Anniversaries

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Whatever event keeps you looking forward to celebrate or commemorate is either surrounded by joy or sadness.  Births and return dates of births boost confidences of health and longevity.  Sustained relationships, marriages, for instance, bring outbursts of happiness for having reached milestones.  After all, marriages that stand challenges and time indicate endurance, understanding, symbiotic giving and taking in addition to unconditional love.  The establishing, and then growing of organizations through the years tell stories of great vision and an accomplished mission.  Both are worth our while celebrating and expressing joy!  Death anniversaries are different, however.  They are better left out of the calendar and memory because they invoke only sadness.  There’s nothing more.  There’s nothing less.

 

Facades

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Walk out in a neighborhood or a nearby subdivision.  Are you walking out now?  Look around as you walk.  Take note of homes and houses' facades.  'Wondered about home owners and renters' decision rationales for what goes in front of their homes? Look out there.  Notice two Adirondack seats crowd that very narrow porch and front door.  Why are they there?  At the house next to it, a porcelain dragon guards a flower garden.  Plaster geese pretend to feed from the ground across from it, and behind it, a swan pottery holds roses.   Again, what’s the thought?  Keep walking.  Observe more what's out in the yards.  A tree swing tells about a child or children actively at play after school, on lazy or carefree afternoon weekends.  We don’t know for sure.   While you pass some well-planned landscaping, many other well-intentioned gardens pitifully scream of disappointment.  You couldn't escape the unattended trees, bushes and flower plots filled with weeds tolerated or hated by passers-by and close neighbors.  Facades are like life dreams and goals that either announces human failure or celebration!  What does your facade tell the world?

Discontent

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Why are so many of us never-ever content with gracious gifts we now have or received?  Admit it.  We are always whining and complaining.  We are constantly disappointing ourselves and others with our thoughtless griping.  There's never enough money to throw down on wants and leisurely pursuits.  Something is not right with furniture pieces, appliances and gadgets around the house.  The landscaping outdoors fell short of our vision.  Our vacation was short and not as exciting as someone else's.  Our skin has blemish.  Our hair is pitiful-looking.  Blah, blah, and more blah!  Discontent is a malady not only of the mind, but of the soul.  We must endeavor to rid of it!  It is poison that literally eats up the good we have, and the thanksgivings we must offer and say!

Winged Wildlife

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Chirping of birds in and around a bog garden is exhilarating.  It touches deep down one's soul and it takes winged creatures' melodious songs to the tiniest of fibers inside the mind and body.  High-pitched bird sounds remind of a little child's cuddly play and cooing.  Rough and low-pitched cries of birds mimic gentle, yet rarely listened-to voices of old folks.  In between exchanges of calls from one bird to another, visitors to the bog garden get a surprise from a blue heron.  There, it radiantly strides down on the pond and lifts itself off ground as if it did not flaunt enough its majestic gait.  Onlookers do not mind.  Noticing the unfolding of a natural event invites that rarest of calm from within.

Stress-free

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     What would you do with a day entirely free for you to conquer, manage or waste?  You could rise early, just be, and count the blessings free time could yield.  You could let the hours flow out and let them lead you to acts of kindness in your community.   You could use the carefree time to volunteer at your favorite charitable organization.  You could explore that natural park you postponed visiting a while back.  You might choose to give an acquaintance or a friend a friendly chat.  You also have the choice to simply rest your mind and body via a tub soak, a two-mile run or jog, a quiet walk.  You might convince yourself to bring out that desired art project and get it started.  You might prefer to just play some music and let that take you to a heightened world residing in deep recesses of the mind.  You could mismanage time, of course, and then throw it away doing nothing pleasurable or productive.  Your choice, indeed, but time cheerfully spent with friends and acquaintances lives forever in mind and heart! 

Pressure

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    Barefooted, there is a satisfying feeling that always happens from stepping on freshly cut and verdant-green grass, especially in autumn time. The grass tickles and refreshes much like the feeling you get at a foot massage spa. Well-trimmed grass in your yard or elsewhere doesn't just happen, though.  Someone skillful with a push or powered mower gets up and goes out of her way to take up the artful, yet arduous task.  Once completed, there is that instant and inward gratification. Unfortunately, not to one's neighbor whose grass, likewise requires cutting and trimming.  Keeping up with the neighborhood yard upkeep could bring an irritating pressure, but fulfilling reward and feeling!

Moving

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You may have heard that geographical movement includes being not only physically at the site, but also getting inwardly there’.  Familiarizing yourself with new surroundings, landmarks, and places that help get you around and about is a must, or you end up painfully lingering back to the comforts and nostalgia of your previous location. Getting settled requires an enabling of sort!  You must know where the nearest services are for emergencies – hospital, doctor/dentist offices, fire department, water/electric providers, and the like.  You must somehow also again build a network of people and resources, and while it isn’t necessary to create new friendships, surrounding yourself with reliable and wholesome acquaintances would surely help sustain or balance your emotional quotient.  Uprooting yourself from what you know could either bring depression or elation.  Choosing thoughts and actions that feed the latter would, and by all means, keep away the blues!

Smoothie!

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Summer heat creates a natural craving for all cold drinks and foods. What’s your favorite cold treat? Mine is the smoothie.  It is easy to prepare and a quick fix to my craving.  Simply take out the blender, gather lingering fruits from the fridge, and ice cubes.  Give the blender a boost in cracking the ice easily by using orange or lime juice, and then pour in diced fruit.  Next, get the blender to work wonders!  You may want half a cup of milk or plain yogurt added to the mixture for an extra zing to the palate.  Otherwise, the mixture of ice, juice and fruit is the perfect smoothie treat for a warm tummy!

Kale!

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Kale is a fantastic veggie find.  Not only is it a great source of iron and

calcium, but also vitamin C, and when prepared/mixed with nuts, you get a dose of protein.  I have not really given it attention as many times I passed by it at any of the markets until I heard, then looked up what I could do with it.  What a great surprise to know I could make chips with it!  Triple yummy in the palate, filler in the tummy and radically healthy! 

Get Going

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     Bored, stressed and tired of commonplace existence?  Try Uprooting yourself and relocating to one of many undiscovered places nearby.  It may just be the panacea for your unsettled feelings.  You could drive leisurely and explore an undiscovered, scenic place.  You might want to take a day trip to a park, a museum, a lake, a river.  If you want to really be more adventurous, you may head out to nearby beaches or to the mountains!  If you like, tap a combination location of water and mountain. 

My recent discovery place for just the perfect get away from mundane existence was about an hour and a half drive out of my sleepy Greensboro City to the rich, open, and luxurious Badin Lake.  Perfectly situated around the Uwharrie Mountains of North Carolina, Badin Lake boasts of rustic, contemporary lake houses, varied flora and fauna, and its beautiful bluish-green water.  The mountain slopes that surround the lake soothe and calm, and positively overwhelm eyes craving for gardens of magenta rhododendron, salt marshes and pine forests.  Surprise appearances of blue heron, geese and native birds add to the visitors’ desired calm and solitude.   

For what are you waiting?  Get up, go, and find your heart and mind’s sanctuary!