Ceramic Christmas Tree by Mother

Whee! Cold (60) n my cottage this morning - but warm now. How fortunate I am to live in a warm house with plenty of food, clothes and everything, literally everything I need and in a practical sense, every thing I want! Yesterday I unpacked my ceramic Christmas tree Mother made many years ago and plugged it in. This one is a small white tree with lights in the shape of red birds. Each day now I'll get out another Christmas item and enjoy seeing them again for a few weeks. I like this process rather than getting everything out at once. It will be interesting to see how many days it takes, probably no more than four or five since I've pared down my belongings.

It's what you are thinking.

Spiritual practice is not what you are doing, it's what you are thinking. This really spoke to me this morning. Comes from Satchidananda's The Golden Present which I read daily. It fits with my present understanding that spiritual practice is all-pervasive - it is how I am thinking and living - or at least some of the time it is! At other times, I seem to have forgotten who I really am as I am distracted by worldly activities and my thinking descends to such as well. What a powerful concept this is - how beautiful it will be when I learn to control what I am thinking!!!! If I could just keep the thought of love uppermost - that is my goal. By the way, I, as usual, am already thinking of the new year and setting goals and developing mantras, etc. Somehow Thanksgiving always inspires me to become more of my Real Self.

Strength training to begin today

What a beautiful several days we've had! Now we'll return to more seasonable weather and being inside more. And that's not bad. I love the fact that our weather is changeable. One of the things I disliked about living in southern California (MANY years ago) was the unchangeable weather - it seemed to always be summer. The beautiful thing about where we live is we enjoy all four seasons of almost equal length. What a blessing. Today I'm meeting with a trainer at the Y to begin some strength training. Done this several times before, but not in many years. Be interesting to see how rapidly my muscles will respond! For sure, I'll feel it but perhaps the regular yoga will soften the effect a bit. Stay tuned.

Leftovers and Renewing Friendships

Thanksgiving is over - Family all left Friday evening after doing a superior job of cleaning up. I spent all day yesterday just goofing off - mostly reading romance novel and napping and eating leftovers. Today the remains go into the freezer before I stuff myself another day. Had a call from Bob's cousin, Evelyn, in Charlottesville last evening. Just reminds me that there are more with whom I will connect over the next month and what a delightful time it is - hearing from those I only hear from at this time of year. I LOVE the notes that come with info about the goings-on in their families. Time for me to compose my annual letter - maybe this afternoon I'll do that. Last year I collected all that I've written over the years - found 13 of them, a few missing, but what a nice notebook it makes - we can check when special events occurred and have already done that several times. So, now it's off to church - again very special times this season.

Thanksgiving at the Pond 2011

What a happy Thanksgiving! Tate caught the biggest fish - one even bigger than this one! We all enjoyed hot dogs and s'mores Wednesday evening (Nathan's beef wieners are delicious!!!) Luke read stories around the fire from Ghosts of the Carolinas. We all ate on the cottage porch - weather was totally cooperative! What a great family time - all ten of us together!!!! Later I'll put more photos on fb. Hope you and yours all had a wonderful gathering together as we did.

Grateful Hearts

Well, the housecleaning is done. What a joy it is to have guests once in a while so that I do dust and mop! Now I can enjoy it for a long time again - till I have guests again, probably. Now the cooking can begin - cranberry relish is first on my list - nobody eats it, but me - but they insist on having it since we always have. Then there's the sweet potato souffle, dressing and gravy, and I found a beautiful big lamb roast - much nicer than last year's. The butcher at Bi-Lo ordered it for me. And, of course, the turkey is thawing. Luke and his family are arriving tonight so I'll have company helping me cook an extra day - what fun! The whole experience is fun. Tate's family will arrive on Wednesday afternoon so we'll then all ten be together again - the only time we manage this is here at Thanksgiving and at Luke's Christmas Day morning. So, this is a precious time for all of us. I'll share with you the short prayer from Simple Abundance for today: O beloved Spirit, truly you have given us so much, an extravagance of riches. Give us, we pray, one thing more. The gift of grateful hearts. Hearts that will not forget what You have done.

Thanksgiving preparations and anticipations

Whee! Big progress on book the last few days. Shutting off that project now to get ready for invasion of family for Thanksgiving. Must clean bathroom, mop floor, etc. All those things I ignore when I don't have guests. Talked with Harriet yesterday - Albany, NY friend - a shame it's been so long! I must do a better job keeping in touch with my loved ones. With Christmas coming somehow it jumps to the top of my wish list - keeping in touch with friends. For the next few weeks, I'll spend much more time doing just that. ...........Got the chex snack mix made - left out wheat chex this time so I can eat some too....getting groceries together now a daily adventure....I don't even attempt to make a complete list, just whatever comes to mind for whatever dish I'm working on at the moment...knowing I'll be going to the store each day before Thanksgiving. That's just the way it works. Ordered a leg of lamb at Bi-Lo - will see if it's there when I go in for yoga class this morning. Already have a turkey thawing. Sooooo eager for the family to be here with me!!!!