Afternoon Delight

Today I went to the lake with my son and the dog. It was a perfect day the water clear and still. The trees were just starting to turn and yet there were still purple and white wild flowers abounding, covered with bumblebees.

We could have stayed half the day there but time did now allow, as I had dinner on the stove and work tonight. On the way back we saw the most amazing thing. My son pointed to a tree in front of us certain he had seen a bluebird. I scoffed as I have seen one, yes that’s right, one, in my entire life, a mountain bluebird out in Colorado. After I finally located it, there it was, plumper than normal, nothing unusual for our birds, but a bluebird I’m certain. There was not only one, but several in that tree. I have never seen anything like it in my life. There was also another tiny bird I had never seen as well. My parents were very much into bird watching so I’m familiar with many birds.

After we got back home, I went to the Audubon site, still not trusting what I had seen. It was indeed the eastern bluebird. It just shows how such a small part of  nature can be so wonderful.

The Passing of Days

Today I made it out in the sunshine for a walk. I had forgotten how much it fills me to be with nature, walking with the trees by my side, and looking at all the flowers that have not yet been visited by the first frost. As the sun beat down on me I felt a renewed peace, something that has been absent for many days. The doubts that have churned inside me melted away and things felt like maybe, at least for a moment, they made sense.

This is my favorite time of the year, warm days and cool nights, the landscape painted with the first colors of fall. Yes it heralds the passing of time, time that goes too quickly for me these days, but the beauty of the day is a gift.

My travels have been delayed and its been a knife to my heart that has been walking with me for days. It seems simple, yes I will go later, but there was a journey waiting, one that I needed to make so badly. Something told me this was the time, but perhaps there is a reason it needs to wait. I want to think there is a reason life threw another obstacle in my path. So now there will be many more walks, listening for those words whispered through the trees and on the water. I know they will come, I have to believe they will come. All things come in their time, these were my own words, and I must abide them, at least for now.

Ramblings of The Sleep Deprived

Isn’t it funny when you are filled with thoughts and yet nothing seems to make it’s way to the page. It’s been like that for me for a bit. Perhaps it’s because the same thoughts keep surrounding me and I feel I can only write so much about them. 

One thing that I do have up on my blog right now is the Blog Action Day widget. If you want to learn about it you can click on the widget.  My activist days are somewhat over though I do have things that hit very deeply with me.  The environment is certainly very important and I will be writing a piece on October 15th, to particpate in this action.

My focus is, however, more with people, as the injustices done to people in this world cut me deeply. For me the older I get, the more human suffering becomes painfully intolerable.  This is why, if I was alone, I would be wandering the world putting whatever skills I could offer out there. It sounds naive and noble I realize that, but there has come this time in my life where I am no longer fearful of what will happen to me.  Perhaps it has something to do with this path I currently stumble down, I don’t know. Certainly I want some things for myself there is no  doubt about it.  I’m not that noble. I want to travel,  I want to find my way to the person who walks in my heart.  I want many things. 

 I’m rambling again, making little sense I’m sure. One of the things I want to say is, we need to start working together in this world, not against each other. If we don’t learn to do this, it wont matter what happens to the environment.  We are all the same but we are all different.  We are all people with hopes, dreams and hearts. When the sun goes down at the end of the day, deep down I think most of us want the same things.  

Colors

Some time back I took one of those quizzes, what is the color of your soul, or something like that. When finished I was surprised to end up brown. I sat reading my description as earthy and had never thought of myself that way at all. I wanted to be red, or pink or something “prettier.”

Yesterday I went for a long walk with my son and the dog. We took some new turns and discovered more trails. These trails led into wooded areas, all green and misty from the shadows and rain of the day. As we walked I wanted to capture it all on camera this quiet beauty, still but for the soft sounds of a late summers day. As I sat and thought about it I realized yes, the color of my soul is brown. This is where I find my peace and contentment. This is where I can really listen and where I renew the energy that fills me. The color brown is like the earth, filled with all of nature that surrounds us. What could be more beautiful than that.

The Passage of Time

Today I walked to the lake with my son and the dog. We’ve been making a habit of it lately, since his friend has been out of town.  It’s good to have the time together and the dog is relishing the outings. It was very still and peaceful today, the water almost like glass except for the ripple from the gentle breeze. There were strong storms last night and they cut the power to the beach, so the usual visitors that crowd the lake on a warm summer’s day were absent.

As we walked the path to the lake I could see the first of the leaves falling and the occasional burst of red from the sumac, already starting to change.  The end of summer approaches and fall is right around the corner. I love fall, it’s my favorite season, with the brilliant colors, warm days and cool nights. There is something about it that has always felt just right to me. Still the summer has gone so fast it seems.  There are many more warm days to be had and I plan on enjoying each one. The time spent with my son, who at fourteen still likes to be seen with his mom, is something that will be a good memory.

It seems, especially when we are busy, that time passes by us almost in the blink of an eye. As I get older I know now what my parents meant.  It seems I notice the change of season with a new awareness, each day marking a time in my life that will never return, but a time moving forward that is yet to be discovered.

It doesn’t make me sad, this passage of time, as I have been fortunate, at least in the past year,  to find so many things I was missing.  To me this life is turning into quite an adventure bringing a past together with the present, one that will perhaps follow me when I move on.  Who knows what comes with each day, if we knew, that bad ones might make us give up.  What then would we miss but the people and things waiting to find us on the journey through this thing called life.