Good Morning, Lake.

Good morning, Lake. I see your grey beauty. I hear the geese chattering and flapping on your surface. I smell the wood burning from the lake house above. I taste the warm coffee and cream from my favorite cup. I feel the cold on my cheeks and nose but also the warming peace in my Soul. Thank you for this feast, Lake. Thank you for this day.

Haiku My Heart–She loved them all

Orange lanterns, blue

Hydrangea, sweet, small birds,

Bittersweet. Loves all.

 

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Love and light to the tender hearts of my friend Elizabeth and her family, who saw her mom, Christine, through the end of her journey on Earth last night.

Gentle flight home, Beautiful Christine.

 

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Haiku my Heart at recuerda mi corazon

Inspired Flow…

No doubt about it.

I am inspired.

Creative juices are flowing.

I am loving it !

This is just some of the work I have produced in the past week.

The stitching took place at e.b.’s and started me off of a great flow…

And yesterday, I got the paint brush back in my hand and did these two pieces.

“The Edge” – 8X8'” canvas, acrylic paint

(I made use of a great new 6X5 stencil, “river rocks”, that I got from Stencil Girl Products, Mary Beth Shaw’s great company !)

“Their Depths” – 8X8” canvas, acrylic paint

I think it is pretty awesome how all of the pieces work together !

Both “The Edge” and “Their Depths” are now listed in the Etsy Shop, just in case you are as inspired by them as me !

I am hoping to add a few stitched cuffs there by next week as well.

Time to go back to work !

Isn’t awesome when work is play ?

Big love to you, Beautiful Ones !

 

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“Today, I remember to be grateful.” 

- Chopra Center 21 Day Meditation Challenge Centering Thought for the Day – Day 16

Work in Progress–Stitching Joy

Stitched cuff – work in progress…

I am really loving this stitching stuff. It is like collage only with fabric as the paper and embroidery stitches as the pen marks.

This cuff came into being as David and I watched one of my favorite feel-good movies last night, “Love Actually”.

Another evening’s work/play and it will be ready for its lucky new owner!

Enjoy this beautiful Sunday, Lovely Ones !

Big Love actually.

Haiku My Heart–Our November Time

We came together,

Spirits dancing, Heart Music.

Our November time.

(Sister Cuffs - photo by Elizabeth Bunsen)

 

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Happily home again.

In love with my man, my house, my furry kids, my life.

Grateful for my incredible November time with special, special loved Ones.

Grateful for this day.

Happy Friday, Beautiful Ones.

May grateful moments fill you up today too.

For more haiku love, visit rebecca at recuerda mi corazon

Stitches in time...

This time in Charlotte with Elizabeth has been a magical joy in more ways than I could ever express.

Full to the rim with magical moments, friendship and mutual love, love, love. So good.

And of course, the creativity that flowed from all of that magic was quite inspired....

Thank you for the magic joy, my friend!

This could be paradise...

I am in Paradise.
That's in Charlotte, Vermont for me.
With Elizabeth, dyed wool, embroidery floss, delicious little bits and beads, the geese, the lake and time.
This day is my slice of Heaven.
Gratitude...gratitude...gratitude...

Bits of magic

My niece Jessica and I had a sweet time walking in the Domaine St. Bernard on Saturday. It was a crisp November day, perfect for getting rosy cheeks and perfect too, for Chickadee love!
Little bits of everyday magic. For these I am so very, very grateful.
Happy Monday, Beautiful Ones!

Share the Joy Thursday - Feeding the Soul

From this week’s joy list…

1. Snow on the bird feeder.

Okay, I am lying.

The snow does not bring me joy.

But the bird feeder does.

As does the knowledge that those cold little birdies will have some yummy seeds to eat when their whole world is frozen.

2. The morning after a bad headache when you open your eyes to no pain.

Heaven !!!

3. A bunch of bags with lots of fun goodies ready to go into the car for some Kimbo adventures with awesome peeps !!!

4. My sweet, sweet hubby who keeps the home fires burning bright while I head out for a bit. When I ask him if he minds that I go a lot, he replies “No ! Because you always come back.” Love him to bits.

5. Participating in the Chopra Center 21 Day Meditation Challenge. Today is day 4 and I can already feel changes in my being. I am loving the process so much !

6. This blog and my friends in Blogland. Knowing that there are dear hearts who hear me, see me, and acknowledge my own heart in this very special way with every post, fills me with joy and feelings of being connected. Good stuff !

I hope that the rest of your week is filled with simple and abundant joy, Beautiful Ones !

Visit Meri at Meri’s Musings for more Joy Sharing.

The Day after…

It would seem that elections give me headaches.

It must be all that line drawing, “I win, you lose” and battleground crap. I am so happy with the outcome, as I believe in Barack Obama. He is the only candidate that gives me any hope that we can ever get closer to living in that field that Rumi talks about.

I know it won’t happen in my life time, but there is always hope.

I have a horrible headache this morning and I have many things to accomplish today.

Tomorrow, I leave for a week long visit up north.

(Jessie on the right, with her mom, my sister, Natalie)

Number 1 is time with my niece Jessica, who is 21, and who really wanted to make a plan for some Aunt/Niece time when I saw her about a month ago. How could I refuse ??? So we are taking two days in a hotel in Mont Tremblant, to hang out and spend precious time together !!! We got a great deal on the hotel as it is kind of the dead season up there until the snow falls. I am so excited to be with that girl!

I will also see my mom, my two sisters and a friend or two, (there is never enough time to see everyone I would love to see !)

and then on Monday,

I head back down to VT to spend some time with e.b. !

It is bundle up time in VT in every sense of the word,

and I need to share some of that time with my amazing friend !

Off to pop some Advil and hope that this headache doesn’t slow me down too much.

Wishing you a happy Wednesday, Beautiful Ones !

Haiku My Heart–Three Small Birds

Despair’s teeth sunk in.

Three small birds rescued my heart.

I am free to love.

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Yesterday, we got the news that our nephew’s Mike’s 7 year old daughter Kyara had died from injuries suffered in a horrible car accident.

We were not very close to this sweet little girl because of complicated family issues

but she was a very loved member of the Mailhot family. I especially remember the wonderful bubbly “little girl” energy she always brought to family gatherings and how much laughter there was when she is with us.

My heart aches for all of those who loved this little girl, taken from us way too soon, and in such a senseless way.

(candle on my altar for Kyara)

It seems to me that there were a lot of things this week that didn’t make any sense.

As a highly sensitive individual, I sometimes get overwhelmed with how much horror, sadness, loss and pain there is in this world. 

If you know me at all, you know that my life mantra is “Love is the answer to every question.”

I know this is true.

And yet, when the horrible, sad, scary, senseless stuff piles up so high around me,

I sometimes forget that truth.

I let despair sink its cruel teeth into me, and try and drag me down into its depths.

I have to say that after the news of Kyara’s passing yesterday,

despair definitely got hold of me.

It was a very grey day in spite of the sun. I felt sad, lost, angry, helpless, useless and beaten down.

I woke up this morning, again feeling sad,  lost, angry, helpless, useless and beaten down.

I was struggling just to perform the simple morning “mommy duties” here, and was mostly wishing to take a pill to shut down my brain, go back to bed, and pull the sheets up over my head for some indefinite amount of time…

Instead, with a little help from my amazing husband, who is going through his own grieving and sadness, I managed to get duties done, pour myself some coffee, and head into the studio to the computer.

That’s when they saved me.

I have this bird feeder that is now hanging from the very center of our gazebo frame on the back deck. The way it is hung has made it squirrel proof but it hasn’t had too much feeding action yet. I guess the birds haven’t been aware of its presence.

Well, they were this morning.

Just when I really needed them to be.

Not only were a bunch of little common finches and sparrows around, but I heard the magic twitter of my little favs, the chickadees, and suddenly, there they were, three of them all on the feeder at the same time. Twittering and eating away.

I love those little birds ! I felt joy at seeing them there.

I felt joy, in spite of the sadness, loss, helpless, hopeless crap.

Now, I can imagine many people saying “Whoopdidoo, Kim!”

I can even imagine myself saying that to me !

But this morning, those three little birds with their glorious “chickadee bee bee” twitter and their sweet, little black heads saved me.

I know today is going to be hard, and that I am going to have to keep looking towards the light to keep me from falling back down lower into those depths of despair.

But if those three little birds can bring me such tender sweet joy in my heart, there are a lot of other sweet, loving, beautiful things in this world that can too.

And heck, I don’t want to miss that ! That is the sweet stuff of living. Our one main purpose for being here on this crazy, bittersweet, beautiful planet. This my heart knows.

So from this very tender place, I am sending you, and myself,

Big Love, Beautiful Ones.

(Chickadee love – December 2011)

Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', "This is my message to you”.

~ Bob Marley