Dear Reader:

Well…yesterday I didn’t go in the woods like Thoreau to live or find a path less traveled like Frost…I just wanted some quiet time in my garden sanctuary. I felt like finding a big, big blanket and wrapping it around all the foliage in the garden…tucking it in snug and tight…and wishing the garden a good long sleep this winter.

I have come to realize that my personal medical history and my winter garden..are closely interwoven. For almost twelve years…I have known that words like “dormant” or “stationary” “resting” or”inactive” are medical terms that describe a tumor that is in a form of remission and not spreading…at least extensively.

So these terms are “comfort” terms to me…like soup, or mashed potatoes or mac n’ cheese. I like to picture my tumor taking a nap…sometimes I even feel myself quieting my body down in fear of awakening it or jolting it back into activity. (Then later I forget about it and just go on about my regular life.)

Intuitively I know that the only “organ” in my body that I need concern myself with…is my soul. As long as it is okay (“All is right with my soul”) then everything else will fall into place… exactly when and how the Great Physician deems it so.

What was so strange about my winter walk through my garden was all the life peeping out under dead foliage or leaves…summer flowers, seasonal blooms, and the most beautiful sasquana season we have had in awhile.

“Snowing white sasquanas”

“Pretty in Pink”

Next year I am going to spend a little more money on year round azaleas (Encore azaleas)…they are worth every extra penny…they have bloomed all year.

Maybe because the flowers by the bird feeder outside my “office” window are protected…all the summer flowers have withstood several freezing nights and are still blooming.

So until tomorrow…As much as I love walking in my garden…if I could click my fingers and be at St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope right this minute…I know my soul would soar.

This summer marks the 10th anniversary of discovering this chapel…the catalyst that changed my life and started the blog post. A big shout-out to Mike and Honey Burrell for introducing me to this edifice of hope and love.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I love this written thought by Gunilla Norris…it makes me feel better about my “thinking” mess.

Create an image of a nest of papers on our desk as being a place where we can nurture new things…(like new life from a bird nest.)

*Sammy! 🙂