as the ones posted in the Facebook group. (Can you relate?)

I tried again in October and decided to write my lists simply. Sometimes I add a photo that pertains to the lists’ themes. I post photos of my handwritten lists occasionally. I try not to compare my pages to others. Each of us has our own ways of doing things and using the lists. Perfection is over-rated. I know that sometimes I set my expectations for myself too high and I cannot live up to that level. Therefore, I need to give myself grace.

I am thankful for that grace.

I started a project in October of photographing the cherry tree in the backyard from the porch steps. I documented the tree’s changes from the green of early fall through the bare branches of winter. This week, I walked out to the tree, and lo! and behold! it was loaded with bunches of cherries. I don’t think they are edible, though. I am so thankful I saw those cherries. I am anticipating the white blossoms later this winter.

It has turned cold! Well, it’s cold for this South Carolina girl. Anything under 65 degrees is cold to me! My sasanqua is blooming, but the cold mornings and frost last week have turned the flowers brown. Still, I am thankful for those beautiful pink flowers and the reminder of my grandmother. Camellias were Grandma’s flower. My other grandmother grew dahlias the size of dinner plates. I haven’t had that kind of luck with those flowers. I think I will try again this spring, though. I am thankful for my grandmothers (and grandfathers) and for the legacies they passed to their grandchildren.

This morning, I was lazy. I woke up several times between 3:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Three in the morning is not a good time to wake up. When I did wake up shortly after 9:00 a.m., I lingered in bed doing my puzzles–Wordle (in three attempts), a perfect run in Connections, and sixteen words in the NYTimes Spelling Bee. Then I read my email from Liz for the Five Things list: things that bring comfort. Today’s list included

• a cup of hot cinnamon spice tea
• a slice of warm homemade bread with butter
• the smell of bread baking
• chili simmering on the stove
• fuzzy socks
• John 14 (“Let not your heart be troubled. . . . “)
• the quilt my Granny pieced and my mother finished and quilted

These comforting things also feed my soul.

I started listening to The Fearless Writer podcast. In each episode, the speaker provides a ten-minute writing prompt at the end of the session. The first episode provided the prompt “Today.” I want to practice these prompts, so I’m doing a week’s worth of “Today” prompts. Throughout today’s writing, which extended into a more Julia Cameron-like “Morning Pages” entry instead of a ten-minute writing sprint, the theme of feeding my soul kept coming up. I thought about what I do to feed my soul. Here’s what emerged:

• Creating something–painting with my pastels, drawing, photographing something, knitting or crocheting, making a paper craft, writing a chapter in my novel
• Reading–a novel, a nonfiction book
• Bible study/devotions
• Music–listening and/or singing along. Perhaps one day I will clean off the piano bench and play again.
• Friendships

When I look at these things I do to nourish my soul, I wonder how I ever found time to teach well! But then again, putting my energy into teaching well did feed my soul, even the creative part because I was creating lessons and developing ideas for my students daily. Now that I am retired and no longer teaching, I can develop these other parts of myself.

The older I get, the more I see the need to fill the soul with things that are peronally meaningful. My journals are filled with things that I don’t imagine anyone else cares too much about. I wonder what my children will do with these notebooks and sketchbooks when I’m gone. I wonder if they will know what was in my soul when I created them.

I don’t usually ask for comments, but I would like to know what feeds and nourishes your soul.

It’s Thankful Thursday. Today, I am especially thankful for heat–heated seats in the car and heat in the house! It is just plain COLD! I know: it’s that time of year. I had to go to the doctor’s office for blood work before my “Medicare WellCare” appointment next week. Frost covered my car windshield.

This greeted my eyes when I set out this morning. I love those white, wispy clouds.

Yes, that is frost on the ground! It looks cold. When I came home with hot coffee in hand from a local coffee shop, the blue heron was on the pond. It flew before I could get the picture.

I am so thankful for these “God moments.”

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Advent season in the liturgical church year. I think it’s my favorite season of the church year. I’ve been reading some things about Advent in the last week. As we approach Christmas and the winter solstice, I’m thinking about how busy we make this season of the year. I read that in the pre-Christian eras, people would take the wagon wheels off their conveyances and bring them in the house to decorate with evergreens as a reminder that this is a season to slow down and stay put, as it were. The greens remind us that spring will come.

My favorite verse for this time of year is Isaiah. 9:2. “Those who walk in darkness have been a great light; on those living in the space of deepest darkness, a great light has dawned.” When I was growing up in the Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church, we always attended Christmas candlelight services. The liturgy was the same every year, and this verse was part of that liturgy. At some point in the service, the children would line up on the altar steps to sing “Away in a Manger” under the direction of Ms. Imogene Smith. This service is the epitome of the Advent season for me. Now, we do the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. Although it is meaningful, there was something about having the service before Christmas that made me anticipate the birth of Christ more.

One of my favorite Advent carols is “O Come, O Come, Emanuel.” I think the version by Mannheim Steamroller is one of the best. What a lovely invitation to the Advent season. Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel.