A Fine Morning's This And That

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself." ~ William Blake, 1799, The Letters

Outside my window: Spring morning with blue skies and sunshine, with barely a breeze to flutter newly unfurled leaves. The air is fragrant this week with the flowers of May Day trees. I love when you catch the fragrance on the breeze -- it's like a spritz of paradise. Mix that with the happy whistles and chatters of the birds, and you'll understand one reason why I feel so full of wonder this morning.

"He that planteth a tree is a servant of God,

he provideth a kindness for many generations,

and faces that he hath not seen shall bless him." ~ Henry Van Dyke

My happy thought: If you've been visiting my blog for a while, you no doubt recall posts where I shared about working a part-time job with my hubby these past four years cleaning at our local performing arts centre. Every morning, five mornings a week we got up at three in the morning (even earlier sometimes) to wax and clean and polish. It has never been easy to crawl from a cozy bed to get going that early.

But we had a goal. And our goal was met a couple of months ago and today I'm c-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-i-n-g that we just finished our very LAST shift. We're hanging up the brooms, dust mops and vacuum hoses. This morning, we wiped lipstick and fingerprints off walls, gave mirrors a brisk polish, tackled overflowing garbage bins, vacuumed carpets, swished toilets, and straightened dressing rooms for the very last time.  It feels good. It feels wonderful. Mmm... I wonder what it will feel like to sleep in till five or six or seven in the morning.

With this new shift, we're taking some holiday time in the mountains.  And I look forward to enjoying the long summer evenings, and to focusing on my writing, especially here on my blog. I'm also looking forward to spending more time with my loved ones, not to mention catching up on much neglected home tasks and getting the corners of my home back in order. Woo-hoo!

I'm also giddy with excitement about: Susan Branch has been writing a new book -- a sorta novel/semi-autobiography/fairy tale. It's called The Fairy Tale Girl and it's going to the printers in a couple of weeks. If you pre-order on her website, those will be out end of August. Otherwise you have to wait until October when they are available in the bookstores.

Which means you don't want to miss this opportunity! Susan is hosting a draw and giving away the first ten books as they arrive from the printers. Hop over there... read her latest post, leave a comment to enter her draw, pre-order if you want a copy, and start getting excited about her newest gift to the world. I can hardly wait!

Sending out a gently used post: I often check my blog's stats to see which posts are being clicked on and to see who is visiting from where in the world. Usually, when someone visits a post from my old archives, I will check it to ensure that it's still a post worth reading.

This morning, someone visited a post I wrote in 2009 -- on the topic of finding comfort in Nature. I was happy to see it again after all this time. It's a little like meeting up with an old friend, my younger self and my present self connecting in this small way. It was interesting to re-read what was meaningful to her in another time and season. And encouraging too, as it spoke to me all over again. Undoubtedly you find that yourself, do you, when you look at some of your older posts?

As my little gift this morning I'm offering you Nature's Comfort... and hope you won't mind reading it again if you've seen it before.

On that note, I'm cheerfully wishing you a beautiful day!

Lots of hugs and good thoughts being sent your way,

Brenda

xox