Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

I love a vacant lot. I bet there's one around your corner. You can tell from the full flowers and weeds that this one is in late summer. The fence, wide wire, is just perfect for the wildflowers. Here, there's a lot of moisture, but I can smell the dusty dirt from home. Wild barley and stinkweed and yellow blossoms and tufted spires with smallish long grains that stick with your clothes. And remember the high wild grasses with three inch fuzzy ends like caterpillars?

This week is EXPERIMENT week! It’s always nice to try something very different from the usual something, and my usual somethings omit Basement Clubs Painted Black Staying Up Late Getting Stamps on the Back of My Hand Having Fun After Midnight! So Let’s have a cheer for the Our Vision band at the downstairs Ace of Clubs!

planning pansies Originally uploaded by dmil0 I've been told recently that gratitude and paying attention in the moment will "hold me in good stead". I naturally have passed on this advice without wondering what in the world? Stead? Can you be In Stead? At Home in Stead? Well! The New Century Dictionary clarified with the following quotes: "Fly therefore, fly this fearefull stead anon" (Faerie Queene) or, "The Souldier may not move from watchfull sted [sic]" (same Faerie Queene). Ok.

My cat's name is Oona and she is a beauty. On the elderly side, she has a few mats in her hair. Arthritis has taken a toll, so I am careful to ask prior to brushing or picking her up. She seldom needs to squirm. since a quiet tone will do. I have been trained.

I was replaying the cold wind of a recent criticism and I needed a walk. There was no time, so I wrote! I’m on my way out of a rich furrow of dirt in a plowed field. Shinny, new and sparkly green and gold. Dewy with those crystal colors on the grass tips. Smell! Oh my. I move out into the sun and the rain. Fresh, clean newly turned earth. I sleep here at night, and stay awake too with the moon, and reach up for the essence of stars. My feet and all are planted in the earth, but that doesn’t mean I cannot jump from row to row, and also feel the dry dust. But it doesn’t touch my toes that reach deep into the waters of life. I sing, I soar, I swim, and I do not sink very far anymore.

It’s time for an experiment. You have probably done it a million times by accident. 1. Find a person. The next available person will do. 2. Pause and Look them in the eyes. 3. Smile, and say “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” 4. Wait 3 Complete seconds. I know. it’s a long time. (One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand.) Observe the results carefully, keeping track. Congratulations! The Human Race has acquired a new member, and we have a new data point!

My apple tree at home was the best tree in the neighborhood. The apples were firm and crispy tart. I loved that tree. Full and red with apples. Full and pink with blossoms. You must go look. The leaves are getting quietly sere. Thinner, now, and we can see the grass on the hill over there where the linden trees are, across the way. full and dark limbed with white snow, Icicles! Frosty windows! Ditches and leaves and mica studded sand.