Hope in the Dark Night

 

"Yellow flowers are widely associated with joy, happiness, friendship, and new beginnings." They make me feel happy and give off a positive energy.  Even as a young girl I was drawn to the color of yellow, especially yellow flowers. My birthday flower is the yellow daffodil.

 So with yellow flowers in bloom right now and my word of HOPE, I am becoming more attentive to what is around me. 

This morning in my reading from Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit, I read "To hope is to gamble. It's to bet on the future, on your desires, on the possibility that an open heart and uncertainty is better than gloom and safety. To hope is dangerous, and yet it is the opposite of fear, for to live is to risk."

"Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope."

Thus I take action as often as I can fathom.

 International Women's Day was March 8th and I encouraged myself to step out of my comfort zone and join other women speaking out for sanity in our world. It felt good to see these gentle women speaking for justice and truth in the world. It's important for us to speak up when the opportunity arises. It's important to step out of our comfort zones from time to time. I embrace hope. I embrace uncertainty. And because of that embrace I have HOPE in my heart. 

Hold on to HOPE in the Dark night and Focus on the glimmers of light.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Focus on the Stars

 

 

Flowers at the market while "out and about".

  Recently I heard of Rebecca Solnit's book, Hope in the Dark – she notes that big disasters are times when people remember their inner strengths and create bonds with others that would seem impossible in "normal" reality.  "People who lose everything often speak of these times as "the most alive, most meaningful moments they've ever known".

"Hope in the Dark was written to counter the despair of radicals at a moment when they were focused on their losses and had turned their back to the victories behind them and the unimaginable changes soon to come. In it, she makes a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable. Drawing on her decades of activism and a wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history, Solnit argued that radicals have a long, neglected history of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our acts are not always immediately seen, directly knowable, or even measurable, and that pessimism and despair rest on an unwarranted confidence about what is going to happen next. Now, with a moving new introduction explaining how the book came about and a new afterword that helps teach us how to hope and act in our unnerving world, she brings a new illumination to the darkness of 2016 in an unforgettable new edition of this classic book."

 I have not read this book yet, but have ordered it because I am focusing this direction in the year of 2025.

Driving along the Willamette River not to far from my new home. Winter still resides there, but I have hope for Springtime to come again and show it's green color on those trees. Each season has it's own color and each season gives us hope that life moves along.
 

It is very much opposites such as fear and hope. I have heard how those that suffer great loss, such as the homes that burned in the recent fires in Los Angeles, still hold on to the glimmers of what they still have in their health and dear ones surrounding them.

 

Actually found in my house garden last week.

Leaving my garden to move into an apartment, how can I still notice the small glimmers of joy and hope by changing the way I think of my adventures each day? I would walk in my garden each morning to post a picture on social media from the garden. I miss that a lot, but now I am noticing what I see when I am "out and about". Still noticing the glimmers of light brings me joy. 

So in our despair and angst, let's continue to focus on the little things that bring us joy, supporting those around us, and looking for ways to make small differences.

Sending love,

Marilyn

A Snowy Day!

 

My view just yesterday across my little patio.

The Snowy Day is a 1962 American children's picture book by American author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats. It features Peter, an African American boy. It was written to encourage everyone to slow down and notice the small things in life, something I try to do here on this blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmZCQfeWjeQ&ab_channel=EJKFoundation

As a white man, Esra Jack Keats was one of the first to write a children's book with multi-cultural children. His book has been banned recently because of that. When my children were young, Ezra Jack Keats, was a favorite author of theirs and visited their school on author's day.

 

This morning and last evening, sights of snow from my window. Many have walked their dogs past my window and I love seeing them out enjoying the snowy day.

 

Sending love and warmth on this Valentine's day. Hoping you are warm and cozy, tucked inside on this snowy day. Now I must sip some tea.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

 "Books are a way we leave a mark on the world, aren't they? They say we were here, we loved and we grieved and we laughed and we made mistakes and we existed. They can be burned halfway around the world, but the words cannot be unread, the stories cannot be untold." from The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes 

Books bring me JOY. How about you?

I recently finished The Librarian of Burned Books. It took me awhile to get into the story, but once it captured my attention it has resided in my heart. It was sad, but we all came out positive in the end. It gave me hope.

As you read further along in this post, I am sharing small moments of joy. The one above is a recent breakfast where I enjoyed some freshly made fig jam on a crumpet with my tea. I hadn't made jam for a few years and totally lost sight of the joy of savoring jam made by my own hands. So delicious.

The other joy was having a social media friend send me moon cakes and tea for no reason at all, but because she wanted to share the joy from her hands and heart.

Now a friend mentioned she was reading A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater. Since I have enjoyed his Christmas Chronicles each December, I decided to start reading his new book over my morning tea. His books are small essays wrapped around food.His descriptive words always delight me.

I loved what Nigel Slater said in his introduction to A Thousand Feasts. "I see no point in putting pen to paper to preserve anything negative, sad or painful. Heaven knows,there is enough of that. I have no wish to live in a rose-tinted bubble, but if I have learned one thing, it is not only to concentrate on the "positive stuff", but to cherish it. I will admit to seeking it out, to looking up instead of down, to being curious and to hold on, as tightly as I can, to "the good things", however small." He goes on to talk about noticing the "small moments of joy".

Another joy was sharing tea this past Saturday with a group of dear friends. I had connected with this dear lady above, Rui of Grass People Tree (tea business) early in the pandemic on Instagram. I attended several of her tea events on zoom and her heart just touched me. She is in Portland right now sharing tea with new and old friends, all the way from China.

It was so special to have her pour tea and share stories.

Seeing the smiles on my friends faces brought me amazing joy.

And then to also on a recent evening to sit with another dear friend and listen to these two ladies share stories. It just made me smile from ear to ear. If you don't know who these ladies are, they are Hillary Clinton and Tina Kotek (Oregon's governor).

 

In our crazy political world right now, it is important more than ever to notice the "small moments of joy".

Dear friends bring me JOY.

I encourage you to notice what you notice, maybe write down your joys, savor each one and let the joy reside in your heart.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

 This week my goal was to clean my bookshelves in the on-going process of downsizing. So at moments I stop to leaf through a book I had forgotten was sitting on the shelf. This short chapter jumped out at me. It was a reminder that we must be kind to ourselves too.

 

Kindness is my Nature and my Gift  

by Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way) in the book Blessings 

"My heart is a deep lake of loving-kindness. I count myself fortunate to hold tenderness with my soul. I forgive myself my fears, frailties, and failures. I am compassionate toward myself in times of turbulence and change. I remind myself that I am a gentle soul and that I have need of cherishing. I treat myself as I wish others would treat me. I treat others as they wish to be treated. I allow myself, in times of difficult and demanding strife, that I am loved and lovable, that I am worthy and respected. I do not allow temporary anxiety to distort my view of the whole. I gently seek the blessings in all difficulty while I am compassionate to myself for my lingering doubts and fears. I remind myself that my life is in the care of God and that it is unfolding with beauty and harmony."

 What jumped out at me was the need to be cherished. Sometimes I find I treat others better than I treat myself. I don't allow others to cherish me. 

One thing I do for myself that seems to make others happy too is taking a walk in my garden each morning and sharing on Facebook what I found on that morning. The pictures you see are what I found in the garden this morning. I didn't get pictures of the two birds that sat nearby, but they also brought me joy this morning.

 So this week I encourage you to show kindness and joy to yourself.

You are special and deserve being cherished.

Sending love,

Marilyn 

PS: I just realized a whole week went by and yet I shared the same first flower that I shared last week. Ugh! I think cleaning and downsizing is scrambling my days.

Words of Kindness and Joy

 Recently I came across the song Try a Little Kindness. On YouTube I found it by several singers, here is a link to one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX7NNMKBPsw&ab_channel=drlandy

Enjoy this one of Glen Campbell in concert.

Then last week I bought the book, The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Have you seen this book. It has the sweetest message. It will be my Valentine gift for my grandson. Here is a copy of a page from the book. I love the artwork and the words.

 Each day I pray that the world will become a little kinder.

Kindness is definitely what I want to be when I grow up. 

How about you?

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

 

"Kindness has the same meaning in any language and in any land."  

Essay, She'll Never Know by Roger Burlington in book, Short Stories as you like them, edited by William R. Wood and John D. Husband - 1940

 

This Short Stories book has been on my book shelf my whole adult life, but recently I realized I had never read it. So this past week I picked it up to read a few essays. The essays were very dated and nothing particularly enticing; but still I had to read awhile. Will I finish reading this book? Probably not! Will I pass this book along, probably not for awhile. This particular book has sentimental meaning to me.

When I was a senior at Willow Glen High School I took English literature. Now this book was compiled and printed in the US. But what I treasured was that my English teacher gave me this book. I was very quiet in all my classes and in this one I remember sitting in the back row with a most boisterous boy; so I was even more quiet. But there was something about this teacher, Miss Wood. She noticed me and would encourage me to read. She even would make sure to ask my opinion of the assigned reading in each class gathering. She was kind to me. So at the end of the year she signed the book and I have treasured having it on my book shelf ever since.

 

The book must have come from the school library, but she noticed me and gave it to me.

 When I came across the above quote I just thought "of course" kindness would be the same in every language and land.

Yesterday my church was honored with lunch of food from Afghanistan. We had sponsored a family from there two years ago and they wanted to say thank you for all we did for them and celebrate getting permanent visas to stay here. It was the kindness of those in our church that they honored with Afghan food. What a treat!

So again this week I am reminded in many small ways that kindness matters.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Come In

 I most often read in the morning with my cup or pot of tea. For December every year I pull out Nigel Slater's book, The Christmas Chronicles. This year I am also reading throughout the the book, Light Rain Sometimes Fall, A British Year Through Japan's 72 Seasons, by Lev Parikian. Each section is only 3 or 4 pages and quite easy to read every few days.

A couple quotes this morning just stuck with me. They are quite simple, but did cause me to think.

"Yesterday was a day for moving on; today is a day for lingering. So I linger." from Light Rain Sometimes Fall. Do we take the time to linger on occasional days?

"And yes, I know the world is a shitstorm at the moment, but we all need a safe harbour." from The Christmas Chronicles. He is talking about inviting someone into your home, a "safe harbour". It might not have, as he says mince pies, but it is a place of safety, warmth in a time of difficult times, and a place where we can offer a bit of bread. A time to linger.

 

Do you schedule in times to linger during the holiday season? Or do you say, after the holiday season I will rest? I hope you are finding times during the season to put your feet up, sip a cup of tea, maybe read a book and linger by the lights of the Christmas tree. 

The wizard doing his magic under my little tree.

Maybe we stroll down a magical lane of Christmas?

Take time to linger and savor each moment of the holiday season.

If you came to my door I would say, "Come In". Come and linger with me awhile. Would you like a cup of tea, maybe a cookie too?

Sending love,

Marilyn

Western Wild Flowers, A Treasure

 

This week I was playing in the garden. I wanted to "stage" a floral tea scene in my garden to share on Instagram. My go-to flower book is Western Wild Flowers by Margaret Armstrong, dated 1915, which I found in an antique shop several years ago. It is a real treasure and I refer to it often. I had to include it in a picture with flowers; so you will see it here in my garden enjoying a quiet moment with a cup of tea.

Most often I refer to the book to find wild flower picture ideas for my teabag art cards.

Here is a sample page inside the book. Sometimes there are colored pictures, but most often just black and white drawings.

Roy Berglund signed it in the back and his address is not far from where I live now.

If you look closely to the flower on the left in this picture you will see where the library once had it on it's shelves.

 

It is a treasure indeed.

Do you have a book that you treasure?

Have a terrific weekend, dear friends!

Word Magic

 I am reading The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama right now. Last evening as I read she mentioned the word jeopardy - the danger of loss, harm, or failure.

The word this week is jeopardy. 

Michelle wrote, "Who doesn't worry about loss, harm, or failure? We are all constantly processing our fears, attempting to sort out actual emergencies from manufactured ones." She goes on to talk about paying attention to our fears and to acknowledge them, putting them into a perspective that doesn't paralyze you. Always "be comfortably afraid", but be able to continue on. Take notice being "awake and aware".

 

I thought about those times when something or someone crosses your path and you feel chills run up your arms or your stomach suddenly feels a bit sick. We need to be alert enough to notice those bodily feelings and pay attention to why we are feeling that way.  Often lately I have been chatting about "notice what you notice" and again this would be the case here. 

Most often we wouldn't walk down a dark road alone in the middle of the night. Yet, during the daylight and with a friend we would feel perfectly safe.

 

Several years ago my minister asked me to speak in church. I gulped a big breathe and thought "wow! I don't talk in front of groups, how can I do that". I felt the fear of failure or not being good enough. I said OK, I would do it. Putting myself out there was scary, but I knew it was a safe place to do it. I also knew I would grow by doing it. Now I am surprised at myself because I sometimes voluntarily choose to speak in church and actually love it.  

So for today and always, let's face our fears and "notice what you notice". Live gently and walk tenderly, bravely and with love in our hearts.

The pictures are just because I liked them. The lavender and barn picture just below is my 4th of July picture for this year.

 

Happy Fourth of July, dear friends!
 

 

Notice What you Notice

 

If you have been reading my posts for awhile you know occasionally I say "notice what you notice". This is the primary reason I write blog posts. One of my dear friends often uses that term and I loved it so much I started using it too. On doing a little search I found that it comes from Allen Ginsberg, but I have a feeling it has been said in many different ways by others.

"Ordinary mind includes eternal perceptions. Notice what you notice. Observe what's vivid. Catch yourself thinking. Vividness is self-selecting. And remember the future." Allen Ginsberg

Recently a friend through blogging recommended a book called Enchantment, Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May. I finished reading it this morning. It is exactly what "notice what you notice" is all about.

"The natural world never stops giving you details to observe."

"learning seems to be a perpetual cycle of forgetting." We must keep noticing to remember and learn once again.

"Naming is a form of power." This struck me in thinking we name flowers in the garden and our own children. In so doing we give them the power of living and thriving.

"More often than not, I find that I already hold all the ideas from which my enchantment is made. The deliberate pursuit of attention, ritual, or reflection does not mystically draw in anything external to me. Instead, it creates experiences that rearrange what I know to the insights I need today."

She talks about searching for the magic and finding surprises, something that delights and enchants us. It might be finding the sliver of the crescent moon up above or a bird song we have never heard before.

Pictures were snapped last evening in my backyard. What I wanted to take were the lights, but then I noticed the moon. What a treat to sit for awhile outdoors and notice what I noticed. It was my own private celebration of the beginning of summer.

 

Happy Weekend, dear friends!

Now go out and "notice what you notice".

Word Magic

 The word this week is READ

 

 The book in the picture is Western Wild Flowers by Margaret Armstrong (1915). A very lucky find once upon a time and one I refer to often when doing art or out hiking.

"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain." Louisa May Alcott

"Reading means,being ready to catch a voice that makes itself heard when you least expect it, a voice that comes from an unknown source,from somewhere beyond the book, beyond the author, beyond the convention of writing; from the unsaid, from what the world has yet not said of itself and does not yet have the words to say." Italo Calvino 

Do you love to read?

Growing up I was never encouraged to read, but once I had a bike and could find the library it became a special place for me to go. I would, even then, look for historic novels and loved reading about famous women. Oh the power of reading and books. The library and books are a treasure we must always protect. 

Reading teaches us, Reading entertains us and Reading enchants us. 

Have a terrific week, dear friends!

Pick up a book and read.

Book Reviews

I don't often mention or review books I have read, but my blogger friend, Jeanie, at The Marmalade Gypsy, writes great reviews. She has even inspired me to read and stretch a bit in some of my own reading. So I thought I would share a few books I have recently read.

I follow a much younger, sort of hipster, tea drinker on Instagram and recently he mentioned a book he read. Plus a couple of my tea friends had also mentioned this book; so out of curiosity I decided to read the book. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.

There is definitely tea in it, but also a robot.

"Everybody knew what a tea monk did, so Dex wasn't too worried about getting started. Tea service wasn't anything arcane. People came to the wagon with their problems and left with a fresh-brewed cup."

"Everybody thinks they're the exception to the rule, and that's exactly where the trouble starts. One person can do a lot of damage." 

"Deciding on your purpose is one of the most valuable things there is."

There were so many little glimpses/words that were so profound in this little book. The conversations between the main character, Dex, and the robot, Mosscap. I really enjoyed it. I understand there is a second book, which I plan to read soon. I love that I can learn new things even at a "certain age".

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

Most often I read historic fiction, especially from the early part of the 1900's and taking place in Europe; so the State of Terror was stepping out of my favorite reading comfort. It was historic fiction for sure, but a more recent time period. This book indeed had intrigue and I was particularly impressed with what each author brought to the story. Louise Penny is an impressive mystery writer and Hillary Rodham Clinton added all the basic truths of being Secretary of State to the story. It felt so real, it was a little scary to think what could happen in government intrigue and real life.

After reading this book I will be planning to read more written by Louise Penny.

The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli

Having stood in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France and view the Mona Lisa this story really brought home to me all that took place during World War II and the saving of art in France. As I have said before this is my favorite genre to read. Having traveled several times in France and being intrigued by YouTube shows on French chateaus, I could really picture the adventure and intrigue in this story. Since it was based on what really happened, I was thankful once again for the brave souls that risked their lives to save historic pieces of art.

 Allie and Bea by Catherine Ryan Hyde

I was sure I was not going to like this one, but after I got into it I loved how the author brought two lost souls together in this magical friendship of an older woman and a young girl. They certainly captured my heart. And in the end life went on in a different way for each of them.

Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

My cousins wife and I often exchange books we have read and this book was in a recent pile of books she shared with me. Strange in my case because I mostly like to read female authors, in a way I feel like I am supporting them. So I told myself I probably would not have picked this book up to consider, but here it was in the pile. 

The book was in three parts. The first part was the story of a young girl in an orphanage in Hawaii that was adopted by a Japanese family before World War II. Then in the second part the story continues with the family at the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the encampment of the Japanese people living in the US, and finally after the war it was a time of healing and recovering. There were a few moments of tears for me in this book. The descriptions of survival in camps here in the US saddened me and made it more real. Sometimes it is easy to forget and a book such as this, though fiction, is a lesson to learn in human survival. 

There have been other books read, but each of the books here have been surprises I hadn't planned on enjoying. All five were a bit out of my normal reading, but I am so glad I read everyone of them.

Happy reading, dear friends!

I hope maybe I have inspired you to pick up something that surprises you too.

Happy New Year, dear Friends!

 

My teapot is empty, but held with anticipation.

I prepare by warming the water and choosing the tea.

The tea unfurls and opens for me.

In the quiet of the early morning hour it warms my hands,

Then the first sip of the day.

I breathe

I learn to just BE in the moment

My soul is replenished and I smile.

written by me this week

This is the early morning hour this very week.

 From The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater:

"Everything I have ever wanted is here, right now."

"The cold is making me hungry. I head in, pausing to warm myself by the wood-burning stove in the hall. My request for coffee is sweetly but firmly refused, and I drink green tea from deep cups instead..."

After going for an early morning walk in the cold he finds a coffee shop not yet opened, but enters and sits to wait. "The owner arrives, surprised but apparently unbothered by my having "broken in". She makes me coffee and brings hazelnut cookies shaped in unruly lumps like fat pebbles. A blue woolen blanket for my knees. And then a wafer thin ginger biscuit, coated in the thinnest white icing. Like frost on a roof tile. She lights a small wrought iron stove. I write."

And so it is, life goes on in the most perfect, cozy way and I also write to you, dear friends.

May you be blessed always and in the little things that delight you. May you be served a good cup of coffee or tea and wrapped in a blanket of coziness. Stay warm, savor each day, and above all else dance.

PS: I read The Christmas Chronicles every December, maybe not every word, but select essays that delight my winter, Christmas days.

Happy New Year, dear friends!