Ordinary Days

Gifts from the past

I just went downstairs to our storage room to look for something and in one box of my stuff of stuff I found this tiny cardboard box. The minute I saw it I knew what it was and had to grab it and bring it up stairs for my office.

It was a very small gift from my mom when I first entered the monastery. The box is only several inches wide and tall and inside is a handful of pine needles with a small tiny porcelain squirrel. Not at all valuable cost wise but it has been one of the sweetest most loving gifts I have ever received. Every time I open it even after 30 years it still smells fragrantly of our woods at home and now with my mom in heaven it is like a special remembrance message of love from her again.

When I was in the Navy and stationed in Iceland I remember another \”memory box\” that my roommate received from her boyfriend. It was a heart shaped box that had chocolates in it – but instead of the chocolates he had carefully gathered a small Icelandic pebble for each wrapper. She loved the box and was so touched by his thoughtfulness.

I love thought presents don\’t you? Do you have one or two to share? Would love to hear yours.

Decided to play at Drawing

My friend Robby (from this blog) sent a comment a while back about taking up the hobby of rock painting. She was suggesting it might be something I would like to do and I am considering it . . . down the road a bit . . . but for now I have decided I would like to play around with drawing.

I am starting with simple cute stuff, like drawing frogs and turtles and giraffes. Perhaps some Stick figures doing funny things. For guidance I am collecting Pinterest pins of drawing tutorials. So far I have 72 pins to inspire me and keep finding more. This will be interesting to see how it develops.

One thing I learned about taking up something new is to start with tutorials made for children. The lessons are simple and easy to master. And the fact is that no matter what age we are when learning something new the lessons need to be simple to start and most \”adult\” tutorials are not.

This was made very clear to me when I first started taking Piano lessons in the monastery. My first teacher was a very nice person and an actual grade school teacher but she started my lessons using Adult Piano books. After a number of months I had graduated to book four and the pieces were of course getting harder. But here is the thing although I did actually master the pieces from the book I was not able to transfer my learning to other pieces of equal difficulty. It turns out that in Piano as most things there are lots of things to learn before advancing to a next level. Simply being able to play one song did not provide the training for a balanced education.

My teacher had a daughter who was taking piano lessons from a full time piano teacher and after some thought she recommended that I change to taking lessons from her instead. So I did. And guess what? The new teacher after a simple assessment placed me in book one of Piano for kids and I started with a new song called, \”My Pretty Kitty.\” I studied with her for about four years and eventually I did get to the Adult level I had been at with book four.

As you can see I have a ways to go – but since I am just playing – and not setting \”adult\” standards for myself – I think he is quite cute. I may even put him on my refrigerator.

Buddy Report

Buddy is now holed up in Jon\’s closet on a pair of old jeans. This is his new hidey hole. He likes anything that is connected to Jon.

Please add \”your\” three gratitude moments in the comments. It\’s a great way to pick up your day and it\’s fun for the rest of us to read!

1. Cooler day. Nice.
2. Spending an hour a day doing yard and garden work. Starting to like it. Not loving it cause I\’m not a garden fan but the work needs to be done and I need the fresh air and exercise.
3. Trying to eat less sugar. It definitely affects my mood and is an easy fix even if not a yummy one!

Rock painting at it\’s finest. Maybe someday I will do this. I DO want to see some of the rock\’s Roby has done! Has anyone else done rock painting?

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