Gratitude Monday - Winds Of No Change Edition

Yesterday I spent just the right amount of time outdoors.
The day was hot, sunny, blue, and quiet, as the best Sundays are and for it I am grateful.
I got a bit of work done, too, but most of my time was spent sitting and listening to the wind.

It was relaxing and that's great, but it also spoke to me in a new way.  It made me think about how nothing in life is permanent and that led me to consider the material possessions I have and what will come of them.

A few might be taken by family, assuming I outlive the ones who would take anything. And then I thought about my pictures. I have thousands in hard copy and that again in digital.
They are great to have, but they ultimately serve no purpose.
Yes, I know, old photos go to museums and history books, but that is only a few. The rest?

The wind blew and told me everything blows away with it. In the end there will still be winds blowing over the earth when I, and all I own, are long gone.

I am grateful to have the possessions left to me by family, but they don't mean anything to anyone else, and as I get older and see things differently, having them means less to me.
It is the possession of the material object that loses meaning, not the love and energy of what the objects represent.

I am nowhere near ready to get rid of these possessions. I  will someday, and it will hurt to see them go, but the memories stay.  They are what is important and they are permanent for as much as mental energy can be permanent.

So possessions can come and go with the wind, but the wind will always be, and for all of this I am grateful

Photo-Finish Friday - The Wild, Gruff Wind

The wind, blustering and slapping through the Siffleur Valley.
**

It was good to be out in the wild again. I spent Earth Day with a friend, and with the Earth.
We looked for goats and a cabin, and we spent time with the trees in the wild, gruff wind.
It slapped and ground a layer of civilization off me, one that had applied itself while I wasn't paying attention.
I felt smoother afterward.  Refreshed. Wilder.
It reminded me how I spent most of my time outdoors when I was a child. Society, civilization, being an adult and being housebroken covered the wild inside with a thick dull veneer of getting along by being a little less.
The layer is wearing away with the help of the wild, gruff wind.

Lonely Dreams

Please click me.

I often wonder when I see abandoned buildings what happened to the owners.
Was it tragedy? Or did they light out in the middle of the night never to be heard from again?
Did times get hard and they simply walked away?
Or was it so good that they built a bigger, better house for themselves down the road?
I see tracks in the snow leading into it and wonder if it is on a used trail or someone simply ventured in to have look. I know I'm usually tempted to poke around in old buildings. I often wonder what feeling I'll get.
Old buildings have such tales to tell, but too often they only tell the wind and the rain because the people no longer care or believe they've no time to listen.
And what about you? Do you wonder when you see the houses and farms left to the elements. Or are you too busy?

Good Writing Weather

The wild wind banked and sculpted snow. Above, it made a snow shelf jutting off the house roof.


The one good thing about this spring blizzard we’ve been enjoying is I’ve gotten plenty of writing done.
Storms are good writing weather. I was hunched over my keyboard lost in trying to make my memoirs interesting to someone other than me as the as the wind howled down the street. Snow fell from the sky and rose from the ground and sometimes I looked out the window and couldn’t see the house across the street.
It allowed me to be insular. It works for me.

After two good days of writing I decided to destroy. I had two grocery bags worth of documents I’d been meaning to get rid of for a few years. Old manuscripts, car repair receipts from 1995, all my pay slips from the newspaper.

It’ll go to recycling as soon as it’s safe to venture out again, but first some of it had to be shredded.
I spent a few happy hours feeding the shredder. About a grocery’s bags worth of paper stayed intact. The other bag’s worth were shredded and multiplied into five bags of paper.
Theses were documents with our address, full names, and all the good stuff smart people need to become us if they wish. I think the chance is slim, but it’s still a chance and I’m not going to take it.

The storm broke yesterday afternoon. The sun shone. The wind still blew but it made some bare spots so the juncos went back to it bopping along the ground for their junco treats.
My husband baked cakes Monday and Tuesday and I wrote and shredded. It’s a good way to spend a spring storm.