Fly Me to the Flower Moon

A week in which we celebrate the Full Flower Moon can’t help but be a good week in my opinion and that’s how I’d sum mine up.  I missed participating in last week’s Scattered Life Collective because I was away on retreat, and I’m a day late this week because yesterday I had a major dental procedure that required my immediate return to bed afterwards. But  I’m ready to resume play this week and give you a peek into what I’ve been up to.

Current Time:  9:00 am

Out the window:  The sun is shining and I’m appreciating even more today. Yesterday it was rainy, gray and quite chilly.  There was even snow in the suburbs of Chicago!  Seriously that’s totally unacceptable.  I’m so done with Winter – and therefore it has now been officially banished.  

Good things:

• I had an extraordinarily wonderful time when I was away.  Reconnecting with friends I’ve been doing deep spiritual work with, in a lovely setting, stretching our brains and our hearts, and eating awesome food – everything about the trip was nourishing to my soul.  And the traveling itself was amazing.  I somehow was whisked through security at the airports without delay or hassles literally like I was only person there.  Once through the check points and armed with good coffee I sat back and was entertained by amusing people on the ground and gloriously kaleidoscopic clouds in the air.  Fun!

• Coming home.  As much fun as I had away, I really most enjoy being home.  Surrounded by my things and hanging out with my sweetie.  Even the kitties skipped the cold-shoulder treatment upon my return and laid on the love.  Can’t beat that.   My introvert self needs lots of space around recovering and re-entering after being so social, so I’ve kept this week as free and unscheduled as I could.  Lots of quiet time, neighborhood walks and plenty of space to integrate all I took in during the retreat.

• My new felt bag!  One of the things we did in evenings when on retreat was knit during our discussions.  Last year I was a never-knit-before disaster who couldn’t manage the pattern we’d chosen to work on.  Seriously by the end of the week I had about 4 inches square of actual knitting done and endless hours and 10,000 yards of tinking.  This year however, I GOT it.  I tell you there was world-wide celebration for the vast improvement in my skills.  We knitted bags and then felted them.  Seriously fun.  And now there’s the delightful project of decorating them. I’m a decent needle felter and I’m thinking I’ll be adding flowers to mine.

• Speaking of flowers, while I was gone Spring showed up in force finally.  This week I got my first whiff of lilacs; my bleeding hearts and my lilies of the valley are blooming; and my peony bushes have greened up.  I’m in heaven!  You see why I can’t have snow messing with things.

• Celebrating the full Flower Moon which also ushers in the time of Wesak.

• Coming home to a boxful of mail.  I do love my mail!  And included in this delightful haul were a number of postcards from the iHanna swap I mentioned in my last post.

• I heard a new descriptive term that delights me.   Apparently being from the Great Lakes area makes me one of the Fresh Water People.

On the menu:

Doesn’t this Honey Lavender Crepe Cake look and sound delish?!   Well it is calling to me, but truthfully it’s not on the menu.  I’m just fantasizing about it.

Thanks to the gum augmentation dental procedure I had done yesterday I have a tender mouth, stitches, and a guard I have to wear constantly for  while.  So I’m thinking  doses of comfort food (without any sharp edges!) will be just the ticket.  Therefore I’m ready to give this mac & cheese recipe a try.

Listening to:  Although I’m owned by cats, I do love dogs as well.  I’m not sure how this crossed by path, but I’m charmed by Nat Johnson’s song Dog, as well as the animation.   Two key takeaways for me:  “it’s important to walk; there are friends yet to meet.”

Reading:

• Soul Identity – Dennis Batchelder.  This was a free kindle download,  perfect light reading for travel. 

• I love the poetry of Morton Marcus.  See more here.  I was heart-broken when he died, but that’s all the more reason to dive deeply into and appreciate the poetry he left us.  I took his collection When People Could Fly on retreat with me, and it filled my heart once more. 

Watching:  Love this little apple seed animation

Out and About:

• I love Mel of the Ink Blot Kingdom and I love her Indie Manifesto  
• These vintage cosmetic ads from Japan are gorgeous
• paper cut of life inside the apple by Elsa Mora
• Whose on the forefront of advocating for the bees?
• Spoken word artist Steve Connell celebrates two loves of my life – poetry slams and shelter animals.

There you have it – my week.  What about you?  What’s brought joy to your week?  Have a funny dentist story to cheer me up?  A favorite comfort food?  What’s blooming in your world?  Do tell – you know I love to hear.