Dear Reader:

I think I mentioned a couple of days ago that I got so excited reading Kent Nerburg’s Simple Graces that I stopped reading and ran to get my yellow highlighter marker. When finished…the book looked like it originally was published with yellow pages…not white and black ink.

My mounting enthusiasm peaked because I finally felt like someone ‘got me’ … somehow ‘knew me’…or at least the author could identify with me when it comes to philosophy on life and spirituality.

Let me just pick a couple of excerpts I highlighted and explain my happy reaction to these personal revelations.

...”We want to live spiritual lives. We know, at heart, that we are spiritual beings. But our lives are small, our concerns immediate. The days we live seem to conspire against our spiritual selves. We look longingly at those who shine great light into this world…Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr- and our lives and accomplishments seem paltry in comparison. 

…”The world contains many paths, some exalted, some mundane. It is not our task to judge the worthiness of our path; it is our task to walk our path with worthiness. 

…”We need to find ways to lift the moments of our daily lives, to celebrate and consecrate the ordinary, to allow the light of spiritual awareness to illuminate our days. “

Suddenly I felt a huge weight fall off my shoulders…these days when I find myself smiling at first rose buds of the spring season bursting into bloom,the grandchildren’s Japanese Maples transforming into colored leaves while petunias and pansies hold hands to transition late winter and early spring…I am filled with an inner joy that I can’t even explain..

Am I just being selfish with my time to want to linger longer in my garden and dream of more natural beauty spreading throughout my sanctuary?…Is my new-found love and appreciation of sunrises, sunsets, early frosty mornings, or walks through the neighborhood enough to fulfill life, to live a life worthy of God’s most precious gift?

For me the answer is “Yes”…I find God in the ordinary…and if He is there…then that is place I should be. (And He is.)

And then that is when I was reaffirmed (where I fit spiritually in this world) with the next paragraph in this vignette.

…I am a “Lover of the quiet God, one of believers in the small graces of ordinary life. These lovers know for certain that life has a beauty and a joy that transcends all the darkness that surrounds us, that something ineffable lives beyond the ordinary affairs of the day, and that without this mystery our lives would not be worth living.”

Nerburg concludes the dedication of his book to “…those who search for the quiet God, who seek the spirit in the small moments of our everyday life. It is a celebration of the ordinary, a reminder that when all else is stripped away, a life lived with love is enough.”

So until tomorrow…Thank you family, friends, and readers for sustaining me through this life with your loving support…it far exceeds “enough.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Here are some of my “extra-ordinary loves” I experienced yesterday.

It was “Eloise” day and when I got there she had just returned, with Mollie, from taking her two big brothers to Preschool. It made my heart sing when she beamed at her crazy Boo Boo…smiling and smiling.

Eloise’s hair is getting lighter and lighter…she is in love with the ceiling fan….happiness at 10 weeks is a bottle (from me) and a twirling fan to watch.

She has also just discovered her hands and will spend long periods of time raising both together and then separately…staring in delight at the two miraculous appendages attached to her…especially when she finds the fingers to stick in her mouth.

*Of course this time she could have been staring at the angel behind me…who knows?

I am hoping the last hard frost took place last night…I had to call Luke to help move Big Red one (hopefully) last time for the winter season. Luke barely got Big Red in the door on the B*B side…it is outgrowing the white bench…I think if there was a county fair contest for the largest geraniums “Big Red” would be a contender. *Check out the bloom on the tip tip top of the plant…Luke said it now looked like a Christmas tree with a star on top.