A dog's idea of personal grooming is to roll on a dead fish.
- James P. Gorman
Someone got a bath today!
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100 days of summer :: day 51
“It shocks me how I wish for...what is lost and cannot come back.”
― Sue Monk Kidd,
I had a delightful day with Percy yesterday… toes were kissed, bugs were caught and let go, giggles were abound. We read a few books, went through his art box and ate lunch together. It was too hot for a walk, and really too hot to even ride in the car, so we stuck close to home while his mom and dad worked away in the office and bakery. These days will come to an end come September when he starts kindergarten, and I can’t help but wonder how that will feel. I come home and take this photo, and think of my mom, as she loved these goose beak flowers, as she called them. It got me feeling a bit nostalgic wishing I could call her and tell her about my day. But if I close my eyes and listen I can hear the way she always answered the phone and for now, that will have to be enough.
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100 days of summer :: day 50
“She did a little soul-searching, the way one does on the big birthdays. She asked herself when was the last time she’d felt truly light, joyous, and—yes—creative in her own skin. To her shock, she realized that it had been decades since she’d felt that way.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Here I am at day 50, finally out of my back yard! I won’t lie, there were thoughts about stopping, after all, 50 is a good solid number. But now I wonder what else is it I am suppose to learn?
I have blogged now for almost 15 years. It is what I know. I have used it as a journal for sure, but also as a place to grow creatively how ever, lately it has become a bit mundane, repetitive and, a bit tedious. As I look at turning 71 in a few weeks, I wonder if it is time to maybe mix things up a bit, maybe take some risks. As the path of life goes, I see glimpses of the stop sign down the road with only a few turn-outs lining the path. I am not complaining, but dang, it is now or never.
I told my husband yesterday that I do not want to be at that stop sign wishing I would have done more of the things that make me feel alive. I can see how deeply I have pulled into myself over the past few years. Content to work with what I have available, in the tiny spot I occupy in the world. I am hoping something calls to me over the nex 50 days. Something with a bit more substance. I have my thinking cap on and some creative souls to help me along.
100 days of summer :: day 49
“She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It's easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said.”
― Brian Andreas, Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas
roses and kayaks ~ the best of summer
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100 days of summer :: day 48
“But it seemed to me that this was the way we all lived: full to the brim with gratitude and joy one day, wrecked on the rocks the next.
Finding the balance between the two was the art and the salvation.”
― Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures
I spend the day visiting with old friends. We pass around grandchild photos and think about our boys, who all played soccer together when they were teens. I laugh and feel myself relax into their familiarity, these beautiful woman who know my life story. These amazing woman who have been right beside me whenever the bottom dropped out of my world and how they held me tight through it all. I hold on tight now to the stories told today, the updates, the good and the not so good moments we all have passed through since the last time we saw each other. I try to find a place to store up the goodness of today as I know I will need it at some point, so I write about it here, hoping it will help me remember how friendships need to be nurtured, and I best do my part.
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100 days of summer :: day 46
A tomato may be a fruit, but it is a singular fruit. A savory fruit. A fruit that has ambitions far beyond the ambitions of other fruits.
- E. Lockhart
tomato season is almost here
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100 days of summer :: day 45
“What you produce is not necessarily always sacred, I realized, just because you think it’s sacred. What is sacred is the time that you spend working on the project, and what that time does to expand your imagination, and what that expanded imagination does to transform your life.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
We wake to rain this morning and it is wonderful. I stand in the light drizzle and take photos of this rose, pausing to just listen to the quietness around me. I pair it here with a couple of photos I took yesterday, staying true to the no rules allowed ruling I put in place when I started this project. She has been a bit fussing, this rose of mine, and I have had to baby her a bit. Her delicate blooms are worth the effort.
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