Category: Gratitude

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Evening West, Morning East

We’d gone for a slice of pizza and looked west on our drive through the rural rolling hills of Georgia. What we saw took our breath away. Golden twilight peeking over the hill. I stopped at the end of our driveway and photographed it, hoping to capture the vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows like a brush stroke of melted crayons. The next morning, I opened the front door to the beauty of the sun over the recent harvesting of trees.

Beauty surrounds us in this place we call home, and I wanted to share the artistry of the skies. It’s not always able to be seen this way in cloudless ways, but even though the eye can’t always see through to it, I know it’s always there. It’s euphoric when it reveals itself in its full splendor.

Here is an EAST WEST poem to celebrate the skies!

Evening West, Morning East

W her E

E uphori A

S urmount S ~

T wiligh T

Twilight, West
Daybreak, East

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Falling in Love with a Simple Sweetness

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and it’s the day of flowers, so I’m celebrating with flowers – three tiny white daisies in a windowsill vase, inspiring a small poem of three stanzas. A tricube poem is one that has three syllables on three lines in three stanzas. I have written one today to appreciate the small, simple things.

Valentine Tricube

small blush vase ~

windowsill

daisy joy

fresh flowers

greet the day

lovingly

simple blooms

standing still

keep things real

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Falling in Love with Art

My older daughter sent us a digital photo frame to which family members can upload photos so that they will appear like magic on the scrolling screen in our living room. I set it up, added the app, and invited all the kids to upload their pictures, expecting the fun surprises of noticing the new ones each week or so.

“Wait,” one son interjected. “Let me make sure I understand. So we can add photos that will just show up in your living room when anyone may be visiting?”

I warned him not to get any bright ideas and to keep it clean. Imagine my amused horror when a daughter zoomed in on a family photo where she’d been standing with her thumbs in her belt loops but actually shooting a bird. And someone added a picture of some stranger in a jon boat holding his arms out to show off a fish, but the fish is photoshopped into the photo several inches from his hands. They also add their favorites through the years, right back to all the times that made us laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. And some of family members no longer with us that are especially touching now. It’s my favorite art in the house ~ photography entertainment where my family members are in the frames.

there we are, kissing in front of Cadillac Ranch

Johnson Rt 66 Trip June 2023

spray painted on a vertical hood

there we are, coffee and breakfast in Tulsa and

standing in front of the Blue Whale of Catoosa

brothers on a bench in El Reno

and our feet on a painted street sign

and look! there’s Boo Radley in the kayak

wearing his Nemo life vest

ready for adventure, whatever that means

oooh, and there we all are in

Tennessee in the VRBO on the mountain

playing dominoes and talking trash

and all the kids in the pool

rocking the place with waves

the littlest smiling, showing off two

recently cut bottom teeth

the others lined up on the front porch

steps eating watermelon

and us eating seafood listening to

Suno songs about us eating seafood

an engagement, a wedding, a cup

of coffee in Starbucks

and watching the Blue Angels

from the heat of a parking lot

and the oldest grandson

eating a Biblical meal

Poppy in the oldest pub in Boston

eating oysters

and us in the sun in Kennebunkport

each memory scrolls by

smiles in these moments

of living and holding presence

belonging for our time

as we live it

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Falling In Love with the Music

Our Christmas gift to each other last year will serve as our Valentine’s Day gift also, since we will be traveling for a long-awaited excursion next week. As long-time lovers of all things Eagles, we decided in October on a dream whim while playing dominoes during a family vacation that we should definitely go see them in concert at the Sphere. One of our daughters lives near the area and offered to pick us up from the airport and show us the lay of the land.

It didn’t take arm-twisting. We hopped off the Mexican Train long enough to buy two tickets, make a reservation at a nearby resort, and book airfare, then looked in each other’s eyes and said, “Merry Christmas.” One of our sons decided to join in the fun also, minus the concert tickets. That’s how we roll on the festivity meter. No gifts under the tree, but a memory-maker instead that will be appreciated long after whatever sweaters we would have opened.

My Favorite Eagles Song is Hidden in these Lines

my soul mate and I

went for an experience

instead of gifts

last Christmas

so next week we will

fly west

to hear The Eagles

at The Sphere

but I confess:

I cheated and

took it to the limit

with two

concert shirts

because, you know…..

stocking stuffers

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Small Rituals

Georgia Heard’s Substack offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. Day 6 asks us to fall in love with love with a small ritual that brings us comfort or joy such as morning coffee, walking the dog, or lighting a candle.

Do Tell

for me, it’s when

we come home

from anywhere

even if we’ve

only been gone

three minutes

to check the mail

here they come

all three boys

ears flapping

tails up

pawing our legs

Come, play!

they say

but it’s when

they turn

take off

and hit full

speed down

the hall

racing for

all they’re

worth to

wait for us

in our

chairs like

old friends

ready for

coffee and

conversation

on the couch

that really surges

my joy meter

tell us, what is

did you do with

your wild and

precious day?

they ask,

licking our faces

and we tell them

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Loving Light

My friend Margaret Simon shared Georgia Heard’s Substack with me, and I love reading about her travels and writing experiences – and her book recommendations. You can see her posts here.

I love that Georgia offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. I’ll be starting this today and walking with Georgia through the week. Join me with a journal and a pen!

Day 3 asks us to notice light and how it lands, how it moves, and then to write about one moment of light that stayed with us.

Weekend Waffles

the hexagon window

in my reading room

throws a morning sunbeam

onto the wall

opposite my bed

its tiny square panes

within look like

buttery waffles

syrupy and warm

drizzled in sunshine

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Falling In Love with Sounds

My friend Margaret Simon shared Georgia Heard’s Substack with me, and I love reading about her travels and writing experiences – and her book recommendations. A couple of months ago, she was reading The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life, recommended it on her post, and I picked it up and loved every page of it. You can see her posts here. I think what I love most about her book recommendations is that they are journey-related and not necessarily bestsellers that everyone would naturally pick up and read. I like books that take me down back roads, and she does a splendid job of this.

I love that she offers writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Here is her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspiring us to fall in love with the everyday. I’ll be starting this today and walking with Georgia through the week. Join me with a journal and a pen!

Day 2 asks us to fall in love with love with a sound: birdsong, traffic, a voice, silence…..and to share what touched our hearts.

My Husband

speaks my love language~

he empties the dishwasher

clink, clang, clatter, clack

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January 29 Brussels Sprouts, Smoked Salmon, and Eggs


This cold weather has my memories of Alaska swirling like magic-dust snowflakes of wanderlust. I’ve been there twice, both times on cruises – so even though I tasted none of the “local” flavors of the non-touristy places in the nation’s largest state that was anything but a folly, both times I’ve indulged in that spectacular smoked sockeye salmon that is sliced thin and served with eggs, capers, lox and bagels. We’d go to brunch, and they’d serve it as an early tea time with breakfast for late risers being more of a light lunch.

The cold weather brought the memories, but the threat of power outages last week brought shopping for things we could eat with minimal preparation. I found a good brand in Publix over in Peachtree City and gave thanks for the fish, imagining it swimming upstream to spawn, trying to avoid the fish-spearing claws of grizzly bears out there standing on those shallow rocks as ribbons of fresh red fish flitter past their feet. The one I was holding made it back home to do its one last thing before ending up in a sliced and packaged fillet.

I always boil all of our eggs prior to a winter storm. We’ve discovered that they keep fine in a cooler on the back porch and can feed us for days on end. And when we put a little sliver of salmon on top, it’s just the ticket for an Alaskan meal right here at home in middle Georgia!

Sockeye Tanka

red sockeye salmon,

boiled eggs, roasted Brussels sprouts

Alaskan dinner

right here in middle Georgia

mid-week special treat

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January 25 – Mallory’s Birthday

she’s growing up fast

thirty nine years old today……

still my baby girl

Happy birthday to my first-born child today! She’s a kid at heart, and she loves to read. When she was little, we’d pile up on blankets or beds for book picnics – – she, her sister and I would do nothing but read all day long while the boys were out fishing. Last year, she read 144 books, stomping my 20 down to a pancake compared to her skyscraper. She still calls them her “chapter books.” Today, instead of raising a glass to my daughter, I open a book. It’s what we do best in our DNA.

Happy Birthday, Mallory!

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It’s Snowing Books!

One minute we’re expecting snow along with the ice storm of the century, but the next it’ll be 75 degrees and sunny. There’s a chance of snowfall, ranging anywhere from 0″ to 145.” I’ve heard it all this week, and I guess it’s safe to say we’ve prepared for all or nothing, just as they’ve said: prepare for the worst, hope for the best. And The Weather Channel is the best place to find a time loop where you live the same ten minutes on repeat. It may well be the portal for time travelers to take a jaunt in time somewhere far more stable than here.

I’m not sure what I’d take with me, but no matter where I am, all I really need are books, dogs, a comfy chair and a cup of coffee. My TBR stack is taller than I am, and I keep reading blog after blog after blog. This morning, Tom Ryan’s Substack featured the most joyful photos I’ve seen all year ~ his dog Emily (Samwise in the background) leaping for joy. He and his two dogs have just move to Cape Cod from the White Mountains of New Hampshire and are walking the woods where Mary Oliver wrote much of her poetry.

Today will be a day of quiet, peaceful living here on the Johnson Funny Farm an hour south of Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport, right on the flight path where we use our Flight Tracker app to check where all the planes have left and where there going. Fun times. Quiet: at least, that’s what’s planned, but things can go sideways here pretty fast. Fifteen times in the past five minutes, there have been earth-shaking gunshots out here in the deep rural country ~ deer? ducks? Who knows? The important thing is that the dogs are here tucked safely in our bed, the gas logs have plenty of propane, we’re stocked up on candles and have 12 pouches of tuna, a dozen boiled eggs, and cheese and crackers. And instant coffee.

Let the reading commence! Wherever this day finds you, even if your power goes out, I hope you stay warm and cozy.

the book is better

than any movie ever

our own minds film scenes

pennies, nickels, dimes

won’t buy a movie ticket

reading a book: free!

I’m currently reading Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.