Two Years Older

It's April 15, 2014 - Tax Day.  And I haven't pushed "submit" on TurboTax yet or mailed my check to the IRS. That's very high on today's to-do list.  But somehow, I have been thinking that it is time to blog again - to blog about getting older and older and older.  As some wise said, that is better than the alternative - and that is true for a large part on life, but not for the last parts of it.  For me, it is still better - but I am watching my body and my mind slow down.  One of the most obvioius slowing down signs for me it that I only want to spend twleve or thirteen hours a day out of my bed.  My bedtime has become 9pm.  Mostly I wake up around 6:30 am (later on darker mornings), but I don't get out of bed until 8 ish.  More about this slowing down in the days to come.

One of the things I started the year off was a committment to gratitude.  I can't always hold onto that, but I am trying to keep coming back to it.  Yesterday morning when I came down to the kitchen and looked out of the window, I was assaulted - in the most wonderful way - with the weeping cherry trees in my side yard having burst into bloom over night.  Great beauty and joy right out my window.  Ceertainly cause for gratitude.  It set the whole day off right - even as I was finishing up the taxes.  Today, the temperature (and it is spring) here in Pittsburgh, has dropped to just above 30 degrees.  Sleet and snow are forcast.  I overslept because the sky is gray.  I came down to the kitchen to find a gas mask as well as an unwashed pan and crumbs from something on my kitchen counter.  My attitude of gratitude was seriously challenged.  As a matter of fact, I was ready to be cranky.  (I really like a clean kitchen and haven't had that luxury in years except when I pick up the stuff of those othere people in my house  - and more about that later too). Then I looked out the window at the blooming cherry trees - and they are surviving the cold just fine, thank you. Beyond the cherry trees, my neighbor's huge magnolia has just burst into bloom.  Cherry trees one morning, magnolia right behind them.  Thank you world.

This blog thing,  it is a meditative practice for me - an activity to quiet me mind and, like quilting, to reach toward my own soul.  I want to take regular time to do this.   I will see what tomorrow brings.