Monthly Archive for July, 2011

Got Guilt?

This week I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in a few years. I was about to take Ella (our goofy pit-bull) for a walk when Mary walked by and admired the riot of flowers in our front garden. I forgot about the walk for a while and enjoyed re-connecting. Mary’s son and my daughter went all through school together, but since graduation two years ago our paths hadn’t crossed. 

It was wonderful to see Mary and catch up on “the kids” (who are of course all adults). As we stood on the sidewalk chatting, I couldn’t help but notice that the hair under Mary’s baseball cap was really short – chemo short.

Eventually, it came out in conversation that Mary was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and… Continue reading

Published on Thursday July 28, 2011 in Blogs and Healing from Cancer. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Beauty Queen

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.”  ~ A.A. Milne

The garden in the front of our house is mostly perennials, but every year we plant some annuals here and there for color. This year, we splashed the garden with happy snapdragons and bright pink petunias. It was only after we finished planting that we saw a bare spot where one of our coreopsis plants was mysteriously missing. Maybe it died over the winter and was pulled during spring cleanup, but we somehow missed the obvious bare spot when planting the annuals.

A few weeks later, James and I noticed tufts of fringy green leaves sprouting in the bare spot. It didn’t look… Continue reading

Published on Thursday July 21, 2011 in Blogs and Joy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Are We Having Fun Yet?

On Saturday, I woke up wanting to have fun. James and I had no specific plans for the day, so I thought, my intention is to have fun doing whatever we do!

I sat down at the computer and sent out this tweet.

“Today’s Intention: Create fun out of thin air. ღ˚•* ♥˚˚✰˚˛★* Look out world!”

I even posted this quote on the Strong & Wise Fan Page: “In the beginning it was fun. In the end, it was all for fun. And in between is where it tickles most.” ~ Oaqui ~ Go find some giggles today! :-D

Soooo the rest of the day was fun right? Not exactly.

Shortly after I “tweeted” I received a text from a friend who was sitting… Continue reading

Published on Tuesday July 12, 2011 in Blogs and Joy. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Gone Fishing

I’ve been a city girl all my life, born and raised on asphalt. The smell of warm cement cooled by summer rain ranks right up there with Tosca, the perfume my mother wore when I was a child.

As a result, I’m usually content with nature in small doses. A city park, a small patch of grass or a well placed garden satisfies my need to be with nature. But this week, I craved a nature fix. Specifically, I needed to be near a lake. Not a pond, a LAKE.

This isn’t an easy destination when you live in an old suburb of Philly. A few hundred years has allowed civilization to spread far and wide. In fact, it takes at least 20 – 30 minutes of driving to even… Continue reading

Published on Friday July 8, 2011 in Blogs and Healing from Cancer. 1 Comment Tags: , .

The Back Porch

In the evening, after dinner dishes are done, James and I love to relax on the back porch and digest the day together. Sometimes we are joined by our neighbors in an over-the-fence discussion, other times we sit and gaze quietly at the yard we’ve affectionately dubbed, “Lush & Lovely.”

It’s our way of claiming SPACE - moments to exhale, listen and dream.

After one such evening this week, James wrote a poem. I loved it so much I wanted to share it with you (with permission of course). During the upcoming July Fourth weekend, I wish you all moments of joyful celebration and perhaps, even more so, moments of peaceful, joyful SPACE.

The Back Porch

In between the slow conversation,

as my

Continue reading

Published on Friday July 1, 2011 in Blogs and Space. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .