Cemetery Walk

I walked this morning in the cemetery.

It is across the street from my house.
Our children knew it as our park.

Cemetery Mockingbird kept me company.

I walked for an hour.
I looked about, took a few photos and enjoyed the clouds.

There are places I could stop and rest if I wanted to.
I did not need to today.

I stepped on the scale this morning.
Progress, that is encouraging.
I am weighing myself every morning.

Walk About

Today I decided to walk in my neighborhood.
To check on the plants and trees down my street.
It is cloudy and humid.

My neighbor's perennial Hibiscus is in full bloom.
Mine is in bud not bloom yet.
Maybe next week mine will open.

The Southern Magnolia, in my neighbor's yard,
still has buds and a few blooms.
The seed pods are always so beautiful too.

I expanded my walk to the nature area up the street, Cave Springs.
The wild Chicory is growing next to the sidewalk.
Mine did not come back this year.
Garden soils maybe too rich for it.

The Eastern Tailed-blues were in the Red Yarrow.
I used to grow Red Yarrow years ago.
It is pretty.

I am walking, morning and evening.
If I need to I will add afternoon.
I am walking.

Walk on the Wildside

The front lawn of the Lakeside Nature Center is a natural prairie.
It is about five minutes from my house.
I went this morning.




This is a way for me to work on landscape photos,
get morning exercise,
be inspired for my gardens and
see new to me butterflies and birds.
If every morning, after I dress and feed the birds,
I take myself out into the wild areas that are around me
I think I will come home energized and inspired.
I need to get up and get moving.

A pair of Buckeyes greeted me in the parking lot.
I watched Orange Sulphurs, Goldfinches, Dragonflies and Damselflies.
I watched a Black Swallowtail in the Purple Bergamot.

I went for a walk.
I looked about.
I was gone an hour.

As I looked at the wild gardens I was encouraged.
My gardens are a blend of wild and cultivated.
I think they are pretty.

I am doing a reality check today.
I weighed this morning.
I had not done that for six months.
I brought out my body journal.
Once again I committed to my slim and trim body.

I made a list of all the things I like about me.
I made a list of what I like to do.
I made realistic goals.
I made a plan of action.

I like to take pictures.
I like birds and bugs and blooms.
I like to walk.

I can walk in the morning with my camera.
I can take my photos and get exercise.
I can still walk in the evenings with my husband.

I can still take pictures in my own backyard.
I can do everything I like to do.
I can be slim and trim again regardless of hormones!

I will eat my banana instead of my Dove Miniature.

A Candle

I lit a candle for those who are not free.
A candle for hope.

Three Voices

There are three voices in my head.
Not a committee of twelve,
just three.

The still small voice is more like a whisper.
It is the cool north breeze on a hot day.
It is the sound of the sunflower opening its petals.
It is the scent of the Jasmine, "chose me for your hair."
It is the voice I listen to.
I call this voice my spirit voice.
It a beautiful voice.

My second voice is with me daily.
It is a chrip, a look at me.
This is the voice of joy and of sadness.
It is with this voice I fall in love and in wonder.
With this voice I fly over the rainbow.
I call this sweet voice my feeling voice.
I honor this voice.

My third voice is harsh and demanding.
All sorts of instructions come with this voice.
Yesterday the voice said, "Buy bananas."
Over and over it insisted.
I explained, "I buy bananas in the winter.
The store is twenty minutes away, I will put it on the list."
After an hour of non-stop bagering, I relented.
I dressed and went to the store.
I bought bananas.

"Eat banana." Here we go again.
"EAT BANANA!"
I thought they were for the butterflies.
I ate a banana.

In about 15 minutes I started to feel good.
I was not tired.

I call this voice the body voice.
I seldom listen.

I am listening now.
I ate a banana this morning with out prompting.

Sleeplessness

For a few months now,
I don't remember when it started,
April maybe March,
I have not been able to sleep all night.

I have tried herbal remedies, lavender and chamomile teas and blooms.
Still I wake up.
We turned the mattress and bought new sheets.
I lowered the thermostat. Sometimes I woke sweaty.
I do not like to be sweaty.
My husband thinks it is cold in our house.

I fall asleep just fine.
I think of butterflies and dream of beautiful gardens.
After a couple of hours I am awake.
I stay in bed, with my eyes closed.
I try to go back to sleep. It takes an hour or longer before I am drifting again.
Some nights I get back asleep; some I do not.

I figured it was because I was upset over the lost Spring.
My fatigue during the day I thought was from the upsets.
I was resting at night; just not sleeping.
My lack of enthusiasm for gardening I thought was because of all the plants that died.
I would engage a wee bit but I could not sustain the energy.
I was tired.
I was and am always tired.

My friend called last week. She has known me since kindergarten.
She asked me how I was doing.
I told her how I was not so despondent but still seemed to be so very tired.
I told her about mulching and seeds and how I was once again trying to find the connection to my plants.
I told her how I was not sleeping very well.

She said, "Oh yes, the change."
I thought she meant the change in the energies of planet Earth.
The climate change, the way the energies of the third dimension were giving way to the fourth. I went on and on about the density of the third dimension.
She is kind. She listened.
She responded, "Hormones."

I have read "Our Bodies Ourselves" first and second editions. I have looked at my "Wall Chart" of the human body. I have read "Gray's Anatomy". It is rather tedious.
Never did I read that when your hormones change, menopause, one quits sleeping.
In Webster's I read, "hormone--- a substance formed in some organ of the body and carried to another part, where it takes effect."
Oh, that explains it!
All this time I thought it had to do with having babies. I have done that and am happy I did. Also I am happy I am not having babies now. I am too tired to have babies.

My friend told me the body takes awhile to adjust. She assured me I would sleep again.
All this time I thought my sleeplessness was from an emotional disorder or a spiritual, dark night of the soul. Here it was, the body. The last place I would look.
I guess the sleep hormone is changing.

Sunbeams

Today I celebrate the sun.

I have let the gardens go wild.

I am listening to the children play.

It is the Summer Solstice.

I am spending time in my sacred grove.

The Oak, the Ash and the Maple provide me with shade.

I have comfort on this hot summer day.