Feeling low

 

Several of my best friends are dealing with serious physical conditions. I try to be a caring friend, talking with them in various media (text, phone, email as they prefer.)

But the other evening when I was getting ready for bed, I looked in the mirror (which for some reason I avoid) and was surprised how drawn but ruddy my face looked. I hadn't been doing anything but reading and watching videos most of the day. I noticed I had some shortness of breath. Which also means coughing a lot.

It gave me pause. Without any pain, would this be my last night? I did finally go to sleep. And when dawn came, rolled over and went back to sleep.

Hey girl, you woke up!

Nope it didn't work. So I'm still kind of dragging around. It kind of hit me like a freight train this time. Or maybe my lungs really are ready to stop...but I think it's just the emotional reaction to knowing one of these nights I very well may not be waking up in the morning. That thought and feeling just depressed me no end.

Well rather than continue to whine, I'll just say the sun is shining, it will be getting warm today, and I have a commitment that I will honor, so I'm getting out there! I only write this down because I want to remember that I've been here (emotionally) today, and before...this is seasonal also. I'm not trying to get my blog buddies to send me good wishes...I think each of us has our own "cross to bear" as my mother would have said. Challenge is the term I use. 

This is a journal in one sense...my sharing with you mostly the externals of my life, but sometimes my internal doings just bubble up. Thanks for reading.

PS, I didn't go to the studio yesterday afternoon, but did laundry. I felt so much better having given myself a closet full of clean clothes, and a bed with clean sheets. I can be creative again soon. For now I'm just creating my own life to be as good as I can.

Today's quote:

Breath.  If a person wishes to study the self, to know the self, what is important isnot the study of the mind, of the thought, the imagination, nor ofthe body, but the study of the breath.  The Breath has made themind and the body for its expression.  It has made all from thevibration to the physical atom, from the finest to the grossest.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

From:  The Philosophy of Breath
and The Healing Papers

Looking at walls

 

As I leave Montreat NC, I pass under it's stone gateway. Sorry about reflections.

Tom Sawyer's friends have put many coats of white paint on this basement wall of bricks...but you can see the iron of the bricks seeping though over time. 

Yes, these walls are in the basement of the Black Mountain Center for the Arts...which was once used for the jail.

There's more to this story!

But to complete the story I started last Monday about the murals on this building, I noticed the one on the stairway today, which is described in the plaque about all the murals.

Here it is:

I hadn't seen the "Universal Citizen" mural yet...but this time I found it!

Universal Citizen

Today's quote:

Our loving intentions can easily transform the space in which we live.

However, do you think a prisoner in that jail could have had loving intentions enough to transform his space? Me neither. But we always have the ability to change our own way of reacting to reality around us.

I think that I shall never see

 ...a poem as lovely as a tree.

Thanks to Joyce Kilmer's poem.

Today I focus on the trees by Flat Creek.

Not sure if these are sister trees, or the small one is just a secondary  trunk.

There are so many wonderful textures on trees.

Way above the creek bed, and the power lines, are houses along the top of this ridge.

While below is a short driveway and several hiking trails going in different directions in Montreat NC.

Most of the greenery in February in these woods comes from rhododendrons. But there are also some evergreen trees.

Today's quote:

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life...”

Herman Hesse

Why do they dive just when I want their photos?

 

Those two white ducks had heads when I started holding my phone up waiting for them to breathe again.

I think one of them came up for air quickly!

Sharing with Eileen's Saturday's Critters

Today's quote:

Love exists to be expressed, not withheld.

Carolina blue skies

 

Lakeview Center overlooking drained Lake Tomahawk

Lake Tomahawk from the Lakeview Center upstairs. Drained for construction on dam, which hasn't started yet.

New house has sold!

Interesting stone wall at Cheshire Village

Sharing with Skywatch Friday!

Today's quote:

“Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.” ― Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993.

A nature soak

 Flat Creek - warm day with sunshine led me on a short walk.

Sharing with 

Wordless Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Thankful Thursday

Today's quote:

Take your good fortune and lift your life to its highest calling. Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.

OPRAH WINFREY

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Love to all. 

Love to those who think the same way I do.

Love to those who don't think the same way I do.

Love to those who are gentle and loving, who are open minded and caring, who are smiling through difficulties. 

And love (especially) to those who don't love, to those who hate, hurt, and are hurting deep in their hearts.

Love offers the possibility of forgiveness even as punishment is given based on justice.

Yes, Love To All.

Regardless.

-------------

This was written in 2018 for dealing with the craziness emanating from the tRump administration. Women were marching by the millions. And then what happened? The Supreme Court knocked down Roe v Wade...and now there's an election which could again put him in command and hand us over to Putin. The thousands of women and children dying in Gaza due to extremist military actions, terrorists supported by one group or another. The Ukraine hanging on by a thread against the might of Russia, and our extremist politicians playing games while people die, and not just in the Ukraine, but along the borders of the US.

So much need to find love in my heart, compassion for those who are evil...yes that's where I think we are now.

The elephant on the corner

 Nicely appointed restaurant. Thai Basil offers a variety on its menu, all of which are delicious!

Today's quote:

“Writing is considered a profession, and I don’t think it is a profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer, who thinks he can do something else, ought to do something else. Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don’t think an artist can ever be happy.” Georges Simenon, who wrote over 500 novels and short stories, many of them featuring a compassionate detective named Jules Maigret, who enjoyed fine wine, his wife, and solving cases by pondering human nature, rather than using violence.

Sharing with Tuesdays Treasures

Note to commenters: last night when I logged on and read your comments, blogger wouldn't allow me to reply. If that keeps happening, I'll go through the various help systems. But I do read them all!

Monday mural

 I can't believe I have another mural to share already!

It's actually 3 floors of murals on the back side (facing south) of the Black Mountain Center for the Arts

I like the connection to the fiber and paint artists of Black Mountain College back in the 30s-40s. Both Albers and Asawa are well known when students study art history of this area. I think their art is the "Universal Citizen" which is depicted on the sign. I haven't seen it in the mural by Laura Nguyen.

Today's quote:

Edna St, Vincent Millay wrote: “My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — / It gives a lovely light!”

Sharing with Monday Murals

Mundane to pretty

 

Our little laundry room with 4 washers...it may be mundane, but it's a necessary part of life!

and 4 driers. It's a short walk from my front porch across the parking lot to this building.

Here is a view of my front porch, with the low roofed laundry room being right behind the EMS truck. We are very grateful that EMS comes quickly whenever one of us has need.

Overwintering a geranium, which was still healthy in the fall.

It sits in a nice south window and thinks its about time to start blooming again!

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos

Today's quote: 

When we focus on bringing purpose to our speech, we bring healing and meaning to our relationships, our communities, and our world.