Category: granddaughter

Posted in authors, blessings, book, change, children, community, Crescent Dragonwagon, daughter, Family, feelings, God, grandchild, granddaughter, happy, house, husband, job, people, silence, solitude, walk, write, writer

New Pace And Space

Posted on by deannagreensandgardenart

I have taken on a new opportunity this summer, and not just for this summer. On June 1 I retired from my full-time HR position in order to slow my pace down. I have more time for the activities I love like gardening, cooking, antiquing, and writing. Even with these fun hobbies, I am learning to pace myself so I get enough sleep, exercise, and make healthier food choices and proper time to consume. For additional income I am teaching culinary classes part-time with kids’ 1/2-day camps this summer. Come the fall semester, I will teach culinary classes 2 evenings a week to kids as well as adults.

More time for family is the another reason to slow my pace down. My husband and I already spent a weekend at the lake with his three children, spouses and three grandchildren. Next weekend I will be opening a booth in an antique mall with my daughters and granddaughters. But this week, is time for myself. I signed up for a writing residency at the Writing Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I learned of this place over 15 years ago. This place has been in existence for 20 years. I could almost pinch myself, to check if it is real. I am actually staying at the Dairy Hollow house made famous by author, Crescent Dragonwagon. I am taking a week’s residency in the comfortable culinary suite creating some recipes to share in a book of short stories with a culinary theme. My first book. See what becomes of this week. It has been productive so far.

I take casual walks in this enchanted town of Victorian wrap-around porches, bungalows with inviting archways, crevices filled with wildflowers, groves of trees and moss-covered cliffs laced throughout the town. I do some porch sitting, watching the hummingbirds and song birds feed. While on the front porch yesterday afternoon sipping iced peppermint herbal tea a doe and her fawn meandered between the two residency buildings. Later this afternoon I hear the readings of one of my fellow writers at the Carnegie Library a few short blocks away. I will make it to the farmer’s market and a couple of local shops tomorrow morning before returning to the laptop for my story writing and making a peach-blueberry slump. Visits with the other writing residents have been at dinner time. We sit and dine for an hour at a long table filled with delightful foods prepared by an excellent cook from the Old World. Yes, life is good. I feel God’s blessings.

Posted in community, contagious, Emotional, Family, fear, feelings, friends, granddaughter, Hannah, health, insecurity, life, meditation, neighbor, plumposity sister, Prayer, sad, share, understand, world, worry

Life Is Still Good

Posted on by deannagreensandgardenart

My husband and I chose to sleep in this Sunday.  The world and local news and the encouragement for social distancing kept us at home.  Our spring-like weather turned to winter-like this weekend. We watched the gold finches fuss amongst each other for a perch to feed at the feeder.  The purple and house finches do the same on the other feeder.  Such the nature of animals, and people alike.  The world’s concern (and ours, too), this corona virus has been much to think about and digest.  Some planning has taken place in our communities, proactive rather than reactive.  And there are those who are in a reactive frenzy to protect self, not thinking of the others around them.  The empty shelves at the stores are the evidence with the hoarding of toilet paper and sanitizer.  Remember while protecting yourself, think of your neighbor, too.  Those especially who are elderly and the many who have comprised immune systems due to chronic health conditions.  I have several family members in those categories.

We took my oldest granddaughter to the bus station for her first big trip by herself to Florida.  This is a trip that has been planned for months.  Hannah decided as a legal adult to still take this trip.  Instead of fear and worry, I have prayed for her safe travels and health.  My three classmates, the plumposity sisters (PS) and I have postponed our girls’ weekend here at the cottage.   Sad, but totally understanding of their feelings.  I busied myself with cap decorating to match our tie-dye shirts for the newly scheduled June weekend.  I gathered more journal ideas for future projects.  Love the birds.  They teach us so much.  Sing their birdie songs despite their circumstances.  Most importantly I spent some quiet time in meditation and prayer.  Such a vulnerable state we all are in. Yet this is a season that will pass as all seasons do.  Life is still good.  Keep smiling, and choose wisely.

Posted in bones, contagious, faith, granddaughter, health, heart, Jesus, joy, love, Prayer, scripture, share, veteran, Women in My Life

Hearts Are Everywhere

Posted on by deannagreensandgardenart

 

Dear Valentine, you are surrounded by love.  Feel love with your heart and deep into your bones.  “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,”  Jesus commands us, referenced in John 13:34.  He is the ultimate example.  Give love and look for love in every person and circumstances you encounter today and everyday.  Why see, hearts are everywhere to remind you and me!  The indoor plants, fabrics, jewelry, and the love birds tweeting love songs outside the window.  Folklore says Valentine’s Day was picked this time of year because this is the season where love birds find each other.  So whether it is a mate you wish to find or just love, the search is not far for love.  My week love was in the smile, thank you, and wave from the homeless veteran as I handed him a little goody bag put together by a faithful Eagle scout from church … our 3-year old granddaughter leaping for joy over her Valentine package received in the mail and her daddy kind enough to “go live” with it …  a couple of good health reports from loved ones who I have been fervently praying for … a girls’ weekend planned … dark chocolates hand-delivered by my sweetheart … Know that you are loved today and forever.  Find those hearts and the love.  It’s contagious!  Please send me a comment to let me know about them.

Posted in answer, authors, book, courage, creative, empty, God, grace, granddaughter, Hannah, mind, patient, people, quote, scripture, silence, solitude, sorrow, stillness, words, write

Silence Is An Answer, But So Is Speaking Softly

Posted on by deannagreensandgardenart

Introverts contemplate, in quietness and solitude they create and conclude.  Susan Cain, author of Quiet:  The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking gives an eloquent Ted Talk on this subject.   Go to https://www.quietrev.com/ted-talk/.  She ends this speech for both the introvert and extrovert with “I wish you the courage to speak softly”.   For myself, and many of my loved ones who are introverts, this is for you, too. The photo is my oldest granddaughter in quiet thought near the river a couple of years back.  Now in her junior year with home schooling (not a senior like I wrote a few days ago).  Hannah makes time for solitude, reads, writes, draws, and is creative.  Introvert as it is, she or I do not need a group to follow or hang with.

As an introvert do you ever wonder whether speaking up is worth it?  Arguing never gets far, but even saying a word or two seems to cause trouble. “Silence is an answer too” has some truth.  But silence for too long can be misunderstood, leaves too much room for incorrect conclusions.  “I will watch my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will keep a muzzle on my mouth.  Mute and silent before the wicked, I refrain from good things.  But my sorrow increases; my heart smolders within me.  In my sighing a fire blazes up, and I break into speech,” David, the psalmist writes in Psalms 39: 2 – 4.  Silence is broken, passion rises up to spoken words.  For others it is the written word or an art piece.

So what does the word “silence” mean?  According to the online resource https://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/silence.html …

silence
SI’LENCE, n. L. silentium, from sileo, to be still.
1. In a general sense, stillness, or entire absence of sound or noise; as the silence of midnight.
2. In animals, the state of holding the peace; forbearance of speech in man, or of noise in other animals. I was dumb with silence; I held my peace, even from good. Ps 39.
3. Habitual taciturnity; opposed to loquacity.
4. Secrecy. These things were transacted in silence.
5. Stillness; calmness; quiet; cessation of rage, agitation or tumult; as the elements reduced to silence.
6. Absence of mention; oblivion, Eternal silence be their doom. And what most merits fame, in silence hid.
7. Silence, in used elliptically for let there be silence, an injunction to keep silence.
SI’LENCE, v. t.
1. To oblige to hold the peace; to restrain from noise or speaking.
2. To still; to quiet; to restrain; to appease. This would silence all further opposition. These would have silenced their scruples.
3. To stop; as, to silence complaints or clamor.
4. To still; to cause to cease firing; as, to silence guns or a battery.
5. To restrain from preaching by revoking a license to preach; as, to silence a minister of the gospel. The Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Chelmsford in Essex, was silenced for non-conformity.
6. To put an end to; to cause to cease. The question between agriculture and commerce has received a decision which has silenced the rivalships between them.

What words need to go unsaid?   When does the silence need to be broken?  Will I take up the courage to say it softly?  Will you take up the courage to say it softly?  What words do you need to share with your world in 2019?