Well Would You Look At That!

 

February rain

Starting with some "housekeeping" stuff this time...

First, inspired by a recent comment from Liz, I thought it would be wise to let you readers know that I have begun to add the "LINK" to all videos, just below the embedded videos. I've tried really hard to remember to do this, in case the videos don't show up or get removed by you tube for some reason. However, I also forgot (this whole time!!) to let you know this.  So, if you notice a black screen where a video should be, look below it for the link! 😃 Silly me for expecting those reading to also read my mind!

Second, when I read Jude's housekeeping, organizing etc. blog related stuff, I think to myself: I have basically been doing my blog the same way this whole time and feel no pull to change that. The banner is the banner, pages get opened or closed as desired (right now, I've only got the other folks links page opened - 'Same Old Place'). I go in and check the comments, in case something has gone to spam by mistake (usually never). I check the stats information, out of curiosity, now and then. I'm frankly quite befuddled by how many views some of the posts get. I usually have no idea who comes here and when - or why! (unless they post a comment). I just keep throwing stuff out there and traveling on. What a path this blog thing is!

Fake view, VA Los Angeles 

While driving home from the VA, we spotted something never seen before...at a red light, by some railroad tracks...a man steps in front of stopped traffic and begins to juggle. Yes, JUGGLE! How unusual. Right as the light is about to change, he gathers his juggling pins into his hands and requests donations from the waiting drivers. Well, that was fun 🙂

After a quick dash to the grocery store for forgotten items, I took a little neighborhood drive. The sky was just too pretty to go home. I went up the road to The Gate and up the last street to the top of a hill. Gosh it was so beautiful!

The trees lit up in the broken sunshine, a bird perched and watched...and behind me the gray of coming rain. Two directions, two different views! Glorious.

May the same old thing still thrill you

May new things delight you

May they not become 'business as usual'

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2024

Old Drafts & Current Life

 

By the time I get to posting...a draft can get mighty old...and mighty long! The first two videos are based on recent postings of Grace, their resulting conversations and then searching and learning on my end.

Thinking through drawing | Andrea Kantrowitz | TEDxEastsidePrep

LINK

I was interested in the idea of 'cognition being grounded in bodily experiences' - especially as I related it to young children. Lots to think about here.

I like many others ordered her book. I felt like it may support my recent, growing interest in drawing.

I've still been adding to the "Life Bowl" page. Then this weekend, while reading about Jung's 'persona'...I thought to myself: is this my persona thinning? Things dropping away and the authentic me left standing? Anyway, I added my beloved Camp Kinneret end of the camp day sing-along on the hill and my love of braids and patchwork (think 1970's style multicolored squares).

Sunflower seeds, a favorite treat and the beginning of a favorite flower!

I used one of the recent Sunflower heads and many petals to create my latest bundle today. I also unwrapped the two that were in the dye pot for so long, and not a drop of moisture remained in there! I'll save those pics for another time.

A leaf fell into the bowl itself and I wondered what else may fall right in?

I thought of other things I would like to add to my Bowl, but have not found a way to draw them yet.

The commute (why does that sound like a four letter word these days?) continues to provide...

time to be by oneself

a space to listen and learn and enjoy ~ stories, music, news

opportunities to consider, ponder, dwell

an environment for a meal on the go

Some of this time is embraced as 'good' and some is thick with the desire to avoid.

Yet, there is nothing to do, but go on 

The skies continue to be amazing! I love this time of year when you can feel and see the slight changes taking place. These morning clouds held the hiding sun. Isn't this shimmering light grand?!

Etta James & Chris Stapleton | Tennessee Whiskey | I’D Rather Go Blind (Best Audio)

LINK

When you're in the inner waiting room at the local urgent care and you get the strong suspicion that you are not alone!

Satisfying Videos of Workers Doing Their Job Perfectly

LINK

DO SOMETHING:
This week I received 3 lovely packages in the mail. Thanks go out to Lacelady, CatherinE and Beth! Thank you again ladies! I will post more about this later. I will say that I'm on my 3rd 'peach' bag and really enjoying making them. Stay tuned!

OR NOT!!

Sunrise Skies make the morning drive a delight.

Wednesday night as I sat in my car before going into the house, I spy a silent woosh of wings and a landing of a beautiful Red Tailed Hawk on the light post right next to me!!! It was a beautiful sight to see in the brilliant sunlight of the end of the day.

The next night when I pulled in, a crow sat in this same spot. This led to thoughts about how birds may or may not smell one another. Mmmm?

Friday there were no birds, but, oh...the evening light on the oak leaves was gorgeous! I will surely miss all of these clouds and light shows when my drive is from can't see-to-can't see! The darker days are coming!

~~~~~~

Elsewhere in the neighborhood...beautiful grocery store flowers, more flowers outside of the drug store...and a huge fly that hitched a ride for over two blocks!Along with an interesting silky fabric. 

Everywhere one looks, beauty can be found. ❤️ (even if there is some icky mixed in!)

May you look for life

May you gently hold said life in your cupped hands

May you create a bowl for yourself

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023

How Things Go

 Oy

A quick dash out for some "peach" colored fibers became more...

Story... 

She'd gone out two days before, left her lights on and talked with a friend

Much to her car battery's dismay and rebellion

A call to the Auto Club and she thought her problem solved

A Sunday quick dash became an exercise in resilience 

A spattering of "peach" was found

Another rebellion was had

Another call and another wait 

And the little rebel was soon replaced

'How ya gonna reframe THIS?' she told herself threateningly while waiting.

But, she did, for she looked to the skies...to a lone Turkey Vulture, to a row of trees, to the cries and tolks of the crows. The heat was too much inside the waiting car, the breeze outside of it made the wait bearable.

She watched the sky...the sun...the birds playing.

5 Crows and a Hawk played tag in the winds.

The one Hawk makes the day not so bad

A fellow shopper stops to ask if she is okay, for there she stood, head tipped back as far as an old neck allows, turning in place, eyes shielded from the sun's glare. She must have been a sight she thinks.

Nah, she replies that she is fine, waiting for the Auto Club and has her own water in the car (thank you anyway)...

She adds that she is just watching the hawk and crows...look she says, pointing.

But, the woman does not look.

LOOK she says again before the woman gets into her car and the woman turns her head for looking, but she does not see.

She does not see and she drives away.

🪶

She waves down a truck with flashing lights, but it is not the Auto Club, but a nice parking lot security man, thick with kindness and a long, fat cigar...he gives her a jumpstart (saving her another hit on her annual Auto Club totals).

She finds gratitude in the strangest places these days.

At a shop open on a Holiday Weekend, her 6 year old battery, retired

Lessons learned and hopefully remembered

Battery lessons, life lessons

She learns that yes, she CAN reframe that.

Recently placed warnings reminds her, on this day, that anything can indeed happen when one goes out into the world, but she's become a 'professional reframer' she tells herself.

May you see yourself as capable

May you reframe yourself, if need be

May you go out into the world

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023

A Noticing Life (UPDATED)

 

❤️

I noticed the timeliness of this WORDLE answer on the 15th of July.

I noticed the gloriousness of the rushing white water, against the brilliant blue sky.

I noticed an exhilarating, yet dreamy quality to the morning sky.

I noticed questionable items on a city wall.

I noticed the ad I'd been waiting for since 2020!!

I notice that times are not what they used to be.

I noticed that, again, words arrive at curious times, even if the source or my agreement with those words is questionable.

(Above a quote from a daily calendar page...a calendar I rarely remember to look at and often don't agree with, but do consider now and again.)

The quote from one medical professional to another...then to me: "You can't care more than the patient does". I played with this one a lot this week by removing "patient" and inserting many a word (person or group of persons) to roll around in my mind for a bit.

I noticed a man's half-sleeve tattoo, looking rather Big Cat like (that is until I saw Saskia's new puppy's belly today while trying to catch up on blog reading. Upon noticing that guy's tattoo, I wondered why only the forearm? How do these choices get made? What do they mean (if anything)?

I noticed that the weaving is very, very slow going...but still satisfying. 

I noticed a giant X in the sky, thinking X Marks the Spot! Or perhaps a giant Kiss! "Scuse me while I kiss the sky"...Purple Haze lyrics!! A little fun making a jaunt out to run errands eXtra special.

❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️

Sunday, mid-day, 97 degrees: I noticed a middle-aged women, sitting on the curb near a bus stop - her wheelchair beside her. Immediately I noticed a peer aged women, her car pulled curbside with the emergency flashers on...walking towards the sitting woman while opening a bright deep pink umbrella. I had passed them by the moment they connected, but I knew what would be next and my heart swelled with such a kindness, one human to another.

❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️

LINK

I noticed this 7 year old video pop up and am giggly surprised at the timely lyrics (they can be found in the description box), which speak of man's impact on nature "Giving Tree" style. Perfect.

❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️

Over 20 years ago, when I taught Pre-K, I often used the word "noticed" in conversation with the children. It seemed to validate to them that they were being heard. It helped during group times, when their input could be quite random and unrelated or long-winded (more than the other children in the group could concentrate on at least). Anyway, I would confirm with them..."you noticed that" ( or some-such sentence). One little turning five years old boy (one with a twin brother in a not always stable, fluctuating household) really latched on to this phrase. By the end of the school year, he would end his group time contributions by sitting up a little straighter, puffing out his chest and saying in closing: "I noticed that". It was just the thing for this sweet, pure, innocent boy...it taught him pride in self and I've never forgotten that...or him.

❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️

UPDATE: 

I forgot to add this poem, which my dear friend had sent to me last Friday. I very much wanted to share it. It seemed another piece in the Puzzle of Life.

A day is not lost if you failed to tick off a list, or a diet was broken.
A day is only lost if you forgot to say something kind to yourself, or another.
If you forgot to pause and search for a tiny spark of beauty amongst the drudgery, glimmering like gold in the mud.
A day is only lost if you forgot that life, even in the worst of times, is still a gift.
A gift you so very much deserve to live through
and not just survive.

Donna Ashworth

Book: Wild Hope

❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️~❤️

May you notice others

May you notice the connections

May you notice the children

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023