You are here: Home / Archives for words

Spring!

March 20, 2013 by 4 Comments

Time waits for no man. Or woman. And certainly for not for any quilter or crafter. The smell of citrus blossoms reminds me it really is Spring. From navel orange blossoms,Bee on orange blossomto Improved Meyer lemon blossoms,lemon blossom openand Mexican lime blossoms,lime blossomsit’s a heady experience to walk from the sidewalk to the front door. Bees are happily filling up on the pollen and the yard is alive with the sound of their industriousness.

I’m prompted to meditate on the effortlessness of Nature, how easily everything works towards its purpose and potential. The trees do not deliberate whether to bloom or not. The bees do not dither over leaving the hive to gather pollen. They simply do what they are meant to do, following the path from beginning to end, never striving to become something other, something different.

It is only us, the sometimes silly, often lazy and at times quite pathetic humans who have lost touch with our purpose. It is only humans who spend time in endless self debate. Only humans waste opportunities to be and to do.  Nature simply is, simply does.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring is a time for us to begin afresh, to leave behind the old ways and the darkness of ignorance. For the Southern Hemisphere, it is time to put things to rest, to take stock and let go of all the baggage that has accumulated. Regardless of where you are at on the globe, you are facing an opportunity to grow. Whether it is putting down roots and blossoming or whether it is storing up energy for the next season, now is the time to be who you are meant to be. Not someone or something else. Not a made up version of who you think you should be. Just you.

Because you are a vital part of this interconnectedness of Life. Your authentic self and all its potential is important. Being the person you are meant to be is the job of your lifetime. Don’t put it off any longer.

Filed Under: house and home, musings, nature, plants, words

Just Do It

February 1, 2013 by 7 Comments

drops on leavesDoing. It isn’t always as easy as it sounds. So many traps lie in the way. Usually, those traps seem innocuous or even necessary in themselves. But often, they are excuses for why we aren’t doing.

There’s no end to the things that can get in the way of our Doing. And because we can just add Doing to our long list of things we want to get to in the future, we put it off until later. Until a more convenient time, when things slow down or the spirit moves or we finally feel up to the challenge. Or maybe you want everything to be just right so your Doing will be perfect and without pitfalls.

That last one is a very large trap. Very large indeed. It seems sensible, this perfecting and planning in preparation for the Doing. Even if it all takes place in your head. But the danger of falling into daydreams is real. They distract you from the Doing in heady, almost drug-like ways. You become a lotus eater, lost to the true purpose of your life, content to stagnate.

In this case, you must be your own Odysseus. You must restrain yourself from indulging and drag yourself away from those daydreams. You must act! You must do! 

Yes, it can be a bit scary. Yes, you might fail, maybe evenly spectacularly. And yes, you could be disappointed that your daydreams don’t come true. All of that is possible. And none of it is enough to justify procrastinating.

But something else will happen, something subtle and magical. You will set in motion a chain of events that will lead you to real growth, real adventures and an entirely new outlook on yourself and your place in the world. You will look back on the days before your started Doing and wonder why you took so long to begin.

Filed Under: musings, plants, words, writing

It Must be Madness

December 22, 2011 by 4 Comments
I’ve slipped down the rabbit hole. The mundane everyday world cannot get my attention. And all because of some tiny pieces of paper and scraps of fabric.  

“’But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat. ‘We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,” said the Cat. ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’”
~Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass

Filed Under: books, color, crafts, fabrics, scraps, sis boom, words

Color Me Orange

January 8, 2010 by 5 Comments
Image courtesy of Wolfgangbeyer through Wikimedia Commons

Time to add orange energy around here. Something to bring a little pizazz to all the blue. I’m afraid the blue energy is not enough to see me through new projects. Calm and introspective is good–just not what you need to jump start a new year.

Orange is believed to symbolize vitality with endurance. According to color therapy gurus, it increases creativity and gets you more involved. Yep, that’s what I need around here. However, I did read that psychics consider an orange aura to be associated with stubbornness. Hmmmm, maybe I better not overdo it. Stubbornness is not something I need more of.

Did you know the word orange came to the English language from the Sanskrit nāraṅgaḥ ? In Spanish it became naranja but in Old French and Anglo-Norman it was orenge. Before the 13th century, the color was called geoluhread (yellow red). But thanks to the Persians, who passed along orange trees and their name to the English speaking peoples, a more definitive word came into our language.

Filed Under: words

A Word or Two

October 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Reading has many benefits. Not the least is an opportunity to increase vocabulary. Of course, to be effective you have to take the time to look up the words you don’t know.

Here’s a new word from my current read–borborygmus, in the plural borborygmi. A borborygmus is an onomatopoeia for a stomach growl. Who knew there was a word for that.

Filed Under: words