Belated Love and Life

Sometimes a bouquet of tulips inspires..

Lovely in their frail vulnerability and last days...
                                                    

Purchased at the grocery store before love's official day, they seemed to want to come home with me and rest in my newest purchase from the thrift store..
                                                     

I love observing the various stages in a flower bouquet...
                                               

A poignant message of grace and beauty..

February hasn't offered too much change on the home front. My firstborn; the country girl is happily married and establishing her own farm life..filled with horses, goats and one dog. 
Second daughter is happily navigating city life...wondering which road less traveled she should choose...
Son and youngest two girls keep the nest feathered here at home and give me lots of reason to keep the cookie box replenished along with all of those we entertain in life's spontaneous moments. ( which can be many)
                                                       

I made this favourite recipe last week. As I was sharing the cookies with my Mom and sisters I reminisced a little and realized I have been making them for about 23 years! Wow! I know this because I remember taking them to prenatal classes for snack, and that would have been 23 years ago! Yes time moves along..
                                                    

Yes, I'll be nice and share the recipe..
                                      

A while ago I found this quote on love.. 
                                         

I like that. And sometimes love feels like this tree... 

                                                        

I photographed it on my ski trail about a month ago. I loved the way it was reaching out, extending its self beyond the norm..Necessary at times for all of us. 
Thank you bending tree.
                                                  

The days are certainly getting longer. This sun set was around 5:20 a month ago. Now it sets at about 6:20 and is behind those trees... Always moving in the direction of change..

                 

We Really Are All In this Together

Simply skimming the surface here..
                                

People need people. We all no matter how fiercely independent we may be, need a certain amount of interaction with others.

Like plants need air and oxygen, so people need other people around them breathing life into their souls.

I find it incredibly fascinating how linked together

everything is.                                          

No man is an island. So true. Is anything an island really? 
Isn't everything connected?  Lagging dollar reflected in the fuel costs, which is driving food prices up, which affects the supplier and ultimately the consumer.

I had been experiencing some back pain recently.It seems my alignment was off...This landed me in an office where I was shown a replica of a spine, and could see how intricately connected our design in anatomy is as well. 

                                       

              

The refugee crisis recently again was a powerful reminder of how key connections have become..what importance they play universally.

I came across this amazing old Celtic quote in a newspaper recently..
We live in the shelter of each other. That shelter is found not only among our own kind- people with similar eating habits,skin colour, ways of thinking and manner of dress...but also in the shelter of others who are different from us. It is a shelter in which we can explore our differences,eat each other's food, cry and laugh with each other, and dispel our false notions about each other.

                                         

  We must not forget that together is a force, and we belong together.
                                            

Reaching around the globe to care, pray, lift and love...hearts relating to each other connecting us all into a large small world.

                             Happy Friday,thanks for visiting!

A Glance Back To See Ahead

As each year closes, inevitably I seem to find myself in contemplation of sorts.
Life is busy, but at the close of a year I find myself craving the luxury of contemplation and commiseration.
                                                                                 

A year has a way of changing things, and in the process we are changed. Our carefully executed lives are no match to God's plans and purpose.
One can only glance into life's rear view mirror to know that very often we hear ourselves ask, "how did I get here?" 
                                                 

The good and not so good at the time experiences in a fleeting year make me feel small. I would almost feel insignificant were at not for God's undulating grace that flows in and through every place I have been in the past year.
This grace is the current that propels me forward in place of looking back too long and dwelling on situations that must pass like water under the proverbial bridge. 
I read recently that the reason the windshield is much bigger than the rear view mirror is because we are going forward not back. Life is always a forward motion. But there is a mirror to glance back into. I think it may be there to let us know where we have come from. To remind us and help us remember experiences and lessons learned at times along the hard road.
                                             

 The other day as I pulled into the driveway I caught the line of a song playing low on the radio. The unshakable lyrics from Meghan Trainor's catchy song played through my head for the rest of the day...

                    I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you
                            I'm gonna hold you like we're saying good bye
                            Where ever we're standing I won't take you for granted,
                             Cos we'll never know when we'll run out of time.
                             So I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you..
                             I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you.



Life holds no guarantees, and in almost an instant can at times change what once we were. I observe people whom I know and love lose their spouses, their careers or their health. Children keep wanting to grow up and try on independence and I keep needing to adjust with every facet of change. 
I am glad my heart doesn't know what 2016 holds. Like this past year it will surge and ripple until it too passes away. So let's love intensely like we are saying good bye, because we never know when we'll run out of time.

                                            

My youngest daughter and I back in May on a spring boat ride.

                               Blessings to you in the coming year!                                    

A Few Favourite Christmas Things

Whether it is the touches placed about a home, the Merry Christmas from a stranger, or the look in the eyes of the people you hold most dear...

Christmas has a way of making even the simplest of things special and treasured.
                               

Sharing a few Christmasy glimpses around my home with you...
                                    please come in..                               

The reason for the season...
                                                  

These happy snowman are the closest thing to snow we'll be having this year..Very mild temperatures are setting new records..

Don't you love cards?

 Especially the ones that arrive in the mail a few weeks early..so special.

We have the tree beside our steps in our rec room..
                                            

It's not fancy, but is filled with sentimental treasures..

A simple display on an end table...

My kitchen window. I added a string of lights after I took this photo:)

A display behind my couch. The Christmas Box Collection by Richard Paul Evans is a favourite book of mine..

                                                               

Baking...Every year I bake cinnamon buns for Christmas morning...

My spontaneous nature seems to go into over drive at Christmas time...I love to prepare little impromptu gifts for whoever comes to my mind..
                                                 

  This is ginger honey chex mix  nice to give for gifts in a jar or tin.                            

I must wrap this up...no really I have some wrapping still left to do..shhhh!
It's okay I'll make a nice cup of tea and listen to some Josh Groban I think...


                                     Please listen to this song...It echoes my heart...

       


                                          Merry Christmas, Good night!                                                            

Writing Love Stories

   On the weekend my husband and I were guests at our nephews wedding.                     

 The weather was perfect...the setting idyllic, on the brides beautiful country property.
                                               

I adore weddings, and I tend to get carried away with the nuances.                      

Whether it is the music stirring the air with it's romance and grace, or the airplane droning above while vows are being said.
                                   

or the children dressed up, but climbing trees anyhow.

The flowers and lights...smiles and faces young and old.

                                      

The window of green beyond the festivities, 
                     

     and the rich, summertime fare.                                              

I am not antisocial, oh no this is simply me absorbing the beauty,
 as two lovers begin the dance......the first dance of their lives.
                                            

                      As two souls unite and dreams requite.
                       

With Love Here

Good evening friends....

just a short and sweet little post for you tonight, here at the end of this day of love....

a little bit of art work from  youngest daughter....

                                                 

and a scene from our supper table...

(I had made reservations:)

no really, no place like home on a blustery Saturday night!

there seems to be something profoundly hilarious about taking a picture by setting up the camera..:)

on the menu....

Zesty Chicken Bake,

Salad,

Homemade currant juice..

and of course....

leaving you with one of my favorite songs...

God Bless...

~Lucy~

Missing Targets and Such....

            who knew that the closing of a retail store could inspire a blog post...?                      

                                     the lamp and poster in daughter's bedroom...(from Target of course!)   

I happened to have a few errands to run on the first day that Target Canada was having its closing out sale.....:)
After having announced a few weeks prior that Target stores were closing... I anticipated this happening with mixed emotions...

The parking lot indicated I wasn't the only one. 
I hadn't  seen it like this even around Christmas!
Having a Target in fairly close proximity, I had  developed a retail relationship..:)

I managed to find a shopping cart that a shopper had just finished with, the others were all used, and in every aisle were people milling about anxious to save a few dollars on purchases they may or may not have really wanted.
I made my way to the home decor aisle....I had  found so many great deals here in it's short life.... decor items...clothing and craft supplies...(I look  around my home and see reminders everywhere....)
                                                                                                                                   

Now I felt like I was attending a funeral of sorts.... all of us offering our condolences if you will, to a situation and a decision out of our hands.

Although Target's demise was not a surprise; the gigantic store seemed unable to compete with people's expectations for lower prices and great selection.It  seemed evident from the beginning that its days here would be numbered.
The lack of regular, loyal patrons was the bottom line.

It made me ponder humanity and how  someone can be larger in death than in life.
How dying seems to somehow brings them a sort of fame...
How suddenly the deceased is an icon, someone to revere...
Don't get me wrong I am all for honouring and bestowing kind words to the remembrance of a departed loved one...
Memorial services should be beautiful tributes to the life someone lived....

but life really is for living...for appreciating the people who are in my life.
For a bouquet of flowers now, not a coffin loaded with them later...
For a kind word spoken gently;  not a eulogy  they will never hear.
For eyes expressing  understanding and empathy, 
not for tears on a lonely grave.......


                                                                                        

                                                back home with the candle I purchased...

                  Yes Target you did bless my life for a time...I am grateful.
               But even more for the timeless lesson that your passing revealed.

Beauty Unwrappers

Dear You,
Beauty is all around us... we simply need to unwrap it by noticing.
                                          

It's simple  you say, to notice a silly little thing like the design of a soap dispenser....
                                        

or the way the leaves look- all falling and reckless.
                                                   

Then there is the garden that blooms vicariously in spite of better days.                                          

It is simple to some and profound to some....
The beauty unwrappers know its value and worth...

It is why they write, paint, take photos,bake cookies and laugh too loud.
It's why they wonder and the way they care.

                   love laundry that has flapped until so soft, then folded...
To some it may be wasted time, to others time well spent...
the purchasing and placing of  thrift shop items, the folding of towels and clothing...

a sweet white tray and art..

love my "new red pitcher" :)
                                      

                       and love these rose paintings...

    Beauty unwrappers are unique, enigmatic and spontaneous.
                Linked together; though miles apart
         With beauty, gratitude and kindred hearts.
                                   

Thank you to all the beautiful beauty unwrappers here in blogland.
      The world is brighter because of you...
                           keep unwrapping....