Gratitude

How do you measure gratitude?  Is it by volume, by weight, by the people who grace your table on Thanksgiving or by the way your heart is touched on a daily basis.  How is it defined? Is it the love of four footed furry friends, the support of family and friends, the awareness of beauty in our lives? Is it the blessings that show up when we most need them?

Perhaps it is a byproduct of hurts that bring tears to our eyes. It is, however, a very personal choice. It is what gives us strength to move forward and grace not to look back.

So on this day, and as best I can on every day, I give thanks. For both the joys and the tears. For those things that stop us in our tracks and those tracks that open to unexpected beauty. And for the dogs. Oh, come on, you knew I had to say that! For old dogs, young dogs, dogs who found forever homes, for dogs who have crossed the bridge. For dogs we don't know, but trust will find their way into our hearts and home.

I give thanks and I also wish you gratitude. May it be warm and soft around your heart. May it be light and joyful. May it be a belly laugh. May it be tears of joy. May it be your sunrise and sunset. May it even be present in times of sadness. May it overwhelm you...as it does me.



 

Cake, Harvest and Life Challenges

This morning I made a cake for my not so little boy.  Something I've done 32 times now.  Such a simple thing to celebrate a life.  Gone are the days he stood on the chair next to me waiting impatiently to lick the beaters.  Now I'm the impatient one as I wait to spend time with him.  When you get right down to it cake can be pretty poignant.  Life is precious, time flies, and making cake for someone you love is pretty darned special.

We find ourselves in the middle of harvest out here in our little section of the country.  While we don't personally farm, we are blessed to live in farm country.  We watch over the fields, are friends with the farmers and pray for their safety.  Crops are not the only things planted, tended and harvested.  Faith is very much the same.

Life challenges require us to dig deep and harvest our faith.  And face it, we all have them.  Illness, job loss, divorce, broken hearts, loss of a loved one, or just plain uncertainty.  At some point in life we face those hardships.  The challenges come, sometimes repeatedly.  And we struggle.  Until we remember we are not alone.

So I have to ask where are you in your harvest?  Who is sharing that journey? And, will there be cake?  In case you doubt, let me just say, yes, yes...there will be cake.  Better yet, it will be shared. Share your burdens, share your joys and spread your faith.  That's a blessed harvest.

A Resting Place

As pet owners, and volunteers for Great Plains Pointer Rescue, we know that part of loving them is losing them.  We lose them to forever homes and sometimes we lose them to failing health.  We knew that at our little house on the prairie we would eventually have to lay one to rest.  For some people the thought of burying a dog in your yard is not a comfortable.  For us it is as natural as loving them.

In this case it is not one of our resident pack, thankfully, but sadly one of our foster family.  We love our fosters as one of our own, and my son's foster dog counts just the same.  So when Pongo crossed the bridge unexpectedly, we gave them the option to bring him here to be laid to rest.

Our dogs, and our fosters are surely family in the best way possible. Therefore, it is a comfort to know family is close. Close in heart, close in the yard and close in our minds.  It is never what one wants to do, but sometimes what one has to do.

So while it was a sad, sad weekend we also found much grace in it.  We love our little house on the prairie, we love our family and we love that Pongo is here with us.  Literally and figuratively.  The ritual gives us closure and the love give us peace.  And, our home is even richer than before because of this process.  The process of love.

Jam Anyone?

So, as a city girl, berries came in neat packages at the grocery store.  With the exception being an occasional cherry tree or a strawberry patch.  Or a backyard raspberry bush.  Berries happened, and life, like berries sometimes came neat and tidy.  Other times, like this weekend, berries became much more hands on for us.

Enter the Elderberry bush.  Last year I didn't have a clue what one was. Didn't know we owned one, what the blossoms were like or when the fruit was ready. Now I know. How does one figure out life and berries? Sometimes you simply need to ask and go from there.  I started with a photograph of a random bush with its fruit.  Now, truth be told I have never tasted Elderberry anything.  But, that will change soon.

Jam is in the works, and it better be good.  After stemming elderberries I have a greater appreciation for any plant that has large fruit.  Let's just say this it's labor intensive.  It's a patience builder, and in a way it's therapeutic. It's especially nice if you have a tasty beverage, and a friend by your side as you stem them.

Someone asked me why I made them my mission this summer.  Because they are there, because I've never had them and because I love small culinary adventures.  Last year it was choke cherry's and wild plums, this year elderberries.

Isn't that a good enough reason to try something new?  Because you can, because you haven't and because life is made up of little adventures.  In the end we'll have jam and satisfaction.  Both will be sweet from making the effort.

Let There Be Pie

As a city girl I had no idea the significance of pie.  Don't get me wrong, pie happened.  It came in a couple shapes and forms.  Pumpkin, pecan, cherry, apple.  It was not my forte, though I can muster up a good pumpkin and a lovely apple.  Perhaps I missed the depth of pie because I only have those two pies up my sleeve.

Let me just say my eyes have been opened.  And I owe it all to rural living. Several times a year now I participate in pie events.  The women's group I belong to does pie in a really big way.  Apple, Cherry, Rhubarb, Rhu-Berry, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Triple Berry, Pear, Apricot, Gooseberry, Pecan, Blueberry, Peach and others I probably have forgotten. May I just say the Pear pie is amazing!

These ladies can probably kick some pie butt in the realm of cream pies too, but for events it's fruit pies only.  You could say I've come to embrace a life of pie.  But, and there is always a but, I accept my limitations.  I clearly own being crust challenged. Double crust pies thwart me at every turn. Yup, I know you can buy frozen pie crusts.  It should be simple.  Lots of things should be simple, and simply are not.

For now I stick with the pies I know how to make and sample all the other's I don't.  It's a good thing, It's a pie thing.  Life dishes up some delicious things and they often come in the shape of pie.

Little Towns in the Big Beautiful World

There was a time where I never left the city.  It encompassed all.  Sure, there were other subdivisions. bedroom communities, small city's that bordered the big city.  They all ran into one and you took them for granted.

Now I find my world blessed by gravel roads, highways and byways that lead from from one little town to the next.  Towns I'd never heard of or dreamed existed.  We all have roads in life like that.

I know where the bar is in Sutton, the pizza is in Gilter, where our friends are in Stockham.  I've partied in Milligan, picked up a foster dog in Geneva, relaxed lakeside in Silver Creek.  I picked up precious canine cargo at the rural airports in Harvard and in Aurora. We've done pet therapy visits in Hastings. I've delivered flowers in Henderson.  Visited friends in Bradshaw. We've had dinner in Marquette, Central City, Hampton, Chapman and Dannenbrog.  We get around.  And usually we eat when we get there.

I go more places than I ever went before.  Or, perhaps, I am simply more aware of the individuality and beauty of the destination.  Sometimes you have to look past the big and embrace the little.  Big can be beautiful too, but I'm finding little is perfect in a big way.

Crumbling Facades....

Have you ever felt an instant affinity for a person, place or thing?  I'd be surprised if you could honestly say no to that.  We are called to love and if we are smart we listen.  This is how it unfolds, life takes you to places, to people, or into situations that touch your heart. Sometimes the beauty calls out to you, or the sorrow, or the plain mystery of it all.

In this situation an old farm house speaks to me. I want to know it's story, I want to restore it. It's not huge or grand, but the simple charm sings with possibilities.

The windows and doors have been taken out and I'm guessing it will soon be demolished in the name of progress.  It makes me sad, and makes me wonder all the same.   Surely it had to have been shelter from the storms of life at some point in time. People had to have called it home and found nourishment there.

And it makes me ask....   Are we sometimes just an empty shell, a crumbling facade or are we full of simple charm and possibility?  Do we nourish, shelter and encourage?  Have you savored the beauty of the old and the new?  And maybe by honoring, even fleetingly, simple beauty we will have multiplied it.