Tag: wonder

Finding Beauty in Autumn: Life Lessons from Nature

It has been a while since I have written anything here and now Autumn is upon us. We had a very long and often hot summer. I was surrounded by luscious green lawns and beautiful gardens filled with rich colours that made my heart sing.

Now I am watching the life force in the plants slowly return to the Earth. Leaves are turning colour and gently falling to the ground. Orchards are filled with people picking fruits from the trees. Farmers are harvesting corn, squash and pumpkins from the fields. Those who love to can and preserve are making chili sauce and various jams and jellies. The farmer’s markets are loaded with fresh produce from their fields and gardens. Those of us who live in small apartments gain from the bounty of their harvest. There is nothing like a pan of fresh roasted vegetables to warm the heart and soul.

I spent a good deal of my time alone this summer and took the opportunity to do a life review. Looking not just to the past or out into the future but at the here and now. Where am I now? Where are we all at this moment in time. I am in the autumn of my life. What does that mean exactly? To me it means capturing the life force within me. Finding the fruits of my own labours. I am sharing what I have discovered over the years. I pay close attention to the lessons learned from poor choices made along the way. No one gets through life without a few hard knocks now and then. Still what I know for sure is my life is full of examples of Love leading the way.

I have always been a peace maker/keeper at heart. I lead with my heart and speak sincerely from what I know to be true for me. I have lived with a hearing impairment for over fifty years. I have also learned to listen with my whole self, not just my ears. I pay attention to body language, physical surroundings and follow my intuition when it gives a clear message. I also use my head to carefully analyze a situation when required before making any decisions or comments. The last piece of advice my mother gave me before she left this world was “Follow your heart.” But she also said, “Don’t lose your head!” She always thought I was too soft. She believed I was wishy washy and sat on the fence. She advised that I should state my opinion strongly like she always did. Her favourite saying was “I mean what I say and say what I mean!” Sometimes what she had to say was mean and still she stood by it. Mostly, though she was right more often than not.

Still for me, I see great value in seeing all sides of a story. Finding the common ground is important before expressing an opinion. My style of leadership is to listen twice as much as I speak. If I don’t have anything to say that will add to the conversation then I just listen until I do. This is particularly true now that I am living in the autumn of my life.

The beauty of autumn is that all the rich green of new life matures. It becomes vibrant colours of brown, orange, yellow and red. Eventually, it joins the Earth to break down and enrich the soil with its nutrients. This becomes fodder for micro organisms that work to break it down so that new life will emerge from it.

Our life experience becomes the nutrients that make up the wisdom of our elder years. We need to live long enough for it to build up. It must then be broken down into micro organisms of thoughts and knowledge. I am just now starting to glean the wisdom of my years of life experience. I see the beauty in living a long life. It allows me to understand what I have been through. I also see what I learned from it. Now is the time to nurture that and also to share it with others. That is why I write and tell stories. I offer what I can when I can. This happens when I am in conversation with family, friends, and others I meet along the way.

This is a wonderful time of year and time of life. It is not about losing life force energy. It is about the life force being transformed into a new form of life. This new form lives on in all its richness.

Posted on by Beth 3

A Day In the Life

It seems every day starts out the same and continues along a similar path and ends in the same way. When did my life get to be so quiet and predictable? Was it when I retired, when I moved into a room in someone else’s home, when the COVID pandemic took over the world? I am not sure, maybe it was a combination of all those things. I have been creating a new life for myself ever since I made the move back to Ontario just as I did when I made the move to British Columbia. There is a certain comfort in having a daily routine that is predictable and constant no matter what else is happening in the world around me. As I age and become more and more forgetful it is also necessary to maintain a certain routine to ensure that I remember the important things that are medically necessary for my health and wellbeing. I used to think of the type of life I live now as boring and needing more activity, more social interaction, more problems to solve. I would seek out problems or create them just to have something for my mind to work on. Often the problems were externally driven through my work or relationships with friends and family. I loved watching drama on television and courtroom law shows that had a specific case that was being solved.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Now I look more for cultural shows –music, art, performance. I want to be entertained in a different way. I look for documentaries that will expand my world view and give me insight into those things I have never and will never experience in this lifetime. I am interested in travel shows, biographies, national geographic nature shows. The world is changing so rapidly and my grandchildren are growing up in a world that is driven by technology, natural disasters, health crisis and a human race that is influenced by such extreme points of view about how to live together that there is a sharper than ever visible divide that separates us from one another. I hope for a world that is kinder, more respectful and more responsible for how we treat one another. Why are so many people dealing with issues related to trauma than ever before?

Every day that I am blessed to live my life I am grateful for the time I have been given and want to use it to bring more love into this world. How do I do that? One day, one person at a time. I begin by being gracious and compassionate toward myself and then in turn to all whom I encounter. I make a conscious effort to speak with words of encouragement, gratitude, and kindness and when I am angry or sad or down in the dumps I give voice to whatever is bothering me in ways that do no harm. Self-talk is where it all begins. When we are kind to ourselves and recognize the truth about our own shortcomings as well as our strengths and honour them both equally then we can be with others in a more loving way. We speak and act from a centre core that is ultimately loving and kind toward all life no matter what form it takes.

I started out writing this piece because I was bored and needed something to do, to write about. I am having an ordinary day taking care of my body and my home and somehow that is not enough right now. I want to do or be more in this world. What does that look like? When I watch my daughter and her family and all they are busy doing I remember when I was a young mother. Now I am a grandmother, single, living in a room in someone’s home and doing my best to get through each day and find ways to enjoy my space. I am learning to use my creative energy to produce works of art and writing such as this. I am using my interest and knowledge of nutrition to prepare food that is both healthy and tasty. It is the simplest things in life that seem to give me the most pleasure each day.

Lunch with Nana

After decades of being an adult who did not know how to play I am learning and practicing playing as much as possible. One of the joys of being a grandparent is having young children to play with. My grandchildren are still young enough to be free spirited. Those days of being self-conscious and not wanting to be silly any more will come. For now I am taking their lead and being a free spirit. We do art together, go for nature walks, chase butterflies, look at beautiful flowers and eat Jello. One of the few things I indulge my own inner child with when it comes to food. Something about Jello, for me, is just so fun to eat.

Best art is created in your diapers

So a day in my life is less about problem solving and more about finding joy in the simple things of life, appreciating the body I have that allows me to be active, being grateful for the mind that is filled with wonder and curiosity, and honouring the Spirit that is uniquely mine while seeing others in the same light through a loving heart. I am contented to be exactly who and where I am. Living a very simple life one day at a time.

Posted on by Beth 1