Tag: woods

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Itty Bitty Pleasures

Here’s a little bitty simple pleasure that never fails to make me smile. Recently, I shared it with a couple of out-of-towners on the trail here in Columbia, just because it’s fun.

Jewel Weed, aka “Touch-Me-Not,” aka Impatiens Capensis, is a lovely plant on its own, lush and green with large flat leaves that hold raindrops nicely. It’s visually pretty even without blooms, but the blooms are quite lovely. They come in orange, with spots, and yellow. We have a lot of the yellow variety in the woods and along trails around here. I’ve had some in my yard, as well, alongside the little creek that runs through.

But wait! There’s fun!

The fun comes in when they’ve put out their seed pods. We don’t call them Touch-Me-Not because they sting or itch. It’s because if you lightly press a fully ripe seed pod (like the one above) between your thumb and forefinger, it pops right open! Never fails to bring a smile. It’s one of nature’s more lively ways of propagating plants. And the coiled valve that pops it open and sometimes lands in your hand is pretty cool, too.

So kids and adults love to search for the pods that are just about ready to burst. If you walk along popular trails you’ll often have to search pretty hard for them, because so many walkers are playing the Jewel Weed game.

Jewel Weed can be medicinal, too, as an antidote to poison ivy. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, in her wonderful book Gathering Moss, that you’ll often find it growing near poison ivy. The cure often grows near the troublemaker. Isn’t nature wonderful? It is.

So there’s your woodland report from here. What’s fun or interesting in your neck of the woods? Please do tell.

“Our indigenous herbalists say to pay attention when plants come to you; they’re bringing you something you need to learn.” ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

“A Cheyenne elder of my acquaintance once told me that the best way to find something is not to go looking for it.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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The Little Orphan: A Woodland Dilemma

You just never know what you’ll find in the woods!

Yesterday I took a long walk with a dear friend at one of my most beloved places–Gans Creek Wilderness Area. This is my favorite wild place in Columbia, meaning that, amazingly, we have several to choose from! We are incredibly lucky. I had looked forward to having another of our usual wide-ranging, heartfelt and thoughtful conversations as we walked–and I was not disappointed.

Gans Creeks is full of gifts for those who love to wander. There are woods, there’s a big old creek, there are gorgeous blufftop views, there are maple groves. This is all year round, of course. Right now, there are the wildflowers. Oh my! They have just gone crazy out there. I’ve never ever seen so many trout lilies or Dutchmen’s breeches in bloom in one spot! That was amazing.

Now to the titular little orphan. Luckily, I had not brought Miles, because walks of that length are now too hard on him. He would not have behaved well towards the little squirrel that was seemingly looking to be adopted. (I’m saying “he” just because my first inclination was that he was a little fellow.) He ran right up to us, oblivious of any possible danger, including my friend’s exceptionally shy, considerate dog. He got right on Lynn’s shoe and stayed awhile. He appeared to want to climb up her pants leg! He was completely unafraid of shy, considerate Olivia.

So tiny, so friendly, so adorable! I wanted to pick him up.

I didn’t. But should I have done? We thought it best to leave him, in the hope that his real family would find him. But oh, that was a hard decision! At any moment there in the woods some ferocious animal (like Miles) might race up and grab him. Game over. But he so wanted to be with us! He even chased us down the path, as he had done with a family of humans walking ahead of us. Desperate for somebody to go home with. Oh oh oh. Did we do the right thing? I don’t know. He would not have fared well at my house, I do know that. We naively hoped his own family would come for him.

Right or wrong, it felt like a huge privilege to have that encounter.

Later that evening I saw the two barred owls that frequent my backyard, together on a branch, grooming each other, while six deer cavorted beyond the fence. The young ones dashed back and forth across the creek, over fences, clearly having fun. That, too, was beautiful to see, and right in my backyard.

Golly! How I could ever complain about anything or not be thankful for everything I have? It boggles the mind.

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” — Buddha

“Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.” — Gertrude Stein

“I suspect that it was simply that I had admired the earth, and the universe. The more I say and think that I admire it, and love it, the more it gives me what I admire, or strange coincidences that leave me in more awe than I was before.” ― Michael Whone, Winter Lyric

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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The Long View

Although I do love wandering around in the woods right here in town and woods that I visit on travels–in Maine, California, New York, Oregon, oh anywhere–there is something really wonderful about taking the long view, as well.

For that, when I’m at home, I go to High Ridge. There’s a long hill to walk up and then at the top, long wide flat trails to follow, with tall grasses on either side. The long view, the broad vista, all those tall grasses–ahh. Very peaceful, especially on a clear-ish winter day. Blue skies, beautiful cloud formations, and the lovely sound of tall grasses rustling. Just beautiful!

You can take a trail down through a wooded area to a creek, with a rocky climb back up, and that is also very pretty. But sometimes I just want that wide open horizon all around me. While you do get a real perspective on the landscape at such a vantage point, it’s also possible to let one’s restless mind and spirit settle in such a meditative setting. Early in the morning or towards sunset, in the gathering light, it’s a magical quiet that can make your heart ache.

I feel the same sort of quiet magic at the ocean, with its steady back and forth, the unending long view, the broad vista. I know a guy who lives in Virginia. Driving along a tree-lined road with him, I commented how pretty it was with all those trees. He said he didn’t like it at all. He wanted a view, a panorama. He felt closed in by all those trees, day after day. I get that. There’s beauty in both. A time for both.

“This is the great adventure and the great discovery. No one can do it for us. Until we have reached the top of the mountain we cannot see in full glory the view that lies beyond; but glimpses of light illumine our path to the mountain.”- Juan Mascaro

“The more boundless your vision, the more real you are.”― Deepak Chopra, Life After Death

“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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Much Ado About Something

This morning, after months of painting and planning, I hung my show. Ahh.

I woke at 3:30 this morning, dozed fitfully for an hour. Finally I just gave up and got up at 4:30. So many things on my mind–family coming from West and East coasts for my big little event; others coming in for other reasons; the reception; Thanksgiving; this, that, and the other needing to be done and made ready. So very many things to think about and do. My checklists have been completed and replaced day after day.

My energetic, ever-helpful friend and I arrived at the bank, paintings in hand, to find a Christmas tree in one corner of the space. Hmm. Seemed to be a problem. But the wonderful, all-knowing Executive Director of the Columbia Art League, Kelsey, suggested a change of layout that might accommodate both the tree and the paintings. We switched out two large paintings for these two small ones, one of which could be seen as a snowy landscape and the other looking bright and festive. We hung one on either side of the tree. Voila! She was right. It’s perfect.

Bonnie, me and Kelsey

So with the help of these two great gals, my solo show has been hung and we had fun doing it. All of it, really, has been happy work–the painting itself, the planning, and all the doing, so very much doing, more doing than I had imagined. Well, most of the doing was fun. The framing fiasco? Not fun. Cards have gone out, wine has been bought, the Art League is promoting the heck out of it, and all is well. I am happy. Whatever happens from here on out, I’m happy.

I am grateful to so many people for their help! I will be especially thankful this Thanksgiving Day for all the people in my life who make my world a better place. As the effervescent Bonnie likes to say, “I’m livin’ the dream.”

“Have the wisdom to perceive all there is to be thankful for, and then be thankful for the wisdom to perceive things so clearly.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons

“Today I focus my thoughts on the wonderful things that are. I focus my heart on the full-filling things that will be . . . and I give thanks.” ― Angie Karan

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” – Maya Angelou

If you’re looking for my paintings, go here. If you want cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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Mischief in the Woods

If you have the time and inclination to frequent wooded areas, there’s no telling what you might find. Oh, depending upon the season, you may discover wildflowers, heart-shaped rocks, beautiful vistas of trees and bluffs, happy little creeks, rock cairns, winding paths, maybe a fox or two if you’re lucky, deer or great blue heron, any and all of these wonderful things. You might find the remains of a stone chimney where a farmhouse once stood, the shell of a turtle, the skull of a raccoon. You will likely run into hikers, dogs, and sometimes, horses. These are all to be expected and delightful to come upon.

But then. Occasionally you’ll find something that delights or surprises in a very different way. One winter someone was making grapevine wreaths and leaving them all over the woods at Grindstone, making all of us regulars smile. Who was it? Tiny snowmen appeared after a big snowfall. Happy messages scratched into the dirt, hearts painted on the old silo.

Once I chanced upon a swing hanging from a very great height off of a fallen tree over a deep crevasse at Gans Creek. This had to have been through the efforts of more than one person, and at least one daredevil crawled or walked?? out on that tree to attach it. Yikes! You can’t tell from the photo, but that swing was hanging from a VERY high place! It was even difficult to get onto for swinging and it did not stay for very long. I imagine a park ranger found it too dangerous, but it was super fun to find there and I was sorry to see it go away.

This is for all to enjoy. Please be safe. Please be respectful.

Then there was this head-scratcher. Atop a very high hill, way at the back of the woods, one winter I came upon a full size grocery shopping cart. In it were a basketball, several cans of Keystone Ice, a pair of Birkenstocks, and a couple of hand warmers. Hmm. A prank on the owner of the Birkenstocks? This, too, took some doing. Here’s where I am tempted to simply write SMH (shaking my head). Though it was not a particularly welcome sight, it was memorable.

I suppose we could all use a little mischief now and then. What innocent mischief might we create? Oh, I don’t mean a thing that irritates or makes a mess, but something to bring a smile to a stranger. I have one thing that’s been percolating in my brain. The possibilities are endless.

“Every last one of us has a spark of mischief in our eyes, and that spark of mischief is what connects us all. . . But we’re Carefree Scamps, all of us. And we make people laugh. These are the people whose friendships I value.”― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet

“If you are not smiling, mischievous, satirical for some time every day, you are not living.” ― Sandeep Sahajpal, The Twelfth Preamble

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. And if you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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Rocky Heart

This is the mystery rock that showed up on my porch.

I have been collecting heart-shaped rocks for years and years. I really do have too many. Good sense has finally taken hold (oh God, no!) and these days I rarely pick one up. I’m more apt to take a photo of a good one and leave it where it is. I’m old and established, with a very fine collection. Let some young person starting out have them.

Because what a nice hobby! Heart-shaped rocks are free! And in order to find them, one usually has to go on a walk. There’s a bonus right there. And more often than not, one has to go to a creek bed or a river or the ocean, a woodsy path or perhaps a rocky cliff–all those wonderful places that are good for the soul.

Heart-shaped rocks occupy my front porch and steps, living room bookshelves, mantel, and various other spots in my house. I’ve been given them by others, including a nice big one from a mystery giver (above). I’ve used them in various ways in my art, given them as gifts in pretty little bags with pretty little quotes, glued them to other rocks for catching dust in your home, and (of course) written a card about them. I have a vague plan for a small book full of “found heart” photos, with maybe a smattering of writing, but am too busy relocating the rocks I have (see below) at the moment for all that.

In my recent Studio Clean-Up, you may recall, I found that I had far too many of them piled on top of and under the table, far, far too many, and I placed a small box of the best ones on the curb. Others, I shook my head over. Why had I picked up that one or, unfathomably, that one?? Finally today I’ve released all of those back into the wild. My friend questioned how they will get along, released after all this time in captivity, not to mention relocated to a place other than where I found them. A very good point, but I can’t be bothered with that. The bulk of them are enjoying life right now in a new creek while others (see below) are lined up on a bridge railing on the MKT, awaiting travel to their new homes in someone’s pocket, to ultimately live on someone else’s shelf. And hey, those ones are pretty good hearts, don’t you feel? Passersby will love them.

You, too, could start or add to your collection by visiting that bridge on the MKT, or by wandering one of the many creekbeds or gravel roads or paths where you live. There are also plain rocks with heart-shaped holes in them, to be found. Better go look, before the young collectors get them all. Your pockets are empty. Go.

“With your heart-shaped rocks and your rocky heart . . . oh you.” – Greg Brown

“Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Everything dreams. The play of form, of being, is the dreaming of substance. Rocks have their dreams, and the earth changes….”― Ursula K. Le Guin

“Rocks and minerals: the oldest storytellers.” ― A.D. Posey

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. And if you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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Direction

Blue ball cedar on the bluff

A curious thing happened the other day. Where I live, we have many beautiful wooded parks and wild areas. The Gans Creek Wild Area is 320 acres and has lots of different trails and trailheads to explore. I love going there. In the fall there are yellow maples galore, and a couple of groves of them that are just magical. I have two favorite loops that I have followed many times, starting at Shooting Star trailhead.

The other day I went out with a couple of friends, one of whom loves starting from the Wagon Wheel trailhead. I had never been able to find a loop from there, and usually after having walked through the Yellow Forest to the creek I’ve turned back. Well. She was going to lead the two of us on a nice 3+ mile loop from there.

It was a beautiful brisk but sunny fall day. We took provisions, with the plan of picnicking on a particular bluff. Everything past the creek looked new and lovely to me although at the bluff I did notice that a blue ball cedar was perched on the right, just as on the bluff I had visited a few days before. I wondered if there might be blue ball cedars at all of the bluffs at Gans Creek?

Our fearless leader and that blue ball cedar on the bluff

We had a lovely pause there and then went on. I was telling about routes I often take and about this other bluff. My friend said she didn’t know of that one. Then she pointed to a right fork in the trail and said, “The Boy Scout camp is that way.” “It is??” I asked, perplexed. How could it be? As we walked, I thought this area looked similar to the loop I usually took. And then suddenly, we went around a bend and I knew exactly where we were! We were on my loop from Shooting Star! How could that be? We started on the complete other side of Gans and suddenly we were in the middle of the loop I knew so well.

Shaking my head.

The next morning I was writing in bed, as I always do. Suddenly I realized that bluff we’d sat on was one and the same as the “other” bluff that I’d been talking about. I just suddenly knew it. And I saw how the Boy Scout camp would have been “that way” and how I was suddenly in familiar territory. I had the sensation of a perfectly smooth piece falling right into its precisely carved place in my brain. It felt amazing. Even exhilarating. I knew exactly where we had been and I felt, too, that the whole of Gans Creek Wild Area was now known to me. To paraphrase Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love, we had become the mayors of Gans Creek’s ass. Wow.

I immediately took Miles in the car to look again at the bluff I hadn’t recognized the day before, to show my brain that it was indeed the very same bluff–a beautiful spot I have known for years and had just taken photos of a few days earlier.

We sat right here the day before.

Why didn’t I realize it? We had approached from the other direction, from a trail I have never taken, after walking through unfamiliar territory. I expected that everything I saw on this “new” loop would be new to me. I did not expect to land in a place I had known so well. And so I did not even see it.

This taught me something about expectations, attention, and perspective. When you expect a new, fresh experience, that’s what you’ll get, even to the point of not recognizing something you love right in front of you. Expectations can diminish your experience. Attention depends upon what you expect, as well. I was definitely paying attention to the landscape, the trees, plants, rocks, and my friends. But I was on an expedition in new territory, following a leader. When you approach a thing or a place from a new direction or someone else’s point of view, you might see it very differently. I have revisited that spot in my mind from both directions several times since then, recalling how I felt both times. Maybe it’s just me, but I still find this fascinating.

I feel like I can now apply this huge discovery to my whole life. Whoa. Expectations, attention, and perspective. I am the mayor of my life’s ass.

Then again, I could have early dementia . . .

“I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.” ― G.K. Chesterton

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. And if you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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Invasive Species

The Autumn Olive flower

Just now the Autumn Olive flowers and their fragrance are fading around here. Pretty soon our woods will be fragrant and pretty with honeysuckle and multiflora rose. All of these are invasive plants that we have in abundance in the woods and wild places in Missouri and I suppose that is true in many parts of the U.S., as well. They choke out the native species, honeysuckle wraps itself around all kinds of other plants, and bush honeysuckle springs up just about everywhere, crowding out the understory in all the wild areas. But they are all pretty and I have been chastised for loving the fragrances they add to the spring air. You can’t love the fragrance because that plant is bad! Well.

Bush honeysuckle is one of the first to put out leaves and last to lose them.

I always think about this a lot in the spring. I certainly do get the point. But I have to think–isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black? After all, aren’t we the most invasive species on the planet? Haven’t we driven multitudes of plants, trees, animals, birds and insects, not to mention people, out of their rightful places on Earth? Who is checking us? And who is responsible for these non-native plants showing up where they don’t belong in the first place? It’s not like those plants got on boats all by themselves (like we did), showed up and shoved the others out of their way, and took their land and resources right out from under them (like we did).

So I get the point and I won’t plant Bradford pears, honeysuckle, Autumn Olive or any of those others that don’t belong, and I will do what I can to rid my little corner of the world of them. I do work at eradicating bush honeysuckle from my yard, a never-ending job. A lone man spends hours of his own time chopping it down in the woods I go to, clearing out great swaths of understory so that the native plants can gain purchase. I admire him for doing it and I always think I should help, although it does make for less cover when one has to pee in the woods. 🙂

Native red honeysuckle in my yard

I met a guy at an art show who turns bush honeysuckle into beautiful furniture. “[Earning money] is not really what I’m trying to do. It’s to teach people . . . You take (the table) home and you’re planting the seed for conversation about the damage bush honeysuckle does.”

And I just read that one can eat the berries (not olives) that Autumn Olive puts out in the fall and even bake them into tarts! Can’t help liking that! A little whipped cream on top might not be amiss, either. Of course, if one eats the berries, there are less seeds going into the ground.

And can’t I still love the heady fragrances that greet me in the spring? (Yes, we’re back to that.) I think yes! I just cannot hate the hapless plants themselves, as some would have me do. At the same time, I can try to be less invasive myself, and more careful of what I do and how I interact with the less hardy species all around me. We all can do better at that, I think.

“Do not worry too much about your lawn. You will soon find if you haven’t already that almost every adult American devotes tremendous time and money to the maintenance of an invasive plant species called turf grass that we can’t eat. I encourage you to choose better obsessions.” — John Green

So what do you think about all of this? Do you want your Autumn Olive Tart with or without whipped cream?

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. And if you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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Big Adventures

Whew! Miles and I had two completely different adventures this morning in the woods. I had worn my new boots, since my old, worn out pair are no longer waterproof and I was intending to cross the creek. I love the back part of the park (“The Back Forty”) very much but because of all the rain I hadn’t been able to get over there yet. There is a slope back there that I call Bluebell Hill and I was thinking it’s probably about time for the bluebells to be popping up.

When I got to the creek, Miles was gone, off again on another of his secret adventures. But this time I felt sure I knew where he’d gone–to find and gnaw on a deer leg he’d found back the other direction. And I thought I could go and see the flowers and then find him over there. I thought we could both do what we wanted this time and then I’d find him.

In my adventure I was richly rewarded. Wow. Bluebells were out in full force, pushing through the fallen leaves, along with Dutchmen’s breeches, trillium and false rue anemone–a magic carpet of wildflowers. Walking through there, even quickly since I was thinking about Miles, my heart ached with how pretty it is. I took many pictures, none of which match the wonder and magic of the place, the flowers, the perch above the creek that I so love, the meandering path. No. Not even close. You can’t hear the birds when you look at the pictures, for example. You can’t tell that everywhere you look there’s something tiny and beautiful to see. You don’t feel the cool morning air on your face or smell the fragrance of damp earth and rich, ripe spring.

“Waldeinsamkeit is a German word that refers to the feeling one has while being alone in the woods, usually a sublime or spiritual one.” Dictionary.com

Sublime, indeed.

Meanwhile, Miles was having a different sort of adventure. I headed towards where I imagined he had gone but did not find him there and pretty soon my phone rang. He had found a woman, showed her his tag, and asked her to call me. (I’m sure this is how it went, as he is very smart and he knows all about cell phones.) She was at the complete other end of the park and she’d put him on a leash (not at all a part of his plan). I asked her to hold him until I was across the creek, where I could call to him and he’d hear me, so that’s how it went. He loves to go off on his own but he really really wants to come back and tell me all about it. Pretty soon he came racing up. All out of breath, worn out, wet, desperate to find me, legs trembling, the look of worry in his eyes. Bad mother. And the smell of death on his breath. Bad dog.

I gave him about two million treats and tried to get him to lie down and rest for awhile, but that only lasted about one minute. And we headed back, each of us rewarded once again by nature’s bounty.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thornton Wilder

If you’re looking for my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. And if you enjoy these letters, feel free to invite them to sign up for them. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.

Thanks for listening,
Kay

P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”

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A Large Amount of Gratitude

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”

— A.A.Milne

My heart, too, is holding a rather large amount of Gratitude lately. Yes, it’s 2020, a challenging year. The coronavirus changed everything for everyone, world over. Wow. But in this difficult year I have been lucky in very many ways, most of them directly because of the very thing that made this a challenging year.

I am almost ashamed to admit how happy and content I am, of late. Yes, if I look at the world as a whole, things can look pretty bleak. But I try not to listen to all of that too much of the time, remembering that right here in my little world, I am lucky, happy, safe and sound.

This morning in the woods where I walk with my dog Miles I said, aloud, “Oh my God, I’m happy.” It was a cloudy, chilly day, too. But there is so much everywhere to love. There are certain trees. I wrap my arms around one particular tree each morning, pressing my body into a me-shaped indentation in the huge trunk. It feels very comforting, especially now, when we are warned against hugging each other. Here’s a photo of it but I’m certain you can’t really see the lovely concave place that fits me perfectly. I even like pressing my cheek to the rough old bark. I feel a thrumming inside there, and then of course, in my heart. It feels like meditation.

My meditation tree.

So now I sound like a total goofball. Well.

Beautiful wet sycamore up close. I love how the bark does.

On Thanksgiving morning I make a list of all I’m thankful for. Why not? Why not just put it all down on paper? It feels really great to do. I’ve been doing it for so long now that I would miss it if I didn’t. I put all sorts of things on that list, including trees. It seems right and good to do so. We have miracles all around us and we owe it to them and to ourselves to acknowledge them. Several trees will be on my list, along with other things big and little that give me a light heart. That list is always very long and I think it might just be even longer this year.

This card, ENC310 Dance is available on my Ampersand Cards website.

So thank you for reading this (now I’m thankful for that!) and I hope you have an intimate but wonderful little Thanksgiving in this year of 2020.

Kay

P.S. If you are looking for cards or art, you can find all of that at Ampersand Cards.