grateful today

I’m tired of winter.  Sometimes I feel like Julie Christie in Dr. Zhivago, huddled in the icy summer palace moaning “It’s a terrible time to be alive!”  If only Boris Pasternak would write a poem about me…

But sometimes I feel grateful too.  For itty bitty bird tracks by my front door.

Check out these icicles.

I get to walk a gauntlet of them each morning, it’s exciting.

I can’t get a great photo, but the trees are definitely budding under there.

Here’s another shot of budding trees, with Happy in the background making snow angels.  (Or more likely, rolling in poopsicles while the Food Lady is distracted trying to focus up close.)

This bush is right outside my front door, and has taken on a personality of its own.  Like a big shaggy beast from Where the Wild Things Are.

Here’s Happy sitting underneath it for scale.

The snow’s so deep in places, sometimes she disappears at the end of the

leash.

-Katy

We were hit by a second storm; the power went out again on Thursday night and I had a quiet 24 hours. Feeling grateful:

* I don’t know what the scary great blue flashes of light that lit up the sky when the power went out were, but they did not burn down the house or electrocute me.

* Sunlight. And lots of windows. Because it’s really hard to make jewelry by candlelight. I know, I tried.

* Not being able to make jewelry after dark was a great excuse to read a novel.

* Jars are effective in keeping little cat paws from candle flames.

* The wood stove rocks. The house stayed warm.

* I was able to make hot food with it. I am able to cook by candlelight.

* I was able to dig out the wood pile and bring in all the remaining wood. There was more than enough.

* I had food in the house and was able to stay in.

* I get village mains water. It was cold but it was abundant.

* I got caught up on current events thanks to battery-operated radio. Ending my news blockade was surprisingly untraumatic.

- Estyn

I’m grateful for:

*Chance to practice being porous when I wanted to stab a cell phone provider customer service rep

*Power! Heat! Light!

*This quote from Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” (Also applicable to Cassandra and Arty the Smarty.)

I’ve enjoyed:

*Last night on LOST - my name was in the cave! Crossed off!  Freaky!  I was a “candidate”!  I shouted out loud making Happy leap off the bed.

*Pushing myself more than usual in the gym this morning.

I felt satisfied when:

*I ate my breakfast (oaty oats) and lunch (sadly, flesh)

*My alarm clock went off, and I’d had plenty of sleep.

-Katy

The snow got really heavy last night and right in the middle of a phone call my power went out.

I’m grateful for:
* Working flashlight
* Candles
* Being able to find them!
* Cell phone
* The woodstove, which kept the whole house warm!
* Plenty of wood already indoors
* Deep quiet
* Electricity came back on this morning just as I was contemplating no hot shower or easily-made coffee.

Most of the time I take my tremendous abundance for granted. It’s good to remember.

- Estyn

This is my weather report for this week:

I’m grateful that while I was at the grocery store yesterday folks were talking about the coming storm so I was warned, and could prepare. I got groceries, brought in four loads of firewood, took the kitchen scraps out to the compost pile (aka the groundhog’s pantry), filled the bird feeders. We’re cozy.

I had some potted mini narcissus in my show booth, and during load out they were the last thing I crammed into the car, practically under the seat, and then forgot for the past week. I finally remembered them and pulled them out to find that they are just fine, and continuing to bloom.

Storm or no storm, I too see signs of spring.

- Estyn

I’ve been seeing lots of signs of spring:

*Bird song, ten thousand robins showed up in my field

*Warmed up to the 40′s

*Snow melt

*Puppies chasing smells accidentally wandering away from home – help find Prince!

And a funny story today – - all day I thought I was out of toothpaste… which I was sort of just ignoring and feeling bad about…..  When all of a sudden!  I found toothpaste!  And in the same instant dropped it into toilet!  It was a split second emotional roller coaster.  I experienced every one of the Buddhist causes of suffering – craving for something I didn’t have, loss of something I want, and having what I don’t want (the opportunity to reach into the toilet).  It was so hilarious.

-Katy

I participated in a difficult budget meeting yesterday morning, which was fine.  But the inside of my head sounded like this:   blah blah blah end of the middle class blah blah blah cuts to base budgets blah blah blah guess I’ll probably die alone in a garbage pit.

Which gave me a chance to practice this advice from Eckart Tolle’s The Power of Now:

“Feel yourself becoming transparent…without the solidity of a material body.  Now allow the (disturbance), or whatever causes a negative reaction, to pass right through you.  It is no longer hitting a solid “wall” inside you…Instead of having a wall of resistance inside you that gets constantly and painfully hit by things that “should not be happening”, let everything pass through you.

Including, and especially, my own thoughts.

-Katy

We had M’s laptop at the hotel in Philly, and for entertainment I looked up the “I’m a Gnu” song that I remembered from a record I had as a kid. Turns out there’s a muppet version! Love it.

That led to the muppet version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Awesome!

And finally to the blissful discovery of an entire channel devoted to the Swedish Chef. My favorite cook after the great Julia.

I have discovered that singing “Bork bork bork!” brings me joy.

- Estyn

I am grateful to be home. My own bed, the cats, everything familiar and non-hotel-ey is welcome and comforting. So many things taken for granted until I leave and return and am reminded that even my mess is something to be thankful for.

And I’m very grateful for all Katy’s posts here while I was gone. Good ones! Thank you!!

- Estyn

Today was a difficult day.  I’m grateful for:

*Pants I bought online all fit – I have green jeans!

*Walnuts & dates

*It’s very easy to do literature searches now, remember the card catalog?

*For all my physical difficulties, I can walk & talk & breathe & see & even run on my own

*Happy let me take this goofy picture of her:

-Katy