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Cultivating Gratitude

As Thanksgiving approaches and families plan gatherings I’m contemplating Cultivating Gratitude as winter weather arrives and the landscape becomes more and more monochromatic.This time of year, my least favorite time of year, I often struggle to feel grateful. Though my life is filled with blessings it is all too easy to focus on what’s wrong rather than what’s right. So I work on cultivating gratitude, noticing what makes me feel wonder, joy, peace, love, and other positive feelings. The root of joy is gratefulness…It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful. David Steindl-Rast Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Getting Older

Here is my seventh photo/essay in my current photography/writing project. It’s called Getting Older I went to my thesaurus this morning to look for other words for aging. Many of the words I found were neither encouraging nor up-lifting. There were words like declining, crumbling, debilitation, decrepitude, degenerating, deteriorating, failing, slumping, worsening, fading, waning, and wearing out. Some of those words are probably true about the aging process. I’m certainly feeling changes in my body that are not always pleasant or easy. But there is more than that to aging. I believe that I am also maturing, evolving, mellowing, ripening, Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Walking Towards Winter

Yesterday I took a hike at Big Willow Park in Minnetonka. With little patches of the previous day’s snow still clinging to the grass and a biting cold wind I felt as if I was Walking Towards Winter with every step I took. There was a desolate feel to the landscape on such a windy, overcast day. Still I met many people out hiking in the park. I always feel a little like I’m coming home when I return to walk at Big Willow. We lived near this park for many years and for a long time it was my Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Songs of November

Yesterday was a gray day with occasional snowfall adding a white mist to the air. In the afternoon I took a hike at French Regional Park hoping to see migrating trumpeter swans on the lake. I found no swans but I did hear Songs of November — songs of cold winds, gray skies, and empty space in nature’s late November days. The only wildlife I saw on my hike was gulls at the edge of the lake, four mallard ducks swimming in a marshy area near the lake, a group of Canada geese honking and flying high overhead, and a Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

The Inevitability of Winter

As the end of November approaches, bare tree branches reach for the sky. Gardens have been put to bed for the year. The world is becoming less colorful. Creatures, large and small are preparing for the long winter months or migrating south.  The weather begins to turn colder and The Inevitability of Winter arriving soon is undeniable. Darkness comes early now. We are just a month away from the shortest day of the year. When I look for something to be grateful for as we approach this, my least favorite season, I am grateful that it’s easier to be up Read more…

By Marilyn, ago