reflections by the pond

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:07:00 +0000

Life is like a merry-go-round, we can choose when to get on and when to get off.

travel notes

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:56:00 +0000

I am writing this from the 11th floor apartment of my daughter in Beijing China. I have not ventured out much as my purpose was to spend time with my granddaughter. And that I am. I can't comprehend 17 million people in a city. We took a walk the other evening. On one side of the street were hair salons, stores and on the other side, just back along the side of a building was a piece of what looked like metal sheet roofing marking a space with a man huddled and doing some kind of shoe repair. There are lanes for driving cars and there are special lanes alongside for those riding bikes. Some of the bikes just look old and worn. I wondered how many miles some of those simple frames have carried their riders. And I haven't figured out the rules for parking. Maybe there are no rules. But, I am sure there are. There are lots of rules in this country.

While my days here have been only a few, I have some more venturing out to do.

special friends

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:38:00 +0000

I serve as an adviser to a group of self-advocates and I am not sure I always like that. I mean, I like that I am doing it but don't always like what I have to do in that role. They were making plans for some things they wanted to do as a group. There were great ideas....go to a movie, learn to paint pictures, have a picnic, start their own newspaper, play bingo with prizes....great ideas. Then comes the hard part, helping them understand what is needed to go to the movie or plan a picnic and watching some of their faces shout disappointment when the 'T' word is mentioned....transportation. It is easy to ask for a donation or contribution but not so easy to find someone to drive them home and the person drive themselves back. Some of these round trips are over an hour. And what about the families....they don't have the gas money, don't have the time, don't drive at night, are too busy, don't want to go out of their way and some are so old they don't drive themselves. And me, I just put on my road warrior hat, load up my car and away we go. Great ideas just have to happen.

joyfulness within

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:50:00 +0000

From my window, which looks out to the pond, I noticed some young boys making an effort at fishing. While they have done this before, throw the line in and out, make boy sounds, change positions, stuff that I don't pay attention to, I suddenly heard this high pitch scream. Someone's little brother kept screaming 'you caught one'. Not only was he screaming, he was doing some kind of boy dance with it.

When do we loose our excitement over the little things and someone decides it is not the way to act. I think we all have that abundant joyfulness within us, we just forget it is there or maybe we are afraid to let it out.

thots

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:49:00 +0000

It is amazing how events in life alter life. While I know this, it is living in it, like being in a fog. I know the forms, the routines of my life and go in that direction, but it just isn't the same, or is it. Life is there and all around me, nothing has changed, it is me. Death has taken friends and recently my aunt. Those interactions are now gone and missed. It is not about replacing them, it is about re-establishing myself. I need to rise above the fog, feel the sun in my f ace again and let it's warmth grow me. I will probably fall back into the fog but know the sun is just above and will keep a ladder nearby to help go back and forth. I need to take a look at my life from the roof top; what I have, what I want to do and where to go next.....knowing my journey will one day end as the sun sets.

Waiting to open

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:03:00 +0000

Waiting to pop open

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:21:00 +0000

Flowers blooming in mid winter...

Monday

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:08:00 +0000

Monday has become a different kind of Saturday. What didn't get done last week becomes the task for Monday morning. My hat off to those who walk out of the office with everything done. Maybe there should be some qualifiers in this....for management only. But, if one went into work with nothing left to work on; would that be stressful? I don't know. What's important is to go in with a positive attitude, finish up and take on whatever the day brings. It is like my own little Super Bowl every day. I know who the players are, what the game plan is and now, just to pull off the win.

books

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:07:00 +0000

I have a book that ever so often I like to review to remind myself how 'easy' we really have life today. The book is "the Farmers Guide New Cook Book" an updated edition copyright 1945. It is a book to help women with everything they need to do. In addition to the pages and pages of recipes, there are sections on 'pickles and relishes'. The how to make nine-day pickles, mixed mustard pickles, tomato catsup and pickles beet rings. Then there is the section on butchering day recipes and making scrapple, head cheese, liver pudding and bologna sausage; all kinds of things I would not eat. My favorite is beauty and health secrets. How to make mild cases of freckles disappear. How to keep hair in curl - this was apparently before hair spray, gels and all that stuff, but uses gum arabic, sugar, and rose water. The treatments go on and on...leg cramps, whiteheads, winter itch, curing dandruff, sore throat treatments and making salve from apples. Those women were amazing, doing all that stuff along with gardening, canning food for winter, laundry, farm work....they didn't work outside of the home, but they did work hard and had to know so much. Not to say that we don't today. just different.

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:45:00 +0000

I think it would be good to skip a Friday and go from Thursday to Saturday morning. Sometimes Friday is so full of bits and pieces of everything that everyone else wants and needs; or so they say....and nothing seems to really get done. What does it really mean to finish up the week? Just organize or re-organize the piles for next week. With a Saturday morning it is getting up when I want, taking as long as I want to sip on a cup of mocha, and decide what I want to do or not to do. But then again, there are those Saturdays in which I have committed away my day to a worthy cause because I wanted to. Maybe that is all the difference.

thot

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:58:00 +0000

My aunt is 102 years old. While her quality of life is compromised due to visual and hearing impairments, her memory is amazing. She has stories of growing up, living through the depression, the world wars and without so much and yet in that survived and lived so long. And to be so healthy. Her life spans so much from phones to dishwashers to cars with voice activated GPS. I wonder if there will be that many technological and industrial advancement to improve our quality of life during the span of my life. We have it pretty good. If too much more is added will it be at the expense of our creativity, ingenuity and health. Part of staying healthy is keeping the body and mind active in working and figuring things out. When all we have to do is to voice activate something to get what we want, will life even be fun or will fun be something undefined that we don't know or have or understand now.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:26:00 +0000

sun on table setting through skylight.

Monday

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:21:00 +0000

And it snowed. I was thinking about the different perspectives of snow. There is the one of looking out of a window from a nice warm interior, sipping on a cup of coffee and thinking it is nice. Then there is looking out of the car window and thinking that the roads will be getting slick and hoping it doesn't freeze too quickly on the windshield and wiper blades. From the eyes of a child is when will it get deep enough to build forts and big fat snowmen. For the lonely widow in the nursing home it means her daughter probably won't be by for a visit as the roads will be getting bad. There are probably as many perspectives as there are people. It all depends where we are at and what we are doing. In the meantime, I am just enjoying mine from my window.

make a difference

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:48:00 +0000

A new year but just another day that has a different number assigned to it. The difference is what we make of it. Someone told that to me once and it seems to pop back up in my head every New Year. This little thought should occur each morning. What difference will I make in the day or in one person's life that day. Sometimes it really doesn't take much; just a smile to an unsuspecting person, holding a door open, or saying 'thank you'. Why do we find ourselves so busy that we forget to take time to do the little things, but do appreciate when someone offers them to us? Even nature has its way of making a difference in our day like the colors of a sunrise or the song of a bird; those little things that catch our attention, cause us to stop and smile inside.

Monday already

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:09:00 +0000

Here it is, another Monday. I think sometime I will just plan myself a Monday off, especially after a very busy weekend. In looking ahead they all will be busy with holiday events, open houses, cookie exchanges, plays, families getting together, friends getting together, shopping, etc, etc. etc. But in all this, there is choice. How busy do I want to be and how important is the activity. First on my list is the importance of taking sometime for my self, to rest, read, reflect and doing some of those things I just like to do.

early morning

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:53:00 +0000

Sitting here in my kitchen with only one light on at the moment, finishing my mocha; it is still dark outside and inside in other parts of the house. While I am up early for travel with work, the dark blankets what the morning will bring. I know it dipped below freezing last night so the last flowers holding out will be defeated. The blades of grass will hold their position even though covered with frost. There are days I think I am like that blade of grass....get all covered up with stuff in life but still hold my ground. And days I get defeated and crushed, like that last flower still blooming. but I have strong roots and will come back. We should not forget that we are just a part of nature.

Morning

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:05:00 +0000

As I sit here looking out my kitchen window the forms and shapes of trees make patterns in the lighting of the sky. The light pale blue doesn't allow for much detail, but enough to know it is going to be a nice day. I become so used to things, those that happen every day, that I forget to appreciate the beauty in just that moment. or the effort for that moment to occur. Sometimes my world becomes me in a used jar with the lid on. All this stuff is around me, I become absorbed in it and I don't allow myself to push that lid off. But that jar has become my place of security. I know what is in all that space. But I also need to know what is outside my jar. ....need to experience more. Who knows, I may want to break that jar some day and find a new one.

colors

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:13:00 +0000

As I was raking leaves yesterday, and the sun was shining at its late afternoon angle, I happened to notice the color in the oak leaves still attached to the tree, but on a low hanging limb. I always thought they were brown, just brown. But in the sun, they were a palate of shades of brown with some red.

I was a good reminder that I need to slow down, and look more closely what is around me. I wonder what else I have missed?

the to do list

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:32:00 +0000

It seems to be challenging at times to get thing off my 'to do' list. I actually started keeping a running list of things I need to do because I am easily redirect and find other things I would rather do and then the day is done and no time to do it. And there are those seasonal things that I sometimes think to do too late and they end up on the list for next year. There is a time to clean windows, but when it is cold out, it is not. The other question is....does one every get everything done? I know I don't. And the other good reason for the list is that I can cross things off and feel good that I at least got something of importance....at least important enough to make the list....done.

Monday already

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:11:00 +0000

It's Monday already. Not that I should be surprised because Monday always follows Sunday. But I ended up spending most of the weekend at work on a couple of projects that had deadlines and needed attention. I did manage a couple of afternoon walks to refocus. That was good. And, being the season for hearty vegetables, I made a butternut squash risotto. It wasn't bad, but I think the addition of a little onion would have been good. And I made blueberry lemon tea cakes, which were wrapped, tied with ribbon and given away. It feels good to share and make someone smile. By the way, that tea cake was really good.

Friday

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:42:00 +0000

I woke this morning thinking.....ahhhh Friday. Not sure why I get so excited about the end of the week anymore. The weekend seems to have its list of things to do; clean, laundry, running errands, sometimes giving time to volunteer and sometimes going into work.. On some weekends there is so much that I look forward to going back to work. Maybe it is just the thought that on Saturday morning I don't have to get up early and hurry around to get to work on time. I can just sit and watch the sun rise while enjoying a mocha and sit there awhile longer just thinking about things and finally deciding that maybe I should get motivated to do something.....or maybe not. Sit and do nothing seems to be a forgotten activity in my life. Maybe I should try it.......maybe not. I need to make some cookies this weekend for my aunt and some other ladies in the nursing home, bring in the garden hose before it freezes, trim out some dead plants,......maybe not a weekend to sit and do nothing. .

leftovers

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:43:00 +0000

Today is about leftovers. Hopefully the last of the rain leftover in this weather system will end. There is leftover chili for lunch today and a couple of projects left over on my desk to complete. Sometimes leftovers are nice. They give us something to look forward to. But, at other times they can be drudgery. And then there is that forever list of things to do, left over from day to day, week to week and sometimes month to month. .....wonder if there is a support group for people with left over lists, a chronic of this, that is me. .....people who never seem to get it all done when it probably should be done. Anyway, off to what is left over on my desk.

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:58:00 +0000

Cool, damp, days of rain bring the desire to make soup. So I made a big pot of Chili. There comes that point in finalizing it that the decision is made as to seasoning. So I kept it basic this time again; I think it is the way I like it. But someday, I need to venture into adding things like cinnamon, cumin, pepper flakes....someday. I am sure everyone has their favorite and that is good. If all were the same, it would be boring. What is your favorite?

leaves

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:21:00 +0000

This is probably one of the last nice warm days of autumn with its warm breeze that dances with the leaves on the road. I wonder where all the leaves end up? The seem to go from yard to yard. If we didn't contain them how far would they travel before the breeze dried them even more and they broke to pieces? In the meantime, just enjoying the colors of autumn.

noreply@blogger.com (marie) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:21:00 +0000

Hello blogging world