Poppies, red raspberries & dreams

It is gratitude Monday, and this is what I am grateful for today.

1. My Spring view today in downtown Charlottetown while I walked the dog...

You know....instead of this

2. Friends that walk all the way across town to meet me for supper before turning around and going all the way back across town for an evening class.

3. The delicious meals I have had today, made using local beef, local potatoes, local carrots, and so much more. It is wonderful to live somewhere that has such a bountiful harvest.

4. Home made raspberry jam and almond butter on gluten free bread. Read: take raspberries, put them in a saucepan, turn the heat on, melt them down into liquid, spread thickly over almond butter while still warm. This is what it looks like when done:

Ok so I nibbled. YOU try not taking a bite of something that looks that good. I dare you. ;-)

4. My mother. It being mother's day on Sunday and my being so far away from her and all....She is a pretty awesome lady. I don't know how I would have gotten this far without her.

5. Public buses. Because I have had a pinched nerve in my leg/foot all weekend and have had a numb right foot and calf, which makes walking rather tiring. I especially love public buses here, and the way the drivers know every single one of their passengers, and wait when someone they know should be on the bus is not there.

6. Hot baths. Because after taking one everything that seemed just too much to tackle somehow seems doable again.

7. Friends who invite me to house sit as I will be doing for the second half of this week. I cannot wait to be in a home all by myself for a few days.

8. My work. Because even when it is tough and overwhelming, as it is right now,  it is never boring. I am always learning something new, and being challenged to improve my skills to better represent and promote my clients and their products/services.

9. My bed. You got it. The only thing between me and it right now is my computer. Time to sign off!

And you, friends? What are you grateful for on this Spring Monday? 

Monday gratitude masquerading as Tuesday

So I realise that Gratitude Monday is technically over given that it is after midnight, but throughout the day today I found myself feeling deeply grateful for a number of things, so I am calling this Gratitude Tuesday instead. Here is my gratitude list for today:

1. Today was a cold but gloriously sunny day. The snow is melting, the sidewalks are easy to navigate again, and I enjoyed my walk with Chloe this morning. There were birds perched in the bare branches of trees singing sweet tunes, people were smiling as they passed me on the sidewalk, and I even noticed the first buds starting to appear in people's front gardens as the snow retreats.

2. I said a whole bunch of prayers for my meeting with the owner of a local media company this morning. I have been feeling really discouraged this week by the lack of progress I am making in my search for full time work here on the Island, so a good dose of prayers was essential before I walked into yet another networking meeting. Amazingly the owner of this company, who had told me just last week that he did not have any jobs, ended up discussing the very real possibility of a position opening up with his business that I might be able to fill. I am not sure how this will turn out, but it was the best meeting I have had in weeks, and this fact alone reminded me that truly believing that things will work out is 99% of the battle already won. I will hear back from him within the next week. Fingers crossed.

3. I had a great supper with my dear friend Honeylyn. We have had a standing Monday night breaking the Fast date for the past 19 days of the Baha'i Fast. I have thoroughly enjoyed our suppers together at one of my favourite restaurants, Tai Chi Garden--a Taiwanese restaurant in downtown Charlottetown.

4. Post-supper myself and Honeylyn met up with our friend Jalal for hot drinks at Timothy's. We had been planning on attending an open mic at one of the local pubs, but when we found out it only started at between 10.30 and 11, we thought maybe not....we do have to be up before sunrise again tomorrow! It turned out that hot drinks and social time was just as good. An evening of sharing our horror stories from high school and breaking out in fits of laughter at the craziness of those years=perfect way to end the first day of a new week. 

5. I am grateful for my health. This is the first time I have made it through the entire Baha'i Fast without getting sick, and I am feeling incredibly thankful to have managed to have the blessing of Fasting for the past 19 days with a healthy body.

That's my gratitude practice for today. How about you? What are you grateful for today?

Beauty on my doorstep

My dear friend Pascale recently wrote a SoulPancake post challenging others to find beauty even in the midst of chaos. We have a lot of chaos around us at the moment, between the upheaval all over the Middle East, the plate-tectonic upheaval along the ring of fire, nuclear disasters, floods, fires, and war and violence. I spent part of my morning scrolling through hundreds of photographs of the lives of those whose entire cities were literally obliterated in mere seconds by the Japanese tsunami a few days ago. It made me feel deeply sad for the thousands of people who have just lost everything except for their lives.

After I finished looking at the photographs, I found myself wishing that I were closer so that I could help out. I do not have a lot of financial resources right now, but I do have my time, and if I were in Japan I might have been able to volunteer and make myself useful. Being so far away from Japan, I was feeling tremendously helpless, so I decided to take Pascale up on her challenge, and head out for a walk in my neighbourhood looking for the endless sources of beauty and hope in my world, that help to balance out the vast amounts of loss of life and destruction. It is springtime in Sacramento. An incredibly wet springtime, but springtime nonetheless, and everywhere I looked there was beauty pressing up through the soil, out of branches, out from between leaves, and through fresh stems. I walked through lots of puddles, and wandered into numerous gardens. I also spent some time in the park near my house, and in the amazing rock garden that is in the park, that is filled with plants from all over the world. It was chilly, with a breeze blowing. The air was sweet, and large and small birds crossed my path many times. The sun started to break through the clouds while I was out there, casting that magical, surreal light that saturates the landscape when light shines through cloud over everything.  I thought I would share some of the beauty that I came across with you here. Bring a little beauty to you, mid-week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I challenge you to find and photograph, draw, paint, write or sing about something beautiful on your doorstep. If you do, post it in Pascale's SoulPancake entry, and bring a little more beauty into her life. Life post-earthquake is tough when you have no home, and your business has no customers because everyone is struggling to get by...since so many of us have so much beauty, perhaps we could share some of ours with her until things start looking up in New Zealand.

Have a beautiful Wednesday! 

Double digging on Louise's birthday

 

Today is a special day. It is one of my best friend's birthdays. Louise has been reading my blog faithfully since my first entry. There are few things as encouraging as knowing that a brilliant artist and well-read librarian reads your blog on a regular basis. If I had been on Prince Edward Island today, I would have been enjoying her excellent company. As it was, today was double digging day in the youth garden on Soil Born Farms, so I spent the day outside, immersed in the promise of happy plants! To get myself in a digging mood, I listened to the upbeat and incredibly energizing Vishten tunes all the way to the farm, and by the time I got there, I was revving to get my hands on a shovel and get those beds turned!

It was a rather grey day on the farm, and showers kept moving in over the valley, so we did not get as much done as we would have liked, but we did make some progress, and given that this was my first digging of the season, and the fact that I am in the middle of a 19 day religious fast in which I do not eat or drink from sunrise til sunset, my body was content with having our day cut short by rain. Even the short distance we did cover had us sweating despite the cool wind and rain.

Double digging is a way of mixing the soil up, circulating nutrients, and breaking up the soil so that it is looser and better facilitates the growth of the plants that we will be transplanting out into the garden in the next few weeks. Basically you dig a trench across the bed that is a bit wider than the width of the shovel, piling the soil from the trench on the soil bed. You then loosen up the bottom of the trench with the fork, and once the compacted soil is loose and airy, you move onto the next trench, emptying the soil in it into the first trench that you dug. Sufficiently confused? You have to give it a try. It is really quite simple once you start digging. And your plants will be very grateful, and reflect their gratitude in the form of a plentiful harvest.

This is Guy, my digging partner in crime and director of the education programs on the farm. His faithful companion's name is Natoma, named after a nearby lake.

Despite the cold weather and the rain, it felt really good to get outside today and do some intense physical work. I have been feeling really discouraged about the lack of work opportunities lately. Lots of doors not opening at all no matter how much I knock. So the digging was good for the body and the heart today. 

We also got to see more Sandhill Cranes migrating overhead. They make a beautiful sound -- very different from Canada Geese, and one that I am starting to recognize, when they are passing overhead. Watching them fly over the farm today made me wonder where they are going. Do you know? I will have to look it up. Below is a short video of the Cranes flying over the farm. I could not keep them in the viewfinder the whole time, but you can hear their distinctive call. My apologies for the buckets at the end. Will have to work on my video skills. :-)

It is evening now. The sun will be setting in 15 minutes, and I will be breaking my fast with a nice hot cup of sweet tea. Although I would have liked to get more of our beds done before the rains moved in over the farm, getting home early today meant that I got to call Louise and wish her a happy birthday in person before she headed to bed. I am incredibly grateful that the universe brought Louise into this world on this spring day. She has brought an amazing amount of colour into the world for one woman, she has added beautiful and sensitive songs to the world's melodies, and she has always been good for a cup of tea and a long and deep chat about anything and everything. She also has one of the most enthusiastic puppies I have ever met, which must say something about her too, right?

Spring is on its way. The rains are bringing much-needed moisture to the valley. The sun is setting in four minutes. And I am grateful for awesome, inspiring and encouraging friends like Louise. Happy Thursday, and happy, happy birthday, Louise.