Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 6/21/24

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Pretty purple gladiolas.

2. Preparing the Perfect Roast Chicken (at least according to Ina Garten.)

With a little help from Robert and his gay watch band …

It was quite the hit!

3. The occasional afternoon nap. What a treat.

4. Crusty, buttery bread.

5. Celebrating HR’s birthday with pizza and Donna.

May you have cause to celebrate this weekend.

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 6/14/24

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Colorful window boxes near us.

2. HR, coffee and the world.

3. The ability to smell!

4. My Bombay Potatoes with amchur (dried mango) spice. You may recall that Robert and I participate in a monthly “Spice Club” at our local library. SO much fun!

5. Colorful art from granddaughter Madison.

May you have a Colorful Weekend ahead.

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 6/7/24

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. This new (to HR and me) hot sauce we discovered at a local Mexican restaurant yesterday. So good with a hot and smokey flavor.

2. The beautifully rustic little cabin we stayed in at F.D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, GA earlier this week.

My picnic table sculpture

3. Meeting some very neat home-for-the-summer college kids at a corn farm.

4. Robert’s homemade pizza for supper tonight.

5. Georgia Peaches!

Gregg Farms, Concord, GA

I hope you have a Peach of a Weekend ahead!

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 5/16/24

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Reflective spoons.

See me?

2. Being married to a gay man who likes cut flowers… THROUGHOUT the house.

Today, for example …

That’s a much younger HR above the flowers and now-deceased, beloved kitty Bloopers below.

3. The incredible gift of being able to see. To open my eyes each morning, look around and actually see! What a joy.

4. Celebrating a month, dedicated to our mental health.

And for anyone who is interested, here’s a link to my “Protocol for Anxiety.” As many folks do, I deal with Generalized Anxiety Disorder from time to time. These strategies help.

https://www.icloud.com/notes/02b2DzJouQVaWQhKKlzyDFnCw

5. Friday!

Posted in Life Experiences, Life Truths

The Dog Can’t Help 

I have recently started getting a beautiful weekly poem service provided by a pre-retirement colleague of mine from Georgia Southern University.

This week’s poem is titled, “Perseverance Prayer.”

“There is no one who has not their hour and no thing that has not its place.” —Pirkei Avot, 4:3

Perseverance Prayer

Be it rug or couch or bed, the dog
can’t help but turn and turn and turn again
before lying down, his angle always

a little off, the vantage never
quite as desired. Still the ritual persists.
Yet once in a prairie gone tall

with summer, high grass whispering
with afternoon breeze, he began—one, two,
three times around—and the stalks found

new joints with each of his orbits, swaying,
kneeling, prostrating away from him into
a massive golden wreath, an ideal bed.

A pursuit others call pointless is often just
the right action in need of its right place.

–Jessica Jacobs
from Unalone (Four Way Books, 2024)

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel that I am going round and round and round in circles and not exactly sure where to land.

But I believe there is a “right place.”

Posted in In Our Own Backyard, Lean in to the Lovely

Angeling

This morning we picked up breakfast sandwiches and coffee and headed over to Savannah’s beautiful Bonaventure Cemetery for a forenoon (Isn’t that a cool word?) picnic.

Walking afterwards, we came across her …

“What’s going on here?” I quietly asked.

(I had to repeat my question several times before she answered me.)

I had to lean in to hear her.

“Angeling is hard work.”

I simply nodded and motioned for Robert to soundlessly move along.