Tag: nature

Balls, Pools, and the OFF button

credit: Elvish Cartoons, Twitter

We have this little spot in our neighborhood that is remote, and off of the beaten path. We can let our three dogs off lead and throw them tennis balls ad nauseum, to work off their seemingly endless energy. It’s a little buggy there, but that’s okay. It’s what keeps the patch of land from becoming overrun with people. When we are done playing fetch, our Labrador retriever, Ralphie, and our Boykin spaniel, Trip, tend to carry their tennis balls, in their mouths, all of the way home. The balls are gross and slimy, but the tennis balls almost act as pacifiers to our worn-out, sporty dogs.

Ralphie, our Labrador, also loves our pool and swimming in our pool, even more than he loves his tennis balls. We always joke that we have our pool for Ralphie. Islands of his fur tend to float around like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, when our pool pump isn’t on. I often make the off-the-cuff remark that I wish I loved anything as much as Ralphie loves to swim.

But that’s not a nice remark, nor is it true. There are so many people and places and things in my life that I love every bit as ferociously and exuberantly as Ralphie loves to swim. It’s just that Ralphie doesn’t let any fear in, when he loves. Ralphie doesn’t swim around in the pool saying, “Damn, I love this pool so much, I hope that we never move, nor that I get too arthritic to swim, nor that a hurricane destroys my little chlorine haven.” Ralphie doesn’t allow distraction in, when he is doing what he loves. He doesn’t swim around the pool thinking about the state of the world and all of the horrors of the headlines. When Ralphie does what he loves, that’s just what he does. He embodies love. He soaks in love. He embraces love right in the moment. Sometimes when I watch other creatures in nature, I wonder if our human being’s thinking and reasoning abilities are truly a blessing or a curse? I need to use my own thinking and reasoning abilities to develop an “OFF button” for my brain, so that when I am with the people whom I love more than Ralphie loves to swim, and I am in the places which I love more than Ralphie loves to swim, and I am doing the things that I love to do, even more than Ralphie loves to swim, I can switch the Brain Button to OFF and I can just embody love. I can soak in the love. I can embrace love right in the moment. When I find that OFF button and keep it duct taped to OFF for some moments, I can get a little taste of peaceful, loving, eternity right in my own little patch of Earth. Isn’t that what we are always saying that we want anyway?

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

What Belongs to Her

As I write this, our little brown dog, Trip, our Boykin spaniel, is lying at my feet, making sure that his paw is touching my foot. He does this often. He likes to have one paw on his people, whenever we are sitting on the couch, or at our desks, or at the kitchen table. He knows the nurturance and healing nature of touch and he soothes himself with that touch, whenever he gets the opportunity.

Ralphie, our Labrador retriever, is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about everything that he loves every single day. He gets absolutely jumpy and lick-y and giddy about dinner, despite the fact that dinner is the same damn thing every single night: two cups of Hills Science Diet prescription diet dog kibble, put into a maze bowl, to make it last longer. Ralphie shows that same level of enthusiasm for greeting his family, for playing fetch, and for swimming in the pool. His whole body shouts out his feelings of delight, like he can barely contain the happy energy of those feelings inside of his powerful, muscular physique.

Josie, the collie, who is the most obedient of our canine trio, sometimes stubbornly plops herself down in the yard, into her own place in the sun, and refuses to come in. She knows the healing sensation of lying in the sunshine, and she insists that we sit awhile and relax and bathe in some Vitamin D. When I bury my nose into her sunbaked fur, I understand that she is right. She is absolutely right.

Nature makes no apologies for what she needs. Nature never hides her own true nature. That’s not in her nature to do so. Nature is so wise and pure and true. Why do we try to pretend that we aren’t part of nature? Why do our minds try to put up barricades to letting our own natural selves lead the way? Nature flows so perfectly, until we do things to artificially “correct” it. The thing about nature, is that she is quietly patient and powerful. In the end, she won’t let us destroy her, and she hopes that we remember that we are part of her, instead of insisting on separating, and then sadly end up destroying ourselves.

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credit: @Native3rd, Twitter

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Landscapes

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post credited to Think Smarter, Twitter, writer unknown

I love this post. Who makes up the landscapes of your life? Who’s your delicate flower? Your raging ocean? Your quiet forest? Your towering mountain? Your colorful sky? Who has knocked you down and left you breathless? Who brings sunshine into your life? What if you listed all of these different people right now, and then listed the lesson that each of them has taught to you in your own life. Wouldn’t this be an insightful exercise? Wouldn’t you be amazed at the blessings different people have been, and can be, in order to help you to find your own true north, your own true self?

On the opposite side of the coin, imagine what force of nature you might be in other people’s lives. Are you that same force of nature for everyone whom you meet? I’ve known sweet, cuddly panda-types who are able to turn on a dime into raging Kodiak mama bears, if their children are being threatened. And I adore them for that transformative power.

It’s interesting, too, when all of these people come together as a family, or as close groups of friends or co-workers. You almost get a whole new experience and lessons when this happens. Your family and your people who make up the different landscapes of your life, create unique worlds for you and each bring out different aspects of yourself. What group of people make up your rocky terrain? Who’s your smooth sailing team? Where do you fit into these different landscapes? How do you feel in these different elements? How do these different terrains morph you into different forms?

During the holidays, it is so easy to stay distracted and busy and bustled and frazzled. Don’t forget to take a pause and give yourself the precious present of your own presence. The holidays happen at the end of one year, and on the cusp of a new year. There is no better time than now, to spend some quiet time in meditation and in contemplation. Turn the twinkly lights down. Put the to-do list into a closed folder for a moment, and take some time to breathe and to relish and to cherish and to mourn and to feel and to cry and to laugh and to hope and to pray and to smile and to believe and to listen and to hear and to smell and to taste and to savor and to see and to really see and to swell and to relax. Notice what happens when you do these things. Notice what happens in your body. Notice what happens in your mind. Notice what happens in your spirit. Be curious about you. Take some time to be human. Take some time to just be. Realize your own presence, your own energy, your own scenery and delight in it, and all of its amazing abilities. Realize everything that you bring to yourself, and to all of the different people in your life. Realize your part in every landscape of your life and be in awe. You are amazing. You are a vital part of it all.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

An Octopus and a Penguin

I fell in love with an octopus last night. I had a kind of tough day and my husband knows just what to do to get me out of a funk. He suggested that we watch a strange, gorgeous, indie film, which he knows, is a surefire way to spark my imagination, and to light a fire in my heart. If you need to renew your faith in the utter beauty and complexity of the world, and yet at the same time, the beautiful simplicity of the creatures in it, watch My Octopus Teacher, which was filmed in the ethereal kelp forest, off the shores of South Africa.

This is a movie that encases the gorgeous cinematography of any Natural Geographic film, yet with feeling and deep attachment for its star creature. Never have I felt more attached to a movie animal since Bambi. My Octopus Teacher is essentially a sea-based Charlotte’s Web. When I took my dogs out this morning, and I gazed at the small lake behind our home, I smiled to myself, realizing all the life which is teeming under the still surface of the lake, filled with individual lives, and sparkling stories of individual creatures. Each life of any one creature, is more interesting and more intricate and more filled with the joy of just being alive, than we could ever imagine. My Octopus Teacher reminds you of this truthful wonder of life.

Another gift of the season, came to me yesterday from a different sea creature. Wellington, the rockhopper penguin (the type of penguin who looks like he has pony tails) was named “Chicagoan of the Year.” Wellington is a 32-year-old penguin who is filled with curiosity. He lives at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Due to COVID, the Shedd Aquarium has been closed to visitors for most of the year, so the animal keepers have allowed Wellington to go on “field trips”, throughout the aquarium, to observe all different types of aquatic creatures. They filmed Wellington’s reactions. (the cute little, curious guy seemed particularly enthralled with the Amazon exhibit) When they shared a couple of these films of Wellington on his field trips, on their website, the videos went viral, and people asked for more and more. I have been one of those people who enjoyed these videos of Wellington from the get-go. I am thrilled with his “award.”

We need wonder right now, don’t we? We need to get lost in the unimaginable beauty of our world, and the creatures in it. We need to forget about the future for a little while, and we need to get totally entranced with the present moment. Most of nature does this quite naturally. Most of the natural world lives better in the flow of nature, and in the peaceful, honest cycles of Life, than we do. Let us never forget that we are but a small part of the unfathomably complex, and yet totally in-sync, natural world. We are part of nature. Let’s be our natural selves, and let’s release ourselves to the wonder of the world, and the natural rhythms and cycles of life. Let’s just flow with it all. I think that we will do so much better in 2021, versus how we handled 2020, if we drop our arrogance and the fallacy that we have any kind of real control. If we take the time to really notice and to consider and to observe just our own one life, and then take the time to really pay attention to all of the incredible varieties of life, bursting all around us, we will be too caught up in wonder and in awe, to be consumed by our petty problems. (And many of these problems are of our own making, if we are going to choose to be painfully honest with ourselves.) An octopus and a penguin brought me peace and wonder and hope yesterday evening. What wonderful natural gifts of the season! May I hold on to these precious gifts, which have always been freely available to me, well into the new year and beyond. If an octopus and a penguin can live joyfully in the moment, accepting Life on Life’s terms, so can I.

Happiness

Fun things that made me happy lately:

+We were on the beach with Trip, our Boykin spaniel puppy, and he was racing around chasing all of the little, perky, harmless sandpipers into the water. Then, in the distance, he saw the BIG game. Big Bird (an enormous prehistoric looking heron) was standing on the shore in all of his glory. Trip bounded towards Big Bird, full speed ahead. Big Bird, looked annoyed and scoffed at the puppy, and he firmly held his ground. Trip, realizing that Big Bird was not going to go the way of the sandpipers, instantly put on the brakes, and the skid marks in the sand, were several feet long. My husband said that the sand looked like bunched up carpet. Nature and animals make me happy.

+I was at the beach last night watching the sunset with my good friends. Another group of women were laughing and celebrating close by. One woman was dancing around with her long beautiful gray/white hair. When we all headed to the shore, to take pictures of the sunset, we noticed that the one woman in the circle of friends, with the long hair, wore a t-shirt that said, “I am 70 today!” She made 70 look fabulous, and I instantly pictured myself in the future with my dear friends, 20 years from now. Friends and celebrations make me happy.

+We had our weekly Facetime chat with our four “children” last night. One “child” is a grown adult man who lives in another state, two of my “children” are college men away at school, and our daughter, who is a junior in high school, chatted from her bedroom, while my husband and I sat in front of my husband’s iPad in the kitchen. I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older, that I really enjoy “the chatter” and “the banter” of my family. I try to pay attention to the details of the conversation, but I often get lost in just watching the familiar mannerisms and energy that make each person who I love so much, themselves, and also the chatty, teasing, loving, supportive, easy energy that is the true essence of my family. My family makes me happy.

What makes you happy? Just focus on that today. Put your attention towards what makes you happy, and let the rest just be. Give yourself a happy day. You deserve it.

Motivational Monday | Amy Tangerine | Positive quotes, Reasons to be happy, Words

Slow and Steady

Yesterday, my husband, my daughter and I swam with manatees. The one pictured above is one of many manatees who we met on our adventure. I have been wanting to swim with manatees since we moved to Florida almost nine years ago. They are the sweetest, most docile, gentle giants you could ever come across in the wild. This experience was one of my most favorite adventures in nature that I have ever experienced and I have done a lot of wandering around in nature, in my forty-nine years. What I learned from this is, don’t let your life just pass on by, without making sure you are getting everything that you want out of it. Take the time and energy and resources, to plan in the bucket list items. Life is fleeting. I forgot my little bag of fortunes, so today’s fortune comes from a manatee magnet in the gift shop:

“Slow and steady wins the race.”

Your Soul is Alive

We are doing a lot of outdoorsy stuff this week, together as a family. It’s a good way to be together and yet be on our own, all at the same time. My second son asked us why people are in such awe of nature. We all had different answers. I said that nothing man has made can compare to the beauty and magnificence of nature. My eldest son disagreed. (He has always loved cities. On his fifth birthday, I had his birthday cake designed to be a tall building.) My son said that we are animals, too. So when we were all oohing and awing over a beaver dam, that is why we also marvel over the Hoover dam. I thought that it was a good point he made.

My husband said that we are in awe of untouched, wild nature because it is not something most of us see and experience in our every day lives. We all wondered if the park rangers are still in awe of the natural wonders they experience as part of their daily lives, work and experience. I hope so. I hope that the park rangers can view their work environment every day, the same way the rest of us are taking it in – with wonder, with amazement, with the breath-taking awe of an ecology living in synchronicity and teeming with a mass diversity of beautiful versions of Life.

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. ” – Eleonora Duse

The Friday Happy Dance

MONDAY Y U NO FUN FUN FUN LIKE FRIDAY? – The Joke Cafe

Friday’s back!!!!!!!!!!!  Isn’t she beautiful?!?  It’s Favorite Things Friday here at Adulting – Second Half!  Before I get started on to describing my three favorite things for today, new readers, I try to keep in light on most Fridays, by describing three things/apps/websites/songs, etc.  that I find just adds to the deliciousness of my life.  I encourage you all to mention your own favorite things in the Comments section and please check out previous Friday posts for other good ideas for a Friday uplift.  Come on now, share the love!!  It’s Friday!!

Reminder, the Salvation Army bell ringers are back in full force.  I know that a lot of us don’t carry around cash anymore, but if you find the Salvation Army to be a good, worthy cause, start collecting your extra change and throw it into your purse to later throw into those red cauldrons.  I’ve worked very hard on my “addicted to pleasing” personality this year, but I’ve learned that I still have a long way to go, when experiencing a Salvation Army bell ringer this week.  I did have change and I did give on my way into the store, so on my way out of the store, I felt the need to LOUDLY remind the bell ringer, as well as all of the other shoppers within earshot, that I had given already on my way into the store.  Okay.  Was everyone supposed to stop and applaud for me?!  Was I supposed to all of the sudden sprout some wings?!  At least I was very self-aware in that moment and I most likely turned as red as the Salvation Army cauldron.  As I’ve said before, I’m a work in progress.

On to the reason why you stopped by today – Favorite Things Friday!!!  Here we go:

The Body Shop Satsuma Body Butter – I was at the airport this past weekend and I got a glimmer of Christmas past.  Years ago, I was at the airport and I glanced down and stared at my bare legs, aghast!  They were a dry, scaly mess!  So I popped into The Body Shop and asked for an emergency solution.  They recommended a tub of this stuff and it is amazing!!!  So I scooped some up again this weekend and I was lucky enough to catch it while it was still on Black Friday super sale price.  This is another one of those items that smells so incredible, you have a hard time not dipping a spoon into it.  The consistency is dream-like and it makes you feel so smooth, amazing and it makes you smell citrus-ly clean!  Love it!!

CoolSnowGlobes – Now, my northern readers might want to hit me for recommending these snow globes.  I currently live in Florida, so I actually miss the snow sometimes.  I bought a Winter Evening Snow Globe from this website a couple of years ago.  This snow globe is so lovely and peaceful, I keep it out all year to remind of the good, quiet, peaceful parts of a snowy night.  There are so many cool snow globes to choose from on this site.  These are NOT cheap, plastic-y globes.  They are keepsakes.  This site will even make you a custom snow globe.  Embrace the globe.  Shake, rattle and roll!

Nature’s Lovers twitter feed – If you can look at just three images on this site and not smile, I’m seriously worried about you.  If you want to be reminded how amazing our world is and how incredible God’s creations are, just spend five minutes scrolling through this feed.  This is like going to the best zoo, the most amazing safari, the most gorgeous farm, the lushest gardens and jungles, all at the scroll of your mouse.  This is a guaranteed smile and gasp of awe, every single day.

“I just cannot imagine my week without Friday.” – WishesGreeting

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!!!

The Earth Has Stopped

Yesterday, I read this quote in my meditation:

“It was one of those days so clear, so silent, so still, you almost feel the earth itself has stopped in astonishment of its own beauty.” – Katherine Mansfield

I think that is one of the most poignant, beautiful lines I have ever read.  I had never heard of the author, so thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to find out everything I could possibly want to know about Katherine Mansfield.  She was a short story writer, from New Zealand. She was friends with D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.  She passed on in 1923 due to tuberculosis at the young age of 34.

I think that quotes like the one above are why I love the written word.  When someone can help encapsulate what I am experiencing, thinking, feeling in one short statement, I think that it is nothing short of a miracle.  I think this is also why I love nature.  The author passed in 1923, but yesterday when I was walking a trail in a nature preserve with my husband and my dogs, I experienced exactly what she wrote.  The awe that I felt for the still nature around me almost took my breath away.  Nature is not timeless, but for our lifespans, it might as well be.

I don’t really have anything else to say about this.  Katherine Mansfield’s statement says it all and I am in awe of that.  And I look forward to experiencing that “earth has stopped” moment again and again for the rest of my life.