Blog

In the image featured with this post we see a small statue sitting on top of a refrigerator and in front of the upper cabinets in a kitchen. The statue is made to look like a large, jolly cook. He wears a chef’s hat, an apron in a black and white checkered pattern and large, black shoes.

The statue chef is holding what appears to be an iron skillet. Kitchen Is Closed is written on the interior of the black skillet with white chalk.

This chef statue actually sits on top of the refrigerator in our apartment. It was given to my husband as a gift for completing a program at a local café.

I had written Kitchen Is Closed to indicate that I was not cooking one particular evening. However, the words written in chalk were never erased.

Normally, leaving those words on that skillet would indicate that I was retired from my domestic engineering work, on vacation or simply taking a break from cooking.

However, I have actually cooked more in the past few years than I had in all the other years prior to the appearance of that statue.

Since I am not particularly a good cook and it is not something that I enjoy, it may be time to retire from cooking.

Maybe tomorrow I will take the chef statue down from the top of the refrigerator and set him on the kitchen counter and truly “close down” our kitchen!

Please feel free to share your kitchen or cooking stories in the comment section below.

What we see in the image accompanying this blog post are two dogs sleeping in the sun. One of the dogs is taking advantage of a pool float that provided cushioning from the hard gravel surface.

There are beach towels and a lounging chair in the background which suggests that the dogs are in an area that contains a swimming pool. The dog on the pool float is actually wet from being in the pool and is napping as she dries her fur in the sunshine.

In researching the dates for the “dog days of summer” I found similar but sometimes conflicting information. Generally the dog days are in July and August.

July 3 to August 11 was stated in several articles however those articles also admitted that those dates can vary.

Other sites that I visited stated that the period known as dog days could last anywhere from 40 to 60 days. Every article I read agreed that it is traditionally the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

They all agreed that the history of when dog days appeared was tied to the location of the stars, particularly Sirius, the Dog Star.

This blog entry is being written the last week of June, only a few days before that July 3 start of Dog Days.

This year (2023) the start of Dog Days appears to be a global heat wave. The United States, Europe and SW Asia are all having unusually and sometimes deadly high temperatures during this period. People worldwide are trying to find ways to deal with the sweltering heat.

Let’s hope that this year’s Dog Days are short lived and people around the world are able to find relief from the heat until those stars realign and cooler temperatures arrive.

Please feel free to share in the comment section below how you deal with heat waves and the Dog Days of Summer.

This Tawny Daylily, sometimes considered an invasive plant, is waiting to be pollinated. Its stamens are reaching upwards, waiting for the wind or insects to complete the process.

Over the years, this particular patch of flowers was transplanted from our home in GA to our home in VA to my parent’s home in Ohio and finally to our home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast!

As I look at the stamens reaching for the sky I think about how we reach for our goals.

Are our goals the same as those of this flower to physically reproduce?

Or are our goals of a spiritual nature? A goal to reach upward for guidance, discernment or in praise?

Are you reaching upward?

What are you reaching for?

Please share in the comment section below.

Today’s featured image is a photograph that was taken from a boat on the Jourdan River in Hancock County, Mississippi (USA). A quote from Henry David Thoreau, an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher, was added to the image.

From the river we are looking at marsh grasses that line the point where the river meets land. As the land becomes more solid a line of Oak Trees rise above the ground. A hazy atmosphere surrounds the partially leafed branches. The entire scene is a mix of dark gray land and plants and pinkish hues from the ground upward into the sky.

The quote from Thoreau states, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

What do you see when you look at this image?

Do you see morning spring fog or summer evening humidity?
Do you see atmospheric moisture or lingering smoke from a river marsh fire?
Do you see somewhere dark and eerie or a quiet and peaceful place?

What about your own view today?

Are you only looking around you or are you actually seeing your environment?

What do you see when looking at your surrounding environment?

Do you see an angry sky full of dark clouds or a much needed rainstorm approaching?
Do you see a hot, scorching sun or a bright, sunny day?

Thoreau’s words remind me that what matters more is how I interpret my environment, not just what objects in my environment are in my view.

What do Thoreau’s words mean to you? Your explanation in the comment section is very welcomed and encouraged.

I participated in a new art challenge this week. The challenge was to write a description, story or poem about the subject, Paintbrush.

I chose to write a poem. After completing the challenge I decided to create an image to go along with that poem.

The image was a photograph of many artists’ paintbrushes in a glass. To accentuate the brushes, the photograph was manipulated in software to eliminate all of the background and color in the photograph and the edges of the remaining elements were abstracted.

The poem:

When will she come back?
When will she wrap those slender fingers around my wooden body?
When will she relieve the pain in my far end after resting my entire weight on that single point for so long?

Now. She comes now.
Oh great relief as she wraps her fingers around my body and lifts me out of the glass where I’ve been waiting patiently for her.
Now. She dips my fine hair in cool water before dipping those hairs in glorious color.
Oh what great joy as she uses my hair to spread those wonderful colors on the blank canvas.
Now. She gently swishes my colored hairs in the cleansing warm water.
Oh how soothing that clean warm water feels.

Wait. She plops me, far end down, into the glass jar that many of us occupy.
Wait. That’s what we do.
Wait. We wait until the muse hits her once again and she rescues us from boredom.

*Your comments are always welcomed and encouraged!

Today’s blog post reminds us to focus on the calmness in life.

This is the description for the Focus On Blue Skies image:

A pair of eyeglasses on a desk is reflecting a window across the room. The focus is on the blue sky showing through the window.

Sitting at a desk working can be boring or stressful but focusing on that blue sky can be soothing and energizing at the same time since a blue sky represents good weather and therefore a pleasant day.

Being in nature or concentrating on it has a calming effect on our minds and bodies and calming ourselves can be energizing as it releases the energy that stress has bound up in our bodies.

The next time you are working and feel stressed out or bored it would be smart to take a break. Concentrate on those calming blue skies or go out into nature and feel your stress and boredom floating away.

Please feel free to share a time when viewing blue skies gave you a sense of calm.

My husband really likes Chinese food and I get tired of cooking, so about once a week he brings home Chinese takeout for supper.

It’s an American tradition to end your Chinese meal with a fortune cookie, a crisp and sugary cookie wafer with a “fortune” inside. These fortunes are usually aphorisms (a statement of general truth or principle handed down from earlier generations).

Sometimes we laugh at our fortunes and sometimes they cause us to think more deeply about what it written on that little strip of white paper.

For example, my first reaction to this week’s fortune was a hearty laugh out loud moment. But after reading it to my husband we both ended up wrinkling our brow in an outward sign that we were mulling over this piece of wisdom more seriously.

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

Wow! If you think deeply on that statement it’s pretty profound.

What issue, problem or chore is so important in your life that you would want to make sure that the issue or chore is completed and the problem solved?

Are any of our chores or jobs important enough that we would not want to leave anything unfinished when our life is over?

Are there any problems in our life that we would not want to leave unsolved?

Those questions have been churning around my brain for several days now. I don’t think there’s one single chore or job that would hurt anyone or matter at all if I left it undone and I’m pretty sure none of my problems will matter since I won’t be here to stress over them!

What are your thoughts on this recent “fortune”? Please feel free to comment below.

The grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence).

How many times in your life have you heard that idiom?

What does it mean?

Is it true?

If you take that idiom literally it might be true. A former neighbor and I would complement each other on our lawns. One day as I stood on his back porch I realized that our lawn did actually look greener than his. But I knew that when I stood on our back porch his lawn always looked greener than ours!

I realized that the effect on one lawn looking greener than the other had everything to do with perspective. We were looking at each other’s lawn at an angle because our lawns sloped downward to the property lines. The light was hitting the grass at a different angle when I viewed his lawn from our porch than when I viewed our lawn from our porch…and vice versa!

But was the grass really greener or did it only appear to be so?

Let’s look at the idiom from another viewpoint. Instead of taking the saying literally, think of it as an expression of envy, which was the original intent of the statement.

Someone else’s job, house, car or life may seem better than your own because all you see of the other person’s life or possessions are the positives. You envy them for having such a nice house/car/job/life.

For example the other person’s house may look more expensive than yours and you may be envious that your house doesn’t look that nice. But what you may not know is that the inside of their house things are falling apart. If they saw the inside of your nicely maintained house they may be envious of you and think that your house was nicer than their own.

When we say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, what we are really saying is that other people seem to be in a better situation in life than we are.

Remember, however, that things are not always as they appear and the reality is that their life may not be as good as it seems.

Once again I’m reminded that “Life is a matter of perspective.” And sometimes our perspectives are not even based in reality.

Something to think about in the days ahead.

Please feel free to comment.

Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE the beach.

Sun, sand and surf are important elements of my happy place.

I love the rhythmic sound of ocean waves, the feel of warm sun on my face and soft sand under my bare feet.

Last week I was blessed to visit Amelia Island, Florida (USA), the home of Fernandina Beach, one of the country’s oldest cities.

We had very little beach time while on the island but I made sure to soak up as much ambience as possible!

The day we visited was the last day of an entire week of wind advisories. The Atlantic Ocean was actually relatively calm considering the wind speeds that had persisted the entire week. But the sound and sight of even mild waves was food for my soul.

As I walked along I was very conscience of the damp sand underfoot. The warmth of the sun was penetrating my bones and warming my spirit. I came upon several small piles of seashells that had washed ashore and found myself visually pouring over the treasures at my feet.

At one point I stopped surveying the seashells and stood still facing the ocean. The wind made a mess of my hair and sand stung my legs as it was blown around in a strong gust of wind.

Not one second of that discomfort mattered. I was in my happy place, being fully mindful, warmed by the sun and refreshed by the sounds and sights of the sea.

Walking back to the lifeguard station I tucked a few seashells in my pocket.

As I reached the beach access point, my pocket now held physical seaside treasures to be taken back to northern Alabama. My mind and spirit held memories of the sights and sounds of that sunny beach. Those memories and seashells enable me to revisit this special place, even if that visit is only in my mind.

Please share your happy place experiences in the comment section.

A nap is basically a short period of sleep in addition to the normal nocturnal long(er) period of sleep. They usually take place during the day.

Thousands of studies have been done on napping. The results that I found while researching Naps were varied and contradictory, such as:

Naps are good for us.

Naps are not good for us.

The length of the nap determines whether it was good for your health or not.

The length of the nap has no bearing on our health.

The photograph above is of our former dog Cookie and was taken on a winter afternoon. There was a window next to her that faced south. For a short period of time each day, the sun would cover the bottom corner of the bed where she was napping. It was not unusual for me to find Cookie curled up napping in that spot.

Have you ever heard of taking a cat nap? Cats, like dogs, take short naps to refresh and reset their energy level. That is why a short, daytime sleep is sometimes called a cat nap.

I have been napping recently. I don’t nap every day or for the same length of time. But I have noticed that the longer I nap the more likely I am to feel groggy when waking up. However, naps less than an hour can leave me feeling just as drained of energy as before the nap.

For me, it seems that there is a “sweet spot” in napping that determines whether or not it refreshed my energy level.

Do you nap?

Do you feel better after you take a nap or do you feel groggy when waking from your nap?

Does the length of time of your nap determine whether you wake up groggy or refreshed?

Please feel free to share your napping experiences or habits in the comment section while I go take a nap!