Finally A Walk Outside

The weather warmed up overnight, though the wind is still strong enough to chill a person fairly quickly. Late this morning  I took a walk outside.

Finally A Walk Outside

At the beginning of my walk, when I was walking with the wind to my back it felt almost balmy in the sunshiny high twenties temperature. But when I was walking back home into the wind, the wind bit into the exposed skin of my face saying, “Winter is still here.”

Still, it was a joy to be outside walking again with my camera in hand.

For the first time in a couple of days the squirrels visited under the bird feeders this morning. But I have been surprised at how few birds I’ve seen at the feeders today.

The bonus amaryllis flower bud opened it’s first bloom yesterday. This will the last of my amaryllis flowers to bloom this year. All of the previous flowers are in various stages of disintegration. I am able to find a bit of beauty even in he wilted blooms.

“and easily
she adored

every blossom,

not in the serious,
careful way
that we choose
this blossom or that blossom—

the way we praise or don’t praise—
the way we love
or don’t love—
but the way

we long to be—
that happy
in the heaven of earth—
that wild, that loving.”
― Mary Oliver, Red Bird

This week I wrote my last entry in the Service Space story pod that I participated in for 21 days. I was ready to be done with it. There were many lovely participants in the group but online connection is not the same as connecting in person. And writing posts and commenting on other people’s posts felt too much like social media to me.

Real Deep Connection

I choose real deep connection with a few people over multitudes of shallow connections online.

I spoke with my cousin earlier this week. She is the same age as I am and has been a dear friend my entire life. In November her only son, and his wife, parents of two boys age 16 and 8, welcomed identical twin girls to their family. (Surprise!) My cousin, who thought that her rocking chair days were long gone is now enjoying helping out with caring for her new granddaughters a couple of days a week.

“Let the world
have its way with you,
luminous as it is with mystery
and pain—
graced as it is
with the ordinary.”
― Mary Oliver, Red Bird

Every time I think of the photo she sent me of her holding both tiny swaddled babies in her arms, I smile. Life is full of unexpected gifts and surprises.

What surprises and gifts have you experienced this week my friends?

May you walk in beauty.