Here Comes The Sun....

I am in my happy place.....

But I am so sore :-)

Achy, Breaky Hearts

My sweet sister, sensing that I was having a rough day, brought me a "bleeding heart" to plant in my garden. It is one of my very favorite plants. As I was setting it in the ground, I thought, "I wish that these lasted longer." It is such a fragile plant with an extremely short life cycle. Then I wiped away my tears as I realized that nature was sending me a message in the language of flowers. Snows melt, clouds lift, the rain eventually stops and bleeding hearts quickly pass away.

"Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning" Psalms 30:5

Nana Time!!

Since my motherhood overlapped my grandmotherhood, I get the best of both worlds.

I was invited to Isaac's Mother's Day Tea at the beautiful Deer Valley resort. The food was scrumptious and the service amazing. Isaac goes to a school that prepares them, from kindergarten, for a life on the slopes. He learned to ski during the winter and how to wait tables in the spring--Look out Uncle Zac and Uncle Trevor-your competition is in the wings!

Cheryl, I got my five servings of fruits and veggies at the tea!!

In case you can't read Heather's placemat. It says,"She needs a new car because ours is getting stinky--and she smells like vegetables--very chic if you are a granola girl I would say!

I could live at Deer Valley!

The rest of these pictures were taken with blurry eyes and a runny nose as I tried to capture my last afternoon with the boys together for a while.

To every season turn, turn, turn...

Dog Pile....(I hope not anyway)

I am one lucky Mom and Nana--more of my Mother's Day ramblings can be found at ColleenDown.com

Two Dimes and a Nickel

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong;
but sometimes it is letting go."
~Herman Hesse~

In our home growing up, we used the words “two dimes and a nickel” as a code word to describe “change” –not always in the most loving manner-so sorry Mom-I am sorry about quite a few things. “Two dimes and nickel” pops into my head often these days….there seems to be a lot of loose change lying around the house right now. I have fantasized having an imaginary “older” sister, ten years ahead of me, that I could call up on the phone and ask a few of life’s questions....

How long does “the change” last? When should I lighten the color of my hair or my lipstick, so that it does not accentuate the fine lines showing up all over my face? At what age do you stop accumulating extra pounds and begin drinking Ensure? How old is too old to “start over?” Can you begin saving for retirement after you pay for everyone’s college? Do the beautiful floral dresses in the mall make my butt look fat? What should I be when I grow up? Do mother robins cry when the nest is empty or do they redecorate or fly away too? Are these the last snows of spring or the first snows of fall? Is half way across the country or half way around the world the new ”next door,” in our globally connected world? Have two dimes and a nickel become four quarters in this down economy? So many questions……

"You can only lose what you cling to."
~Buddha~

If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it....

Come on Spring...I believe.....pleeeease......you can do it!

Balancing my Dosha

In Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient practice of India, “balancing doshas” is the first step in the healing of many ills. Based on the concept that all beings are one with the earth and we carry those elements in our bodies, we can find health by finding balance. This has resonated with me over the years as I can intuitively feel when my life and my body are “out of whack”—another ancient Hindu saying. There are three doshas-Vata, Pitta and Kapha corresponding the elements air, fire and earth and water. Me, being a Vata, or “airhead,” spends the majority of my time in the ungrounded world of ideas. When I begin to experience the symptoms of unbalance in my life-worry, anxiety, being overwhelmed, I must turn my attention to balancing the kapha in my life—or turn to the earth to once again ground myself.

O.K. that was a very long explanation to why I find peace and harmony with a lump of clay or digging in the dirt of my garden or sitting in the grass—it helps me to balance my dosha-even though balance on a potter’s wheel is a hundred time harder that I ever imagined. I love Mondays, I love the feel of the clay, I love being surrounded my earthy people in Tevas and dreadlocks, I love having a goal of someday, somehow being able to “throw a pot” that looks the same from all sides. I love coming down from the clouds and playing in the mud—it is just what the doctor ordered.

More about "doshas" can be found here and here--just in case anyone is feeling a little off kilter!

Care of the Soul

I'm an Arizona, Arizona, Arizona star,

And I come from the West where the cowboys are;

I can ride 'em, I can rope 'em I can show 'em how it's done,

I'm a rootin' tootin' cowboy with my six-shooter gun!

Flying into the "Valley of the Sun" is always a going home. A wave of nostalgia sweeps over me when I look out the airplane window and see Camelback Mountain, the mountain that I could see from my bedroom window growing up. Stepping off the plane, I always think of walking through the tunnel and into my Dad's arms as he waited for us each summer. It has taken being a mother myself, to realize how he must have felt after not seeing us for the nine months of the school year. A little pang of homesickness hits me as I look forward to walking through another tunnel someday and seeing him waiting.

Each Spring after a long, long winter my body and soul craves a day in the sun like it craves food. Fortunately, by this time of year Steve usually has a few SouthWest tickets saved up and in one hour all my needs are satisfied--water, sun, dry, green, heat----and a lounge chair

And spending time with Steve and Katelyn and Jake was the icing on the cake (thank goodness, they all love to read as much as I do!)