February 2, 2013 · 3:24 am

Midnight Meanderings

_img_014Here I sit, working an overnight job, with the available time to write.  How great is that.  I’m caring for an elderly gentleman, simply being nearby in case he needs anything through the night.  For those who may have read my earlier posts of a month ago, I was finished doing my companion care employment.

Turns out I’m working again.

The photo above was taken while on a missions trip to Mexico in 2005.  My husband Ross and I were with a team of approx 50 people and it was a whirlwind of activity.  Since then I ended up in the same location several more times. I love the photo, the memories it stirs up of fun, sun, closeness, companionship, love, grief, sadness for others, shared experience and hardship.

It all added up to joy. Serving.  Giving.

I’ve been in the restless stage of life, at least for me it is restless.  I am seeking to link in a lot of loose ends of my life such as writing, painting (art/creativity), volunteering with Freedom Session – a 12 step faith based healing/discipleship/recovery ministry, keep growing as a woman – education/new job/new activities, etc….and then call it all a career.

Perhaps I simply need to call it my life.

But, here I am, past midnight getting all excited about so many possibilities of things to do (though by 7 tomorrow morning all I will want to do is hop into my bed)  However, in all the planning (thinking) I’ve discovered there are a couple significant events taking place this year.

This year we will mark our 34th wedding anniversary…

This year I will turn 60…

This is amazing to me because I seem unable to relate to that fact.  I just got used to saying I was 50, then admitting I was 55 and now suddenly 4 more years have passed me by.  Then to top it off, I’ve been married nearly 34 years – how does that happen?

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January 9, 2013 · 10:13 pm

Word of the Year

I’ve been taken in by the idea of choosing a word to live by this year discovered via the She Loves Magazine. http://shelovesmagazine.com/

Actually the word chose me as I’ve been struggling my way through a rather large decision regarding the next steps in my life.  As a mid-lifer, one who may live to be over 100 if the mid-life part is true, I’ve recently let go of a job I’ve enjoyed for the past 14 years on a part time basis.  As a companion care giver for the senior population, I grew to value all the life stories, adventures, traumas, joys and anguish so many people have experienced.  I want to follow that path and leave a legacy of a life well lived.  Thus it has prepared me for whatever comes next.

Always eager to learn, I’m wrestling with getting more education and wondering about the necessity of it, what it could/should look like, why I need more, why I want more or why I’m feeling urged to seek more.  Oodles of questions get raised, too often in the middle of the night when I, and my cat and my husband would rather I be sleeping.

Then of course is the desire to write more, how-what-when-why-how…have entered into the 35th year of married life and wonder what new trails we can blaze and wonder how long the fire will last.

I serve in a ministry called Freedom Session, http://www.freedomsession.com/

and think about how much to time to give away, when it would be a great idea to find a new source of income.

Then in the midst of all the whirl of words that bounce around in my head, my thoughts are taken to one word, SURRENDER.  The word came in the middle of a restless night when I simply and quietly said in a prayer, I surrender.  In the morning I prayed this same prayer.

On my way to an event I got in my car and flipped my new CD on and clicked through a few songs until I landed on one with some soothing music and I found my self carried away with the following song.

I have been given my word.

Peace and clarity have come. My unknowns can be faced with surrender.

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January 2, 2013 · 10:48 am

Pearls for the Girls

Recycled Pearl Necklace

Recycled Pearl Necklace

A great surprise for me this past December was discovering a creative talent in a fellow Pickleball player when he showed me pictures via his phone, of some necklaces he had crafted out of recycled ‘bits’, stones and beads etc,  that he’d picked up.  Using silver wire as the link to pull it all together which he carefully twisted into tiny designs of loops he managed to create some lovely jewelry.

While admiring his craft my mind looped over to my home jewelry box which contained an unused pearl necklace so I pondered out loud and drew him into my visual idea of creating two bracelets.  I gave him a couple of ideas and being the artist creative type that he is,  he agreed to try out the project.

The next time I saw my friend my pearl necklace was handed over and off he went.  I thought it may take weeks to put the bracelets together but within 24 hours I was shown one of the designed pieces, complete with a Turquoise stone he had laying around in his supply stash of jewels.  Within a couple more days I had both bracelets in hand.

These bracelets became two surprise gifts in Christmas stockings – something special for two special ladies in my family.

If anyone is interested in having a jewelry piece created or redesigned please respond via this blog and I will pass on your name and contact info to my friend who has given me permission to post this blog.

Logistics of location, postage, etc…will have to be decided upon between artist and purchaser.  I’m a writer, not usually considered a salesperson, however, the above picture may lure you in as my friend’s phone photo of his handiwork stirred up my own artistic mind.

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December 26, 2012 · 7:44 am

Snow Day

DSC01026 - Copy (640x480)This painting is unfinished business, waiting for my return.  How appropriate it has come around to winter again so I’m more motivated to get out the brushes and finish this project.  I began it in winter, left it over a summer and here it is again, winter.

It all began as a photo opportunity, an interrupted moment when I was at a friends house during an intimate time of group prayer together.  I looked up from where I sat and saw the thick snow flakes drifting down over the yard covering the two lawn chairs which had not been put away after their last sun soak in summer.

After the photo was taken,  the painting was created and though originally the ground was like a freshly fluffed white comforter, the chairs loaded like cotton balls, the tree moved from the right side of the yard to behind the chairs and branches hanging with added weight and the fence barely distinguishable from sun bleached wood to snow covered my fingers could not produce what my mind wanted.  Everything was too white on white and I seemed unable to distinguish objects.

Then I discovered blue.  A now forgotten mixture of various blues, but once I put the first stroke of brush over canvas, this artist got excited as the fence took it’s rightful place in the back, backyard, and the chairs stayed on the ground without floating and the tree hovered it’s limbs like a blanket about to drape and protect.  Ahh, satisfaction.

…and then I put the brushes away.

With recent snows, though typical to west coast living, has come and gone in a flash, I’m still motivated to finish the painting and will pursue thinking about when I will do that.  Before spring and summer arrive I hope.

But not today.  Today is Boxing Day – known in Canada as the day after Christmas, traditionally known as the day one boxes up the gifts from yesterday.  But, for our family, this day may be the beginning of a new tradition when our group of 5 will gather to have brunch of Waffles, Crepes, Ham and chocolate, (lots of chocolate) exchange gifts, hang out….hopefully take a walk and eat a Mexican dinner.

Merry Christmas and happy Boxing Day…

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