February Daybook: Blogging Resumes After Hiatus

"They fill the world with beauty."

UNKNOWN

It's been more than a month since I last wrote. Which is hard to believe. The time away during these past weeks when our winter was the bitterest has been good for me. It gave me time to rest and clear my mind. It gave me time to sort and reorganize my study—to do a reset and start fresh in my creative space. It gave me a chance to reconsider why I blog, why I love it, and why I should shall carry on in this season of my life when the world is so fraught with unjoyful things.

The greyness I mentioned last month hasn't gone away completely. We live in our imperfect world and some days we just feel the weight of it. But it's okay. I look for the little things that add joy along the way. Getting a good sleep is very good for keeping sane, but I don't always get that great sleep. Doing creative work is a boon in troubling times, something fun, something relaxing. Reading also keeps me sane. Books that distract and take me to other places help. And I find it especially en-courage-ing to read about and learn from people in the past who lived and survived their own terrible times, whether personal struggles or events that were bigger, more global. I often find myself scribbling down quotations that describe how they encouraged themselves, how they found ways to carry on. And I think to myself, if they could do it, so can I.

We say goodbye to February which felt extra long this year (with it's funnily placed extra 'r' - I even don't like writing the word, it always stops the cursive flow when I get to the "b" and "r" in its name. Thank goodness for Valentine's Day which created a bright spot with flowers, loving words, and some chocolate.

 

Here is February's edition of the Daybook to wind up the month on a cheery note.

For Today

From my window...

The skies are blue. Yesterday the winds were up - making banks of

white clouds fly past as if in a race. Today there is only a breeze

to rustle dry stalks, evergreen tips, and wispy clouds. It's a joy to see great

mounds of snow melting away. Sidewalks (which some folks don't bother

to shovel all winter) are also nicely melting, making our daily walks

so much nicer... and safer.

Surely this can't be spring yet, though, can it? We're still in

February if only for one more day! We dream.

A clutch of quotes about a happy life...

The grand essentials of happiness are:

something to do, something to love,

and something to hope for.

ALLAN CHALMERS

One of the secrets of a happy life

is continuous small treats.

IRIS MURDOCH

Think of all the beauty still

left around you and be happy.

ANNE FRANK 

I am thankful for...

These brighter, sunnier days. With their arrival, I seem to have

thrust off that cloak of pall greyness that shadowed my soul for weeks.

Yes, Lorrie, I am feeling much more 'lilac' in my mind. And, in

spite of all manner of upsetting things going on in the world around

us, I feel a hopefulness that I haven't felt in a while.

(Perhaps I do have a bit of SAD and don't know it.)

One simple pleasure...

To watch our neighbourhood squirrel racing along his 'highway'

fence on these warmer days. He was nowhere to be seen

during those long weeks of bitter cold and sharp winds.

Updates on February's 'Reset' projects...

We tackled a few projects around the house.

Book shelves are dusted and reorganized.

Paper blizzards are somewhat tamed.

New bathroom countertops, sinks, and fixtures are on order.

And I'm excited, yes, I am, about getting new kitchen cupboard

door handles to go with earlier renovations, making it all

more cohesive and finished.

We sorted through several boxes of items that had once lived

on shelves and my desk surface. Collecting these bits and bobs

is far too easy what with my 'magpie' affinity for shiny objects—interesting

rocks, special postage stamps, cracked vintage teacups, souvenir postcards

from special places, 'ooo, isn't that sweet'... 'it's too cute to discard'.

I am watching...

The Miss Potter film on Prime for the umpteenth time. I never tire

of this 2006 biographical drama starring Renée Zellweger as

children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. She does a stellar

job playing this creative and industrious woman of the early 20th century.

I am wearing...

Comfy blue jeans, a long-sleeved delphinium blue waffle weave sweater,

layered with generous spritzes of rose scented fragrance.

I kinda wish someone around here would consider dabbing on a

sandalwood men's cologne—then we could be like Louise Penny's lovely couple,

Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, from her NYT bestselling crime novels.😉

On my walk...

Around the block, I take deep breaths of fresh air.

And feel the warmth of the sun as it shines brightly like a spring day.

A breeze refreshes but doesn't make uncomfortable.

Rivulets of melted snow trickle down the street—it's music to my ears.

A couple of books I want to read...

The Comfort of Crows, A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

(a literary devotional - 52 chapters that follow the creatures

and plants in her backyard over the course of a year)

Rooms of Their Own, Where Great Writers Write, by Alex Johnson

and Illustrator James Oses (a literary and artistic glimpse of the

writing rooms of 50 great authors - this will be a delightful reread)

One good book I recently read...

And really enjoyed was about Winston Churchill during the

London blitz in World War II. The author Erik Larson notes that it was only

when he moved to Manhatten a few years ago that he came "to understand,

with sudden clarity, how different the experience of September 11, 2001,

had been for New Yorkers than for those who watched . . . at a distance."

He started thinking about London and the German aerial assault of 1940-41,

and wondered how on earth anyone could have endured fifty-seven

consecutive nights of bombing... and nighttime raids over the next six months.

This book The Splendid and the Vile, A Saga of Churchill, Family, and

Defiance During the Blitz is the result of years of careful research. He

focused on Churchill's first year as prime minister: May 10, 1940 to May 10, 1941.

It was quite the reading ride. If you are interested in Churchill's life

or events of World War II in Britain, I do recommend this book. It's not a novel

but it's as riveting as one. He sticks to the facts as found in letters, biographies,

diaries, news clippings. I learned some historical things that had been fuzzy

in my mind up to that point, and I gained that sense of the great courage

people had during that horrific time. It was bracing, to say the least.

Something I want to remember as a blogger/writer...

Maggie O'Farrell, author of I Am, I Am, I Am, wrote:

"Enjoy yourself; learn to love the labour of writing,

because it will show. I cannot overstate this.

Your reader will feel the joy coming off the page,

will sense it in the white spaces around your words."

I love that thought. That you, my readers, could feel the joy coming

off the pages on which I write, that you too might sense it in the

white spaces around my words. Well, for me,

that's a wondrous thing to aim towards.

To go along with the above...

A favourite author/artist Susan Branch has often

mentioned that when she's writing for her blog or working on a

new book, she is always thinking about "what do I have to give" to

her readers, believing that is the true secret to a happy life. So true,

what do I have to give you today? That's something worth working

on, and that is the focus I want to hold as I write here on

It's A Beautiful Life. You, beautiful reader, make it all worth while.

 

Closing thoughts...

"It is the courage to continue that counts."

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, The Darkest Hour

❦

Wishing you a beautiful day as we close out February

and say hello to a new month,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Tulip photo by Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

Typewriter graphic from TheGraphicsFairy.com

My blogging Schedule:

I post on Fridays