Posts by Liz

Living

About a year ago – after getting settled in this house, I made time for a physical.  I’d lived in this area for nearly 13 years at the time and have seen the same G.P. – and even though all doctors are busy, I have been fortunate enough to see a man who makes time to listen to me and also share what’s going on with his family.  So after relating my 7 month motorhome adventure – his comment was “You are one of the few people who has actually done something they really wanted to do”.  Thankfully,  I know another who has, but the point of today’s post is that I often get that kind of reaction to the travelling, my work, my life in general.  And it is often said with some wistfulness or with the tag line “I wish I could do something like that”.

I’d like to say “Hey, wake up and smell the coffee – because you can!”.  I’d like to say “live your life with some passion, spend some time and figure out what you’d really like to do and go and do it!”  I have no special powers, no pot of money – I do have a good imagination, though!  And the truth is, it is the visualization of the “dream” that gets me there and I believe it is the way that those who accomplish goals and realize dreams “make” things happen.  We see in our mind’s eye how we want our life to be.  Visualizing what we want keeps focus, helps weed out the stuff that is not part of the picture and crazy as it might sound – “moves the molecules” so that the vision becomes reality. 

We each have some number of years in this earthly experience.  If you have any faith or spirituality or even a general belief that this is not all there is – do ya really think we were made to play it safe???

It is not an original line(s) and I can’t say it’s totally true but really, can you imagine on your deathbed saying…

“I wish I’d worked more”

“I wish I’d spent less money”

“I wish I’d travelled less”

“I wish I hadn’t loved…”

I bet not !

Boys in the ‘hood

Boys 1Karl and Bob… I often describe their “relationship” as similar to brothers.  They tolerate each other, occasionally play which usually degenerates into someone being a bit too rough with the other so ending up in a skirmish with Bob usually drawing blood… Karl will certainly defend himself but he never seems to get that Bob is getting serious and Bob does not hesitate to use his claws when he’s had enough.  One of the funniest things that happens is Bob will be sitting quietly outside intent on watching something and Karl will decide to start the play and run full steam towards Bob and just roll him over.  Bob comes up fighting – Karl walks away with a pleased look and I swear he’s laughing!  Bob pouts for a bit and no one can do a mad pout like Bob – purses his lips and looks extremly put upon.

The walks – funny also.  Bob decides to come along every once in awhile.  The first we know that he is along is a pitiful meow as we are further ahead of him than he likes – I tell him to hurry up and he does although he tends to always stay back a bit.  He doesn’t follow the entire walk – he’ll come part way not too far off the exact property line – then he’ll be waiting at the point we return to the property.  He’s usually pretty cautious about Karl … Karl loves if other people or dogs walk with us but I think he believes that cats should not be part of the walk… On the rare occasion, though, they are “nice” to each other and even seem to act like family…

Boys 2

Boys3

Boys3

A good fire

WoodstoveWe have had rain off and on, it’s cool and crisp and last night rained all night and continues this morning.  All fire restrictions were lifted the beginning of this week.  The time was right – first fall fire in the woodstove!  A bit odd this year after all of the scare of fire during the summer.

But, suddenly the weather forecast is much cooler, much wetter and snow levels are dropping with each front.  The leaves are turning on the aspen and birch but the larch pine are still green – usually the color here peaks about mid-October.  No fire-reds or oranges here like the east but the brilliant blaze of yellow and gold mixed with the ever green is still beautiful.

There is usually not much time between the end of the color and the first snow – every year I’ve lived in Montana (since Feb ’94) it has at least flurried on Halloween.  And often it gets very cold and we get a first heavy snow in early November.  So, yesterday was spent putting away mower and trimmer and getting the snowblower ready to go.  Garden and lawn stuff to the rear – shovels and snowblower to the fore.  In the next couple of weeks it will be time to put the driveway edge markers in place – so much easier when you can see the edge of the driveway :) !

The change of seasons is not subtle in Montana.  We seem to always blast from one into the next.  The summer-fall transition is my favorite as I’m never sorry to leave the heat of summer behind.  The last several weeks of balmy days and lots of sunshine have been wonderful.   Now we’ll start being cold and damp and I always say that it feels colder during this first cold, wet time then in the dead of winter as I adjust to different temps and humidity – the fire feels pretty good!

to be good and happy today

“We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today”. –Sydney Smith

I woke up this morning feeling overwhelmingly thankful…for everything – for the laughter, the joy, the beauty of my days as well as for the challenges, sorrows and disappointments – for everything!  It is all part of my life and I’m grateful for all of it. 

If life were one smooth, flat ride the view would be lousy – and boring!!  It takes a couple of trips to the valley floor to really appreciate the climb up and the beauty of the grand mountain view.  And it is on those tumbles down that we often learn who we are, what we are made of, our strengths and weaknesses – and what we don’t want or who we don’t want to be which helps to clarify what we DO want.

A favorite mystery series I read features Amelia Peabody Emerson, wife of a famous Egyptologist and no slouch herself in that department.  It is a fun romp of the Errol Flynn sort with the good guys always coming out on top.  Amelia’s catch line when things are on the challenging side is biblical:  the last line of Matthew  6:34: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (King James Version).  The more current translation is “Each day has enough trouble of it’s own”  – but the first lines are “Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself”.  Sometimes, when I find myself distracted by fretting about some future worry I picture Amelia and say the words and laugh – because, it is true and – “our business is to be good and happy today”!

And for today’s “illustration” – this photo is Karl on the right and Sparky, an 11 month old Border Collie belonging to Bob and Inez Love.  Bob logged my property this spring and Sparky was normally along.  Sparky and Karl bonded immediately and played, wrestled, chased and napped together.  I don’t claim to know what really goes on in their little doggie brains but it seems pretty clear that they do not worry about any tomorrows.

Sparky and Karl

Wait till the moon is full


Once upon a time in the dark of the moon there was a little raccoon.  He lived down in a big warm chestnut tree with his mother who was also a raccoon.  – the opening line to the children’s book “Wait till the moon is full” by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams who is most famous for illustrating the Laura Ingalls books.   

“Wait till the moon is full” was a favorite of mine as a child and I think also of my mother and grandmother who read it to me – often! I can remember being in the car with my grandmother Ruth and seeing the moon – especially if it was a barely visible curve and saying the line from the book, the mother raccoon telling the little raccoon something like, “the moon is as thin as a sliver of a raccoon’s ear. Wait, Wait till the moon is full”.  I don’t remember how the other phases were described but I never see a sliver of a moon without hearing – in my grandmother’s voice – “thin as a sliver of a raccoon’s ear”.

You see, the little raccoon wanted to “go out in the night – to know an owl, to see if the moon is a rabbit, and to find out how dark is the dark.  But his mother said, “Wait, Wait till the moon is full.” So the little raccoon waited and wondered, while the moon got bigger and bigger and bigger.  Until at last, on a very special evening, the moon was full”. 

I don’t know if my fascination with being up and sometimes outside in the night is because of the book or if I loved the book because I loved the night.   My interest is not in seeing the moon or the stars up close or even knowing the constellations although I like seeing the very familiar ones: the big and little dipper, Orion’s cross, sometimes I can pick out Casseopia.  It is more like the night is a comforting presence – never the same – sometimes starless, sometimes so full of stars that it is nearly overwhelming to think of the vastness of the universe… to lie on the ground, in this dark, dark place with no artificial light to block the sky – on a clear night and see the Milky Way and the “billions and billions” of stars and know that the ones I can see are just a few of how many there are.  Well…that kind of makes the affairs of the day on planet earth seem just a bit inconsequential!

so…- what’s out there? is there an end somewhere or somewhen? and really, why are We – Here in this part of  wherever and whenever. Mysteries for another time of existence.

Tonight, the moon is full.