Let It Be Easy

♫Let It Be♫

Alan Cohen in his book "A Deep Breath of Life" asks this question about his life:  How would I be doing this differently if I were willing to let it be easy?  By easy he means "honoring your aliveness.....acting from the place in you where life is meaningful.....and releasing any notion that you must participate in activities that deaden you."  With this in mind I examined my own life....

How do I honor my aliveness?

Caring for pets....

Poetry and Gabriel add a richness to my life that is special because animals have no guile and love with their whole hearts.  They get along with one another, but the times when their wild side emerges they never hold a grudge afterwards.  It is pure entertainment when both are feeling frisky!

I especially love it when they join forces in their escapades!

Making a home...

My home has always been very important to me.  Over the years I've enjoyed finding ways to make it more comfortable for my family and me.  It has been a place to express my creativity.

Gardening...

Making a garden engages all 5 senses--sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

Playing with dolls...

I love miniature things.  Decorating a miniature house is like having a second home to dote over--and much cheaper.  Finding just the right items, especially when it's been found in a yard sale, is very rewarding.  Making it myself is even better.  I made the kitchen rag rug, straw broom, and kitchen and coffee tables.

Collecting...

I collect children's picture books whose illustrators appeal to my love of pretty pictures.

In my basement my husband had to build shelves for all the books and matching dolls and stuffed animals I'm collecting to share with my future grandchildren.

I collect the books of my favorite illustrators like Susan Branch...

And Beatrix Potter...

And Tasha Tudor

Reading...

I read instead of watching TV.

Writing...

I write stories about Poetry and Gabriel.  

Travel...

The Arizona desert is breathtaking.

And driving through West Virginia in the Autumn is always inspiring.

What makes my life meaningful?

My family and friends...

My family is all grown up and on their own now, but they are still very much a part of my life.  

My family history...

I've researched my roots and written my ancestors's stories.  They've all contributed in some way to who I am and show me I, too, have a legacy to leave.

My blogs...

This was my first Blog, a daily devotional.  I actually wrote it in 2004, but did not post it until 2011.

My second Blog filled my need to continue looking for the ways in which God is in all of life.

The stories on this website were written between 1997 and 2003.  They are very special to me and I just wanted to share them.

This is this Blog.  I wanted a place where I could share my thoughts about my life.

And finally, what activities have I released that deaden me?  

Anything that doesn't fall into one of the above categories! There will always be something you will have to do that does not appeal, but when you have a choice, ask yourself, will this make a difference in my or someone else's life.  Life is too short to waste doing things that really don't matter in the scheme of things.  

♫The Beatles - Let It Be♫

Dare to Dream

♫Dare to Dream♫

I recently visited the Tasha Tudor Museum in West Brattleboro, Vermont.  I've been a devoted fan of illustrator/author Tasha Tudor (1915-2008) since I first read about her 1830's lifestyle in Victoria magazine in 1992.  She embodied the following from Henry David Thoreau and often quoted it:

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

She is praised for her illustrated children's books, but followed for her lifestyle.  I admired her for having the courage to live as she pleased.  Her family belonged to high-society Boston, but she wanted to have her own farm, doing much of the work by hand without the help of modern conveniences.  She did not live by the dictates of society, choosing instead to live by an earlier century's sensibility.  You can read more about her life here and here.  

The Museum was exhibiting some of the antique clothing she'd collected in her lifetime.  Click on the first photo to start a slide show...

The family hopes eventually to expand the museum on it's own site:  http://www.tashatudormuseum.org/museum_grounds.htm

I think Thoreau's advice about advancing confidently is key to realizing the life we've dreamed of.  Afterall, where do those dreams come from if not from someplace within us, placed there from the beginning....

Solitude

♫Solitude♫

Solitude:   the state or situation of being alone : she savored her few hours of freedom and solitude.• a lonely or uninhabited place.

When I walk through my garden in winter I feel a solitude I do not feel when it is green and bursting with flowers...