"The days are long but the years are short:"

A little over a year ago I came across this video and was moved enough by it to find out more about Gretchen Rubin and her Happiness Project.

I followed The Happiness Project on facebook where this link on keeping a one sentence journal was posted.

I loved this idea for a one sentence journal designed to prompt happy memories. I didn't have a good history of journal keeping.  In a college freshman English class I was required to keep a journal for a semester and what an intimidating exercise that was!  I couldn't write a word without imagining the grad student instructor critiquing it and snickering under his breath.   I bought a nice leather journal a few years ago with hopes of being less inhibited, but my entries were sporadic and self-conscious.  But a one sentence journal - just daily notes on what I wanted to remember?  That was something I could handle - and I was in love with the idea of being able to look back over time to what had happened on any given day in previous years.

I bought a book for my new sentence journal within a few days of reading Gretchen Rubin's blog about it and have been faithfully recording something almost every day since.  I'm almost two months past the one year mark and so I'm able to look back now at 2009.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer in early 2009.  By October he had been through chemotherapy and radiation.  My entry for October 27, 2009 reads "Daddy received good news at Drs office - all blood work was good - he's maintaining!"  The good reports continued until December.  He died March 24th.  Over the coming months I'll be remembering those last few months of my dad's life as I look back in my journal.  It will be hard remembering his pain - but remembering his love and the time spent with him will be a blessing.

My dad and stepmother Thanksgiving 2009.

As Gretchen Rubin says "The days are long but the years are short."

*note:  I've also been recording longer and more frequent entries in my other  journal as well as blogging here and at Ginny's Garden.  As with many other things in life, expressing myself has become easier with practice.

Blessings and a cure

refractory |riˈfraktərē|adjective formal

stubborn or unmanageable : his refractory pony

We did a little time traveling this weekend - back to a time when being tarred and feathered was considered  "a cure for the refractory".  (That's the bag of feathers you see there.)  In the scene below is a man who was refractory, and was on the verge of being tarred and feathered.  But he expressed remorse and was saved from that fate.

This was just one of Colonial Williamsburg's "Revolutionary City" events Saturday.

We were there, under the cloudless blue skies of a nearly perfect day, to enjoy the pageantry, the gardens, the history, and the food.

I first visited Colonial Williamsburg in the 1960's with my family, and though it rained the entire time, I have great memories of that visit - especially eating dinner in the basement of Christiana Campbell's.   Soon after we were married, my husband reported to Officer Candidate School at the Coast Guard Reserve Training Center at Yorktown, Virginia,  just down the road from Williamsburg. My father and I drove him to Yorktown, and while there we visited Williamsburg and ate at Christiana Campbell's.  My husband and I have been back numerous times over the years and have found something new to enjoy each time.  Every visit has been a blessing.

We arrived for this visit late Friday afternoon, as the sun was going down.  Firewood was stacked in front of a  number of buildings - ready for the many fires that will be built when the weather turns colder.  The streets were fairly empty.  It had rained not long before.

Saturday morning we toured the gardens (and took many pictures) at the Governor's Palace as we waited for an audience with Thomas Jefferson. 

Following the audience with Jefferson, a "Revolutionary City" program was held in the garden.  The time was 1775 and three Shawnee Indians who were in Williamsburg to keep the peace were discussing their situation.  One of these actors is on the cover of a recent issue of Our State Magazine.

Afterwards, Hal enjoyed coffee with George Wythe at Charlton's Coffeehouse.  (I enjoyed tea at another table.)  The Coffeehouse was still being excavated on our last visit, but is now open and serving samples of coffee, tea, and chocolate.

Some other highlights of our trip included:

The ox and all of the other animals.

Fifes and Drums

The horse-drawn carriages.  We overheard a woman announcing that she'd just been proposed to while on a carriage ride!

Visiting Great Hopes Plantation on the walk from the Visitors' Center to the historic area.

Checking out what's growing in the Colonial Nursery.

Visiting the brickyard and learning how bricks were made and fired.

We didn't take any building tours on this trip, opting to be outdoors most of the time.  To really enjoy everything about Colonial Williamsburg, we would have needed at least a three-day visit.  

We've been to Williamsburg in all seasons except the heat of the summer and all seasons have something special to offer - but I think fall is my favorite.  Some of the trees were already brilliantly colored, but the peak of the fall color is over a week away.  (For fall color and garden pictures, check out my other blog, Ginny's Garden.)

We headed home Sunday afternoon, crossing the James River on the ferry.  

We left Colonial Williamsburg behind but brought home many memories to cherish.

The circle grows

Our family

is a circle of strength

and love.  With every birth and 

every union the circle grows.

Every joy shared adds

more love.

Every crisis faced together

makes the circle stronger.

I have these words in callligraphy and framed on my piano, surrounded by family wedding photos.   In my extended family every word of this is true. I was reminded of it this past weekend when we gathered at my sister's to celebrate the birth of the newest family member - a girl, my sister's grandchild and her namesake.

At the gathering were my brother and his wife, who will celebrate their first wedding anniversary this week, and my nephew and his bride-to-be.   Many of our group weren't able to be with us for the gathering, but we felt they were with us in spirit.

We have rejoiced in the additions to our family this year, and we have also grieved together.  The patriarch of our family, my father, died in March.  I wrote about how we strengthened each other in a post that week called "In the midst of grief blessings abound".  

Joy, love, strength - these are the gifts my family has given me.  G.K. Chesterton said that "gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."   I am filled with gratitude.

 The family gathering this past weekend.

The family gathering to celebrate my dad's 89th birthday in September 2009.

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich. ~

Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, "Identity Crisis," M*A*S*H

 

"Go and serve creation joyfully"

Today is  the feast  day of St. Francis of Assisi.  Most of us are familiar with the Prayer of St . Francis of Assisi and of St. Francis's love of animals.  Many churches hold a blessing of the animals on this day. He was a man who loved and revered all of God's creation.   In an article in Lutheran Woman Today, Bryan Cones writes that St. Francis is most well known for his poverty, and that it was through poverty that St. Francis' "found oneness . . . with the whole natural world, with all of God’s creation. "

" In his poverty he learned what so often we forget. Not only are we as utterly dependent on God as the birds of the air, we are no less tightly woven into the tapestry of creation. We belong to a vast web of created things, each linked to the others, and we, perhaps, need them far more than they need us. Francis reminds us that as we watch the destruction of God’s creation around us, we are watching also our slow demise."

May this canticle from St. Francis of Assisi remind us of the great wealth we are blessed with.

CANTICLE OF CREATION

Be praised Good Lord for Brother Sun 

who brings us each new day. 

Be praised for Sister Moon: white

beauty bright and fair, with wandering
stars she moves through the night.

Be praised my Lord for Brother Wind,
for air and clouds and the skies of
every season.

Be praised for Sister Water: humble,
helpful, precious, pure; she cleanses
us in rivers and renews us in rain.

Be praised my Lord for Brother fire:
he purifies and enlightens us.

Be praised my Lord for Mother Earth:
abundant source, all life sustaining;
she feeds us bread and fruit and gives
us flowers.

Be praised my Lord for the gift of life;
for changing dusk and dawn; for touch
and scent and song.

Be praised my Lord for those who
pardon one another for love of thee,
and endure sickness and tribulation.

Blessed are they who shall endure it in
peace, for they shall be crowned by
Thee.

Be praised Good Lord for sister Death
who welcomes us in loving embrace.

Be praised my Lord for all your
creation serving you joyfully.

Francis of Assisi, 1225 A.D

Go and serve creation joyfully!