On Blogging and Beauty

I’ve hit a bit of a dry spell lately – not so much because I have nothing to say as much as I have a lot of things going on at the moment.  I feel a bit bad because I know that I have some faithful readers who “tune in” every morning and it’s been several days since there was something fresh.  And also, I miss writing! 

In June when I was getting ready to go to Colorado and wanting to put together a more polished trip log than I had for my previous travels, I started looking at the blog format.  I read a LOT of blogs and some were truly scary in content – corny, too “all about me” – generally just not appealing to me.  And the whole blog thing seemed a bit too much one of those things that everyone was doing and I hate the whole “following the crowd” thing.  But the more I looked, the more the blog format seemed to fit what I wanted to do as far as documenting travel and general writing about things going on with me.  So, read some more, picked WordPress for my blog “vehicle” and it didn’t go so well.  I struggled to get WordPress installed on my existing host and with all of the things that needed to be done to leave – I was ready to bail and put up a simple web page.

In the past, friends that I email have said I should write a book – that they enjoyed my writing.  But at the time I was thinking of not pursuing the blog I was given some special encouragement and in addtion to the source, it was the words: “You have a gift, use it.”  We rarely see our own gifts, talents or beauty.  Thank God that others see with both eyes and heart – the beauty that we cannot.  And the second part of that is that we must trust in the people that care for us and believe in what they see in us.

Those words – “you have a gift, use it” carried enormous power.  They were more command than suggestion.  It was strong motivation and things suddenly came together for “From the Front Porch”.  And not only has it been a joy to write, it is a joy to hear from everyone who reads.  Something special has happened to me through writing these entries.  I often start with an idea of where I’m going and find that I end up someplace I did not anticipate – what fun!  It is a grand adventure for me as I learn things about myself that I didn’t know.  I think the real gift is being open to new thoughts and ideas and allowing the writing to happen.  Ultimately it has been an incredible ride so far.   

Another Whitefish Day

Yesterday –  Chiropractor, dog walk, eye appointment, lunch with friend, dog walk, Costco, Grocery, home – a LONG day “out” for this home body!  BUT… weather!!! rain, clouds, blue sky, sun – everything and clean, crisp, fresh air!  I took a LOT of photos but was hampered considerably by the eye appt which included dilation of both eyes.  I was reduced to absolute trust of my camera.  (my eye contines to be fine…one more check…)

The day started as a rainy, socked in day.  Mid-morning, the clouds lifted enough to show some blue patches and snow levels plenty low for early October!  If things keep up the 2 local ski resorts should be extremely happy!  As I moved from here to there and back there were areas of squalls – looked like snow vs rain ???  Judge for yourself below:

Whitefish Train Station – Amtrak – it seems SO old-fashioned – especially inside – something from another era.  I took Amtrak to Seattle several times in ’97-98 when I was working with a consulting company there.  The train leaves Whitefish early evening – and arrives Seattle 7 a.m.ish.  I always got a sleeper – took minis of scotch, my Walkman (the iPod of the 90’s!) and enjoyed the comfy-coziness of the tight quarters.  There was a 1-2 a.m. stop in Spokane, WA where I usually woke for a bit.  I’d then wake early enough before Seattle to shower and change before arrival.   It was a unique experience!  …. first photo below is the train station, ski area in the background is Big Mountain.

Train Station

Big Mtn

More Whitefish – Big Mtn and Whitefish Main St.

Train 

Main Street

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