My Snow Day...

We were fully expecting the ladies to have a snow day today... they did not. I on the other hand am. I am relishing this morning of having nowhere to go or rush off to or get ready for. I got out my special present mug, pulled out the sugar cubes (my decadent treat) and made an entire pot of coffee, I lit my candles and incense, put on my music, assembled my pile of magazines and my book, took a passing gaze at my vision board still imagining what else I want to fill in the rest, arranged the quilts and blankies on the Big comfy couch...and here I sit! My life is usually full. In a good way. But I miss these kinds of days where my big plan is if I want another cup of coffee and how I am going to get it. I miss days sitting looking out the window watching everyone else go about their business while I snuggle up and breathe and rest. I am a people person, a doer, and my empty days are far too few. I am better at saying no but not perfect. But today I am claiming time for this sagging spirit. Time to mend and regroup. Time to enjoy quiet and actually read the words on a page and who knows maybe even put some words on the page. Wishing you peace this snowy day of ours and may you find time to create your own snow day feeling.

Surprise...

So coming home from taking the ladies to school, I find this happy snow friend smiling out at me...a nice surprise on a chilly Michigan morning!!

I also got this little quip on a calender a friend gave me for my Birthday for women who do too much, and I really feel it is one of those things we let slip as wives, mothers, and really just as women...we spend so much of our days caring and tending and managing the worlds we move in that we forget to make time for wonder...

"Children can return us to wonder if we let them. We women who do too much need to exert great caution- perhaps even more than most people- not to lose wonder in our lives. It can slip away so quickly and so unnoticed."

I love the time after the girls have just gone to school when I get to come home and light candles and gather my books, grab a hot beverage, and listen to the silence...well usually I would pick silence himself has on RTE News on the ipod this morning which I must say is killing a little of my peace...but this morning calm is something I treasure and makes me smile and brings me a heartful of contentment and puts my crazy world in perspective... Yeah spirit!!!!

And the best part of the time while the ladies are in school...

Is time with this guy!

Seeking...

I am a work in progress. I am peeling off layers and finding the things I don't like in there and trying so very hard to weed them out and plant peace in their places. I fight the process. I try to shield it and not let it in. It hurts when you look at it and really see it. It is hard to see that you are not the gentle, loving, peaceful person you thought but someone human, who has hung onto bits of ick and grudges for years. That a bit of all past wrongs has been carried within you for a lifetime...things that didn't really matter then much less now...yet they have been part of you, shaped you, and lived within you...and that having to look at them give them a name and begin to let them go is so very hard. To continue to grow and learn in a new spiritual way is not easy but working toward peace and contentment in a world where that is very hard to find is needed and a necessity. And today I made a big first step looking at me...and feeling tears slip out as I focus and try to heal and try to leave behind and try to move forward and be a better person, more positive person, a more serene person, a person who can channel the negativity and put perspective into the world when sometimes it is the biggest thing missing...golden light, healing, powerful, centered...growing and learning and listening...thank you Michelle for being a stepping stone in the world for me.

Today...

After yoga, I want to come home and snuggle in, light some candles and incense, make some coffee or tea, and read...I want to explore the spirit and revel in the peace of my home...so today while doing such a thing (on the front porch), I felt a tickle on my leg, I was about to reach down and swipe away whatever the offender may be when I saw this dragonfly sitting there contentedly. He sat there long enough for my husband to grab me a camera...it felt like such a little gift to me in my quest for peace and spirit a little sign that I am on the right path! And it feels like I truly am. I didn't realize what an awesome fit yoga would be into my world and how many inner changes it would bring. I am trying to make peace with some of what has come to the surface and hope that with further practice the answer to the hows will come as well but for now I am very content to be right where I am!

Evening...

Evening is finally here...Tuesdays are our running days, all my doing, but it still feels blissful to sit on the comfy couch and snuggle the ladies and enjoy a mug of hot cocoa...I love snuggle days and every once in a while I take some time after the ladies have retired for the evening, and light the lovely candles in our faux fireplace in our room and find a book of meditations or of spirit to remind me to regroup and appreciate what is around me...mindfulness is something I work at and being in the moment and appreciating all the little things in my world right now that bring me peace and joy...I would be lying if I said I am good at this, a work in progress really, but there has to be a place to start...and my life can get a little stressful at time, work is topsy turvy, and finances are always something I work at...but we have all we need and life is truly good...

Weekend of Spirit

This has turned into a weekend of spirit...I have found myself surrounded by two groups of very different but both very incredible women. I am fortunate to have found a voice and an outlet for all the blessings I find myself with every day.

Imbolc/Brigid's day was today so in honor of the Goddess/Saint of poetry, healing, and fertility we lit candles and meditated and most of all just breathed!!! Sometimes that is the best way to honor what is good in your world just to breathe it all in and fill your entire being with the feeling of contentment!!

Tonight, my lovely friends came over in order to create candles. We all had been talking about Grandparents and family members we missed and pets that we wished were still with us and even in one case a parent who was gone...and someone said the funeral home makes candles from pictures for you...when my head had an aha...we could do our own, modge podge and some color copies and all my endless craft supplies...and so our ancestor night came to be. I always keep an ancestor altar in my home. It is a place I go to remember and ground and feel my lovely Gran still with me. I light a little incense, a candle (or two depending on the issues at hand) and burn a little sage to cleanse ...and I ask them all to watch over our family and keep us safe...it brings me peace in days that sometimes have very little...and it allows me to honor those people who have made me who I am... so tonight my candle had a photo of my mother's parents on one side and my father's on the other with the words wisdom and honor on the sides...

I feel so full...having the opportunity to invite such love and spirit and energy into my home and to know it has given happiness and peace to those who have entered is such a gift...yes it was a weekend well spent in refilling and renewing...I am thankful for my friends and my home...