Dear Reader:

I am beyond excited! Patience has paid off for me in a big way…and truth be told, my “patience” was the only option I had… lesson learned.

Some of you might remember that several weeks ago ( a couple of months actually) the computer gremlins came to see me. When I went to open my email (Outlook) one morning there was a warning notification that several viruses had been detected and they were closing down the email site until the matter could be further explored. They would try to expedite matters in a timely fashion.

My email…oh no…I needed that to transfer photos to the desktop in order to insert them into my WordPress blog posts. Bummer! (I will have to say that I have become somewhat paranoid about Facebook Friend requests…and have stopped accepting any temporarily until further notice.)

Right before Outlook “crashed” I had gotten some friend requests from people I knew were already friends and recognized this as a red flag warning. Even though I didn’t open them…the requests kept coming.  So I apologize to any and all readers if you have put in a friend request in the last two months and not heard back…it is not that I don’t want to accept…I am just stopping that potential virus risk right now.

Since the Outlook virus calamity happened a few weeks before Tommy and Kaitlyn’s wedding…I really didn’t want to have to spend big bucks (that I didn’t have) on a new anti-virus program and /or change passwords and email addresses with so much needed communication on-going concerning last minute important wedding information. Like most disasters, big or small, the timing was awful.

I went to Plan B. I went into my Iphone and learned how to transfer photos from the camera to my WordPress blog post. There were some trial and error mistakes…but slowly I learned how to do it. Now I am very proud of my self and realize Plan B is actually easier than the original Plan A. Who knew? The “virus” forced me to take some risks and learn some new technology techniques.

Patience paid off. For the first few weeks I checked my email constantly on my hardtop computer to see if it had been cleaned out and cleared. Nothing. The warning sign remained…eventually I stopped checking and started using my IPhone for emails and Facebook communications.

Then yesterday I hit the wrong icon….Outlook instead of Chapel of Hope Stories…and there was my email website…all intact…crystal clear and clean. Patience had saved me money and taught me new lessons in technology “to boot.”

It felt like a Homecoming Celebration! It makes me so happy to be able to open Outlook and and click on big keys (on a keyboard) instead of hitting wrong letters with my big fingers on an IPhone. Life is good! Life is beautiful!

Anne Peterson  put this excerpt of a poem titled “Homecoming” from John O’Donohue on-line Friday concerning a special tea room we frequented on our Ireland trip in 2014…it had the most beautiful garden out front. Later when Anne’s sister arrived in Ireland, Jane, they continued to frequent it too!

(Tea Room and Gardens in Ballyvaughan Ireland- right down from the house Anne rented- Summer 2014) *Photo Ann Cahill)

A SENSE OF HOMECOMING

John O’Donohue (excerpt from Beauty)

When we experience the Beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming. Some of our most wonderful memories are of beautiful places where we felt immediately at home. We feel most alive in the presence of the Beautiful for it meets the needs of our soul. For a while the strains of struggle and endurance are relieved, our frailty is illuminated by a different light in which we come to glimpse behind the shudder of appearances the sure form of things. In the experience of beauty, we awaken and surrender in the same act.

……………………..

O’Donohue is right…doesn’t amazing beauty not only take our breath away but also brings on a feeling of nostalgia for something lost…perhaps in the past…perhaps in another place, another world. I certainly feel it…and that feeling is always accompanied by a longing to return back home to it again.

Speaking of beauty…my “morning glories” are so ridiculously glorious…they don’t just bloom in the morning…but they bloom brilliantly throughout the whole day. I think I have “day glories” and I love them!

So until tomorrow…“Awaken and surrender” to the beauty around you.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

****If you didn’t get a chance to stop by Anne Peterson’s home last Saturday for the Spring Art Show and Sale…you still have time. 

Since so many people were out of town over Memorial Day Weekend…the artists are opening the walls of Anne’s home one more time today from 12:00 – 3:00. Come check out the talented artisans in our own communities. Homespun and amazing!