Small and Wonderful Things . . .

 

"The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But who gets excited by a mere penny? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. what you see is what you get." ~Anne Dillard 

 A few of the small and wonderful things which bring untold joy into my life. It's the small things in life which truly mean the most. Simple abundance . . . it's the best.

 

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This is so true.  I was pondering it this morning.  When something happens to interrupt the perfection of your life you often think that things will never ever be good again. Your vision is blurred by all of the hurt and the pain, etc.  But somehow things do get better, and things do become good again.  And it happens in layers.  Small and wonderful things.  Tiny blessings, that add up, line upon line, layer upon layer, until suddenly life is good again.  There is joy where you never thought there would be. One of the great lessons in life is that there is joy to be found in almost every circumstance if we have the will and the desire to look for it.  Not all of course  . . .  but in most everything. Small layers of joy and healing that add up to a whole.

And suddenly, or not so suddenly, you are whole again in a way you never thought you would be.

 

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Sunday suppers with family. I almost didn't go. I was debating in my head.  I have felt so tired.  I do a little and I rest a lot, lol.  But in the end I went and I was very happy that I had.  We are all in the same boat really.  All recovering.  All feeling little bursts of energy and then tired.  Dan has had to go back to work, and Cindy will be going back to work today. Only my father and I have the luxury of being able to stay at home.  For Cindy it will be a long day today, making up for not having been able to work last week.  I told dad to come here for supper tonight. That way Cindy doesn't have to worry about feeding him after having worked all day.  

It is a blessing to me to be able to do this.  First of all to be able to provide some relief for my sister who does so much for everyone else, and secondly to be able to make some supper for my father. It will not require much effort. He is a simple man with simple tastes. We have already decided upon soup and grilled cheese.  He doesn't like it if I cook "fancy." 

He thinks because I used to cook at the Manor, etc. that I have this need to cook "fancy" all the time. He is wrong.  It is because I used to cook there that I have a need and desire to cook "simple" most of the time.

So grateful to have family close by again after not having had any for so many years.

 

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Grateful for the wonders of modern medicine that have me feeling almost back to normal again.  The cough is down to a dull roar, also the having to blow my nose, not so frequent.  I have slept the past two nights like a baby. Not getting up even once. I am tired and I expect it will take a while to get my energy back up from all that I have heard and read.  But I am feeling so much better and hopeful.  I cannot imagine what it must have been like for those who caught this nasty virus back in the early days of the Pandemic.  It was pretty nasty now and I know we have had the benefits of vaccines and boosters to dull the blow.  What a blessing.  A part of me thinks . . .  why, after three years of being so careful and never letting our guard down  . . . but another part thinks, how blessed that it took three years to catch us up.  We are so much better able to deal with it now.

A three-year delay in catching the virus. A huge blessing.

 

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I am so grateful for all the flowers which I can see coming into bloom.  There are daffodils blooming at my friend Glenna's across the way and I drove past a whole yard filled with purple crocus on my way home from Cindy's. I believe it is the yard of a high class Senior's Care facility not far from  my place. It is in one of those old Victorian Houses just down the way from me.  The whole front yard is a sea of blooming crocus. What a wonderful thing for those older folks to be able to look out at . . .  how cheering it must be for them.  And it is blessing all of us as well! Double bonus! 

My sister picks up used books at a used book store in town for my father to read on a regular basis. I bet my father goes through two or three or sometimes even more books a week.  He has always been a voracious reader. Yesterday she gifted me with a small Beatrix Potter book that she found there.  I was so surprised.  She  knows how much I love Beatrix Potter and I had to leave all of my Beatrix books behind in the UK.  She said she saw this and thought of me.

It is so nice to be thought of  . . .  so very nice. Love my sister.

 

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Actually I went out with my sister to do her shopping for my dad on Saturday. I wasn't going to go and then I thought why not. Even if all I do is sit in the car.  But then I didn't just sit in the car. I did walk about a bit. Apparently you can do that if you are properly masked and taking precautions to distance, etc.  So I did.  

We were talking in the car about how lucky we were that we are such a close knit family.  Never in my whole life have I gone much more than a few days without having contact with my sister of some sort.  When we lived very far from each other, it might have been a week or more, but we always had phone calls. I can remember one time where we would talk on the phone every morning for at least an hour and often longer.

My brother and I used to talk on the phone for an hour or so every Friday before he got married.  We talk just about every day now also, thanks to the blessings of modern technology.  

My parents must have done something very right to instill such closeness in their children. We really do love and care about each other, and seek to spend time with each other regularly, even if its only through a phone call or messaging such as with my brother, distance making it impossible to do much else.

I recognize that not everyone has that same blessing in their lives and I am so grateful that it is a blessing which I get to appreciate and enjoy on a regular basis.

The blessing of being able to laugh at one's self.  I was feeling a little bit ambitious yesterday and so I thought I would attempt some coconut macaroons.  I had been watching lots of Martha Stewart on You Tube during my sick days when I couldn't bring myself to do much of anything at all.   In one video she had made these coconut macaroons and they looked so easy to do.

I thought I would make them yesterday.  What a colossal failure, lol.  First of all I ended up not having as much energy as I thought I did.  The macaroons were enough, but dipping them in chocolate was a bit beyond my energy levels, but I persevered.  They were ripping in half while I tried to dip them. Perhaps my chocolate was not warm enough. Perhaps my macaroons were not cool enough.

Perhaps my macaroons were not cooked enough!  Whatever . . . they did not work out very well at all.  I just had to laugh.   I will try again another time and perhaps with another recipe. I don't think this one was very good. I have noticed that sometimes Martha's recipes can be a bit iffy.

Or is that just me?

 

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 I have been most grateful for all of your happy thoughts and your prayers, etc. for myself and my family as we have maneuvered our way through our recent illness.  I have felt them.  I am so appreciative and I want you to know that.  Even the ones unspoken. You have all always been so supportive me me and my family.  I truly am grateful always for YOU.

And with that I will leave you with a thought for today  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

•。★★ 。* 。

° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚

  ˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛

 ˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

*It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.

What is essential is invisible to the eye. 

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery•。★★ 。* 。

I haven't got anything much to show you in the kitchen today except for some broken Macaroons so we shall skip that!  Hopefully I will be back with a new recipe for tomorrow!  Hope springs eternal!

Have a wonderful day and week! May it be filled to overflowing with small and wonderful things!  Whatever you get up to, don't forget! 

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And I do too!