Friday, June 30, 2017

angels

“When a man says he hears angels singing,
he hears angels singing.” 

Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings





Thursday, June 29, 2017

what keeps us from falling down?

“Read one newspaper daily (the morning edition
is the best
for by evening you now that you at least
have lived through another day)
and let the disasters, the unbelievable
yet approved decisions
soak in.

I don't need to name the countries, 
ours among them.

What keeps us from falling down, our faces
to the ground; ashamed, ashamed?” 

Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings




Wednesday, June 28, 2017

abundance

Messenger

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
          equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
          keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
          astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
          and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
          to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
          that we live forever.

Mary Oliver



Tuesday, June 27, 2017

what matters


Let me 
Keep my mind on what matters / 
Which is my work, 
Which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished... 
(Mary Oliver)




Monday, June 26, 2017

we need beauty

We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it. 
(Mary Oliver)


Sunday, June 25, 2017

Saturday, June 24, 2017

yard duty

a buttercup seen through the flare of a dandelion gone to seed . . .


Friday, June 23, 2017

peter rabbit . . .

but of course it is! 


Thursday, June 22, 2017

beside the river

a favourite quiet spot . . . .


Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Monday, June 19, 2017

flowers

every day as i ride i see flowers . . . . 
i always stop to share time with them . . . 
they still represent to me one of the many miracles of this place!





Sunday, June 18, 2017

riding home



Saturday, June 17, 2017

how it all begins . . .

the first scrap of the day begins . . .   a twitching tail, a keen eye and WHAM!


Friday, June 16, 2017

fifty one years . . .


i arrived in canada, 51 years ago today (june 16, 1966). 
we left ringway airport in manchester on a boeing 707. 
my first plane ride.
i hadn't seen my dad for over a year.
i left behind all my friends. my family. many of my toys, my books, many of my clothes, my border collie, the only home i'd ever known.
my dad met us at the airport. he had a huge car. a pontiac parisienne. he drove us near downtown toronto. i was awed.
when he brought us to our new home - a tiny two bedroom apartment in a massive apartment building i was equally awed that we had a fridge, a stove, a bathroom with hot and cold water, and everything was new. it had furniture, a balcony, and i could see the don valley parkway from the bedroom window in a bedroom i shared with my brother.
my dad took a huge risk in going to canada alone the year before. he took on the possibility that life there would be better. it had to be. we had next to nothing.
i owe him my life, several times.
all that i have i have earned through my work. but the possibility of the many kinds of work i now call my life was given to me through he and my mother's incredible decision to leave behind everything.
thanks mum and dad.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

breakfast with friends

with my special friends michael and andrea and their children william and grace . . . .





Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Monday, June 12, 2017

mica

our second beautiful kitten . . . moksha's sister . . . .




Sunday, June 11, 2017

moksha

our first beautiful kitten . . . .


Saturday, June 10, 2017

Friday, June 9, 2017

sipping

clouds sipping at the fountain . . .


Thursday, June 8, 2017

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

in the warsaw woods

time together discovering the small treasures in the warsaw woods.






Tuesday, June 6, 2017

tinytown

meanwhile . . . down where the fairies play . . .




Monday, June 5, 2017

promise . fulfillment

promise . . .


fulfillment ...



Sunday, June 4, 2017

prayer

I think one thing is that prayer 
has become more useful, interesting, fruitful, 
and... almost involuntary in my life. 
Mary Oliver


Saturday, June 3, 2017

Friday, June 2, 2017

looking up


leaning in against the west wall of our home and looking up . . .