Thank you for the kind thoughts on my last post. They helped and continue to do so. I wrote that very personal post during the weeks we were in Oregon and first thought I was writing just for the two of us and maybe family. (I don't keep a journal and really the blog has become the only writing format that feels comfortable.) When we returned to our Canal Cottage, I realized I'd never be able to blog again if I didn't share that post first. I really had meant to close off comments, but I forgot to click that button and now I am glad I did. Good thoughts and especially the empathy really do help.
I am working to collect small moments of joy — really always possible to find and becoming easier day by day. I haven't stopped taking pictures and they remind me of those moments. I've also been reading and collecting wisdom. Because my attention span is short these days, it is mostly in the form of appropriate quotations. Those help too.
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.
Robert Frost
Grief starts to become indulgent, and it doesn't serve anyone, and it's painful. But if you transform it into remembrance, then you're magnifying the person you lost and also giving something of that person to other people, so they can experience something of that person. Patti Smith
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
Joseph Campbell
We were surprised one morning to see wild turkeys strutting their stuff right in front of our Oregon balcony — a decidedly non-wild urban area. They are certainly adaptable birds.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry
The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy
Jim Rohn
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NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; THANKFUL THURSDAY; SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SATURDAY CRITTERS;






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