Gratitude Gumbo 5-25-13

It’s been a while since I’ve done a gratitude gumbo around here and today feels like the perfect day. 

And because it’s May and my mind is tuned into flower/plant analogies, I think I’ll organize my post today in the manner of a bouquet garni – that culinary practice of tying herbs together to flavor stock and stews.  The “herbs” that are flavoring the stock of my life this week are:  friends, flowers, whimsy, and poetry.

Friends

I am so blessed to have such amazing friends, and each one makes me so glad I’m on this earth sharing the air with them.  I love them all, but here’s a peek at a few of them that lit up my week:

• Jo Anna Rothman, who you may know from The Receiving Project, has a huge heart and a giggle to match, and a commitment to honoring her inner voice when it calls her to service.   She’s put together a fundraiser incentive to help channel funds to those in need after this week’s devastating tornados.  Want to find out more?  Here’s the link to her website page.

• I adore Amy Palko – she’s brilliant, funny, seriously tuned in at an intuitive level, and just all around wonderful.  Plus whatever she says sounds so much more delicious with that beautiful Scottish accent of hers.   This week she helped me shift some energy and fine-tune a biz project I’m working on and I’m over-the-moon delighted.  Thank you Amy!

• I received an unexpected large envelope filled with goodies in the mail from my Canadian friend Leanne Bishop.   It’s always a delight hearing from her, and getting mail from her is especially great, because frankly Canadian’s have awesome postage stamps.  And in the manner of a good mailartist and someone who knows what I love, she packs as many lower-denomination stamps on the envelope as possible, so I get a nice assortment to cull for later use.  Thanks!   While she no longer has a brick and mortar collage/art-fodder store, you can visit her and her beautiful Ruby Dog on her etsy shop. 

Flowers 

This has been a week of flower magic around here and I’m so grateful.    I’ve gathered vases full of lily-of-the valley; and my bleeding heart plants have popped.   How can you not love branches filled with hearts?!

I’m also grateful that it appears my beloved rose tree will be okay, although we’re still keeping fingers crossed and administering lots of love.   We had a serious wind storm and yesterday I woke up to find it had blown over.   It’s a couple years old and it’s probably not going to get any taller than it is at just under four feet.  Just last week I unstaked it, and I was heart-broken I saw it laying on the ground.  I was afraid the trunk had snapped.  But luckily that wasn’t the case;  rather it was totally uprooted.   So it’s been replanted and re-staked and I’ll be doing some deep watering with hopes to get its root system stronger and deeper.  

Whimsy

• I mentioned here I’m playing with whimsy this month, and this week when it was warm enough to sit out on the front porch, I blew bubbles at all the passing dogs and people, and a whole lot just for myself.   This will be an on-going summer project because I’m thinking that the color reflecting properties of bubbles are somewhat dependent on atmospheric conditions.   My preliminary observations are that when the  humidity is higher the colors are brighter.   I think a summer’s worth of observations is called for.  Don’t you wish you had my job?

• Let’s face it, llamas are whimsical animals.  And we had some visiting for a petting zoo set up in our neighborhood park during a festival last weekend.  I apparently didn’t get enough of them, because they’ve made an appearance in my dreams.   Yay for llama llove!

Poetry

I’m grateful for poetry – it’s such an important force in my life. 

This week, another bit of wonderful mail arrived – a limited-edition little chapbook/artist book of poetry by artist/poet Cathy Cullis, whom I mentioned before here.    It looks like the edition has sold out now, but you can take a peek at it here.

Besides being a joy to read and look at, it’s re-kindled my desire to publish my own limited-edition chapbook/artist book.  And more zines.  And more love letters.  And just more all-around goodness.  So I’m so grateful for the inspiration as well as the poetry.  

So there you have it, my gratitude gumbo.  What about you?  What’s in your pot?  What’s been a blessing or delight?  What animals do you consider whimsical?  What poets do you love?  Do tell, you know I love to hear.