l e s s o n

Enjoy!

xoxo

Cathy

hApPy

winnefred just makes me happy (without even inviting her out of her bottle)

new snow fell last night

{sigh}

but our baby turns 12 today!

{BIG, magical birth-day-snowflakes tippy-toed down the day he was born}

i had to clean up the donut wrappers before taking this shot

and the new lacrosse stick tags

and the 24 classroom cupcake crumbs

birthdays are like a trip to the county fair...

...a ride on the ferris wheel while holding a lemon shake-up

every birthday is a big, fat GIFT!

a new trophy to carry around all day long

birthdays sure do add to the happy in life

the road home

My neighbor has been feeling punk this week…I can’t really wrap my mind around knowing what it must feel like to know your death is imminent.  To have your kind painter ask you “what do I do if you don’t answer your phone one morning?”

To look at a full moon from your sick bed and wonder if it’s the last one you’ll see.  To pet your dearly loved dog, give her an extra treat because there are only so many more you can give her…

I’ve stopped saying “goodbye” when I leave because, when dying, it’s a “final word”, you know?  So I say goodnight, and see you later, or love you. I try to bring good energy into her home every time I step over the threshold. 

I mean, it is holy ground I’m entering. 

The living and the dying…so close together…coexisting for a time in one room.  I put her needs before my own.  I laugh a lot with her.  I open curtains and fix tea. I point to God when she tells me stories…look how he has taken care of you all these years! I clean and organize.  I water plants.

And I feel God watering me.  Spirit growth in this sacred place where He is ever-present and so close to one who will soon see Him face-to-face. 

I feel Him tugging my sleeve, gently turning my face to His and whispering...


live like this every day…with every one. 


Life and Death coexist in every room.

It   is   ALL   Holy   Ground.

While I truly appreciate all your kind comments about helping my neighbor, it is ALL God.
 Left to my own devices I remain obsessed with serving myself.

{divine} interruptions

The telephone rings === loud, jarring. . .dissolving my precious moment of stolen solitude. 

Then . . . I suddenly know . . . that God is in the ringing, that God is the interruption.

- edwina gateley

dale chihuly's overhead artwork at the conservatory . . .

i took the picture while there with my neighbor on friday

{--  a special and fun day indeed!  --

i am involved at the end of her life in big ways now

because back in september my phone rang and her trembling voice asked

"can you get my mail while i'm in the hospital?"

thank you, god

-

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21 -

smile bring-ers

these two folks just make me smile

and than when i turn them around

they make me LAUGH!

sitting in my kitchen windowsill (when they're not posing for the camera)...

i feel badly that my neighbors have to see their angry faces through the glass...

but THAT makes me smile because they probably wonder

what in the world?!

and mr. owl

he sees things others can't...that makes him wIsE

he is my early valentine's gift from my husband...

i had to have him now...because i couldn't get him out of my mind

once i saw him perched on his anthropologie branch

winter is fun {for awhile}

but i've already pulled out my faux tulip bundle (which no one believes is faux)

and my faux hydrangea (another dead ringer)

and my little ceramic friends

SmiLeS...BIG ones...

bring beautiful, warm, sunshine to my heart

owl photo: anthropologie

m o m e n t s

I’m not sure how I first found Ann’s blog

I do know that it isn't a daily read for me…

Because sometimes Ann’s words humble and overwhelm so much that I need time to breathe in between visits

Ann’s new book is on the bestseller list at amazon

And in typical ann fashion, she points heavenward and says 

“it’s Him…”

I’m reading slowly and deliberately

Taking time to breathe

And cherish

E a c h  m o m e n t

I am so grateful for ann

teaching

photo: tumbler, kim kardashian

as a teacher of interpersonal communication

i tell my students that we have to lay the foundation (who am i?) before we can start adding the bricks (how do i communicate with others?) because

out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks

(matt 12:34)

and most of the foundation for interpersonal communication lies in self concept and self esteem...

photo: google, jennifer lopez


and a big part of the development of self esteem comes from social comparison


{and face it, we rarely are comparing apples to apples}


what you see is usually never the whole picture


of a person's life...their emotions, their circumstances, their looks...



photo: google, goldie hawn

most of these college students get it right away


and all of them get it when i show them these photos


{especially the young women}


sometimes social comparison can be a motivator to be a better person


but sometimes it can drag down our self esteem


and ultimately effect our relationships with others


i tell my students...


be yourself. everyone else is already taken anyways.
-oscar wilde

nature refrains

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature— the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."


- Rachel Carson