So long, 2009. Welcome New Year!

Happy, Happy New Year to everyone!

I’m heading up to the sanctuary later this afternoon to spend the Blue Moon and New Years Eve with my Lovely Logger Man.  Have bon fires, drink champagne, play with the hounds and with any luck, eat another wild turkey for dinner.

Although, for many around the country, 2009 was not the best of years.  But thankfully for me, I can’t complain.  It was really a good one for me.  Some of my highlights include:

  • Meeting my Lovely Logger Man
  • Rescued my puppy from a hard life on the Reservation.
  • Did tons of exploring, hiking and hanging out in the beautiful mountains of Western Montana.
  • Went hunting for the first time in my life.  We went after (and got!) Grouse, Antelope, Whitetail and Turkey.  No elk this year – maybe in 2010.
  • Went to Alaska!!!!!!  And got to go above the Arctic Circle, fly around northern Alaska in a bush plane and watched the northern lights from the top of a mountain while sipping hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.  Yum!
  • Planted, gardened, harvested and preserved to my heart’s content.
  • Ate copious amounts of wild huckleberries.
  • Learned to embroider, and did lots of other crafting (see My Creative Year)
  • Had my sister and my nephew out for a visit.  We hiked, explored, mined for sapphires, made jam, played in the creek and swam in mountain lakes.

I’m sure there were many other wonderful things that I did this year – but this is a short list.  I’m looking forward to a wonderful 2010 with all its own discoveries and challenges.

I contemplated a list of words for my focus this year.  Included were Delight, Gratitude, Creativity, Freedom, Presence, Grace, Exploration, Gentleness, Focus, Ritual, Clarity, Pioneer, Peace, Deliberateness, Integrity. But in the end, the word I came up with is one I really need to work on.  My focus for 2010 is Patience. Wish me luck.  :)

I wish everyone a safe, happy and wonderful New Years Eve, and a blissful 2010.  Follow your heart, reach out to your soul and nurture those around you.

The Invitation

The Invitation

~by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon…
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Five Senses Friday

These Fridays are coming way too fast right now.  I still have so many Christmas projects to finish and mail out.  Yikes!

So, prompted by ***abbytryagain***, here are my five senses today:

Tasting nothing right now, and I’m pretty hungry.  But I don’t know what I want for lunch today…  It’ll be something on the fly.  Hopefully something that includes chocolate!  :)

Smelling the peppermint lotion I just put on my hands.  It’s like a giant wake-me-up explosion of yumminess.  I love the smell of peppermint.

Hearing my co-workers discuss this weekend’s play-off game for the local university’s football team.  The University of Montana Grizzlies.  They’re undefeated so far.  And if they win this weekend, next weekend’s game promises to be mayhem.  I think I’ll go.  GO GRIZZLIES!

Feeling hungry.  See “sense” #1.  :)

Seeing all the beautiful snow in the mountains.  It’s supposed to turn super-duper cold.  But it’s also supposed to snow some more tonight.  I absolutely adore the sight of white capped mountains.

~*~*~ Have yourself a fabulous weekend! ~*~*~

Just an article I want to remember

I found this the other day on one of my absolutely favorite daily blog reads: Zen Habits.  It’s an article on de-stuffing your life, called “How to want very little”.  I love the philosophy of that blog – I can contemplate upon, agree with and daydream over pretty much all of the ideas he presents.  The value of voluntary simplicity is priceless.

Tea Wizdom

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