My Word for 2011

Believe is my word for 2011.
Believe is a word that has tickled in the back of my mind
for several years.
It may be a difficult word, but I am ready for the challenge.
Focusing on a word I find that beside seeing the positive side,
I also see the negative side.
I feel up to the challenge for 2011.
My journal is ready.
To start the year out there will be a new
Monday series called, Spirit Whispers.
This series has also been percolating since I started to blog
and 2011 will be the year to listen and pay attention to what I Believe.

I do BELIEVE in magic, as shown in the picture.
I hope you will join me on the journey,
pull up a chair or a blanket, have a cup of tea, and share along with me.

Have you chosen a word for 2011?

JOY for 2010

Each year when a word chooses me I think this word will be easy to pay attention to.
Each year I am surprised by what I learn or struggle through.
I thought JOY would be super easy, but I was wrong.
As you can see in my collage, there is plenty of JOY in my life.
When I started to pay attention to JOY I started
noticing times when I didn't feel so Joyful.
Times of sorrow, sadness, and yep even some depression.
Sometimes it was difficult to rise above it and feel the JOY.
Sometimes others reminded me of my word, JOY, and
I would find superficial ways of creating the JOY.
Sometimes it was turning up the music loud and feeling it in my soul.
There were times when I needed to take an hour out of my day to walk through a garden.
But always that word would sing in my soul and I would remember.
I think JOY is a part of me and will creep into my words here from time to time;
but then that is a part of what Delights my Heart.

I hope you have found JOY this year and that

maybe the word you chose for 2010 has taught you some valuable lessons.

Do you have a new word for 2011?
I do have one, which I will tell you on Friday.
I will be away Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
still finding the JOY in my days.

Merry Christmas

Celebrate Christmas with the Christ Child.

Blessings and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lily

Last week, as a gift to myself, I bought one branch of white lilies. 
There were seven buds on the one branch.
What a treat of both beauty and fragrance to celebrate
the season watching each bud open.
The JOY I have received from this one branch has been delightful.
It often is the small things that bring us so much pleasure.
What small things are you noticing this season that are bringing you JOY?

Here We Come a-Caroling

I hadn't been caroling in many years.

I also hadn't waded through the crowds at Portland's Peacock Lane.

But last weekend I did both.

What fun it was!

The houses in the two blocks were decorated beautifully.

Even the horse drawn wagon was fun to see traveling along the street.

And there in front of the house in very big letters stood my word for the year.

The lights how they twinkled.

It definitely puts you in the spirit of the season.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good-night!

Tea Time in my Office

My office needed a tree to celebrate.
Well you know I am working on tea things in there.
It inspires me to tea.
So off to the kitchen for a cup of my favorite.
Then I sit here with my cup and share with you.

Friends are a Joy.

She remembered I loved this little cup and sent it to me.

Oh thank you for remembering me.

A tea house resides here too.

All lite up and waiting for you to come and have a cup of tea with me.

Another friend's sweet remembrance gifted me with this lovely little teapot.

Aren't friends the very best, so thoughtful to remember.

Christmas is a special time for sharing a cup of tea, but

especially for sharing friendship.

Thanks to each of you that leave comments here,

I feel like each one of you is a friend.

Have a wonderful Christmas, dear friends!

Through the Window

Windows

There is a house I daily pass

With finger marks on the window glass.

(Shadows of moments happily whiled

Away in the sun by a little child.)

The wide beveled panes next door to it are

Curtained and free of blemish, or scar.

If choice were given to any, who

Would waver a moment between the two?

For as fast as it's smudged, a mother then

May clean a glass til it shines again.

But none may burnish to brighter glints

Panes never soiled by small hand prints.

by Ethel Romig Fuller, Kitchen Sonnets

Photo ~ My Christmas tree through the window.