Two Boys and a Day to Go Exploring!

We shared our weekend with a dear friend from back home. What fun to be able to share some of our new world with John as he traveled through the West. For John, this was a trip to bring back old memories. He fondly shared stories with our family of the trip West he made with his parents and brother Ed. To ride in a train across the West and experience the wonders it held at the young age of 12! How exciting it is for him to visit years later some of these memories. As I have spoken before, this is a whole new world and it was fun to share these similiar feelings with a friend. John and I caught up on life as we drove up into the foothills of the Sierras yesterday. Was it the beauty of all the wildflowers splashed across those foothills, or the brook you could hear running beside the outdoor cafe where we spent time talking over lunch that brough us back to that familiar conversation of traveling to "new worlds" over and over again! To hear Wayne and John recount their hike through Yosemite and their amazement of the power at the base of the waterfalls is exciting and can allow a listener to close their eyes and hear and see it all! Yet how many times do we travel to these "new worlds" and never take the time to notice? Must we travel to a new planet or another country, or just across 2000 miles of land to reach this new world? Can we find these new worlds sitting just outside our doors if we only took the time to stop and get off this busy ride we call life. How many of us spend our lives saying "someday..." as each day rushes by. I know I fall guilty of this. When I thinkof the beauty of the many paths I have walked, I am amazed to find I have already passed through so many, many new worlds. Did I take the time to see all there was to see and experience the places I have lived and traveled? If I think back to just even our last home and the many wonderful roads we traveled, I am warmed by the memories of all the beautiful worlds within that space. To walk bythe brook in Oakdale as the light trickles through the leaves above! To sit next to the fountain in the pagoda my husband, children and I built! To sit in the warmth of the sun on benches made with boards and straw as we listen to the beauty of the music and people of Willow! To sit in the seats in the darkness of the auditorium to be taken away by the creations of Jill and the movement of the dancers of Studio 121! To walk the fields of the corn growing around you as the grasshoppers jump about! To sit in candlelight surrounded by the smell of flowers , the sweet scent of candles burning, and the stars shining overhead as neighbors share their stories gathered around our front porch! These are the memories of some of the many worlds I have had the pleasure of experiencing in the past. It was fun to share some of the worlds around us now with a dear friend from the old neighborhood and to once again sit among the smell of flowers though they be of a differet world and share our stories and yes our memories of the past! May we each venture out our front door for yet another new adventure in the many worlds surrounding ours!

The Rains Have Left us With Such Beauty!

El Capitan-For Those Who Dare

The Stepping Falls

John having Fun in Yet Another World! His Stories of his Adventures West are Fun to Hear.

Half Dome-Truely Amazing!

The Power of Water

The Falls of Yosemite

Yosemite In All It's Glory

Experiencing our Surroundings!

Snow really is fun when it is Warm Outside!

One of the creatures we have living among us!

One of my Favorites-The Passion Vine

Calla Lilys are all about us!

Spring!!! And all it's Fun!

Spring is all around us and has been now for months! Wayne commented just this morning as we were making coffee how it seems it has been Spring forever! And it really does. Now this may be also due to the fact that we never received a true Winter. That is, not like we have always known. Even while we lived in DC for years, winter always brought with it the cold and snow we had known growing up in rural Illinois. People panicked and schools were closed when that first snowflake would be seen falling from the sky in DC! The winters the snow would fall in Illinois of course brought cheers from all the children in hopes that the schools would be closed for days! Life slowed down and there was never a sense of panic as mothers had always known ahead to stock up for the times when the roads really would be closed due to snow. Here we start school days late for fog but snow is not seen unless you travel up into the mountains. This was welcoming to our family as we never really were a fan of the freezing cold and the snow that had to be shoveled early in the morning so that you could get out becasue of course there never really was enough snow to call off school it seemed. I spoke with a lady yesterday who said she could not believe what a horrible year it has been weather wise. The winter had been so cold and rainy, the spring had been cloudy and rainy and summer was seeming to never start! I smiled as I told her that we had just moved in the Fall from Illinois and were excited about what a wonderful winter it had been without the cold and snow! I guess there is always a differnet way to look at life. We get so used to what we know that change is not always welcomed. The fact is that all the rain and cooler temps have brought amazing sights to this area. There are constantly articles in papers nationwide about the flowers that have sprung up all over this part because of all the rain. Death Valley has had visitors from all over the world this Spring because it is covered with wildflowers! Some that have sat dormant for decades!! The yards, walkways, plazas, parks, etc. are almost unpassable because the roses have filled them all! These are not roses like I have ever seen! The roses are often times 6-8 inches across and many friends are saying they have exceded their usual size due to the cooler days and all the rain this winter has brought us. The fruit! Where can one even begin to explain not just the size but also the sweetness the rains have filled these fruits with this year! It takes sun to add to this and we really have had eprfect amounts of that as well! The strawberries! There are those that you can make a meal out of just one because they are just so huge! The cherries that are splitting on the trees! Not good for sales I am sure but there sweetness passes any we have ever had! The sweet peas that must truely be considered a fruit because they are filled with so much sugar this season! The market is filled with a bounty of sweets! The rain has brought not just plants and produce for us to marvel over but as many are exclaiming, the waterfalls flowing at Yosemite are more amazing then any most have seen in their lifetime. Even the New York Times was boasting about the splendor of the Waterfalls at Yosemite this week. We hope to pack the car and head there soon joined by the first of our many summer visitors! Our dear friend John joins us next week during his travels through California. We are anxiously awaiting his arrival! It has been fun to share our new home with those who have ventured this way. The summer looks as though it will be filled with many travelers and so we are stocking the house with ideas of places to see! We have promised ourselves that we would not take our new surroundings for granted as we are so often caught doing and hope that by having guests to share these many sights with, we will take the time to see, feel, and enjoy all there is to experience in our new home!

Bliss!
We spent a day walking among the Sequoias this weekend. This is a place I have been wanting to get to for months now. The weather has been an issue however, and the rainy season has continued way past its usual time. After all the waiting, I was excited to finally be on the road towards my dream! The family laughed as they kept reminding me on our way up the mountain that this was my dream trip! I, as many of you know, am not fond of heights! Mountains have always been an issue for me when traveling them by car. I do so much better when my feet can touch the ground. I struggled through the long and slow trip up the mountain, leaning way in towards the center of the car to assure that we would not fall off the cliff to my right! I am always sure this makes a difference. That and stressing for the hundredth time to Wayne that he needs to go slower! I am happy to say we climbed the 8000 Plus feet up to be told that all the paths at that elevation were closed due to the snow!!! I must say the snow was not something we had expected and on first seeing it, we stopped the car and got out to touch it and of course throw a few snowballs at each other!!! The ranger was very kind at the top as he explained that we could only explore if we had skis. Since we did not we climbed back in the car to endure the slow trek back down a 1000 ft to an area we could hike. To drive among the sequoias is amazing yet it cannot compare to the feeling we experienced as we walked at their feet! We spent the day with "Giants" and received yet another reminder that we truely are just a speck in the whole scheme of things! How humbling to sit on the lap of one of these dear old Grandma trees! I found I could not stop touching them as well as smelling their sweet scent. We hiked on drifts of snow that stood 3-5 feet in the air just to follow the paths among these beauties! The snow was just an added treat and a fun adventure for the children! They spent their day laughing and falling into the snow! What fun to be able to play in the snow while the air is warm!!! With every step there was new beauty! We walked a path that looped around a meadow in the midst of the Sequoias. It was covered with snow but had brooks of running water that added the most beautiful sound to our journey. Imagine the sound of the running brook and the laughter of my two children as they once again fell face first into a snow drift and you too will experience the bliss I felt while spending my day among the Giants. I pray for you each a moment in your space where you can find this true feeling of contentment. Blessings!

Father & Son at the foot of a Giant

We were pleasantly surprised to find snow! We spent the day playing in the snow among the Sequoias! What a treat!!!

How fun to climb up on the laps of these Grandma Trees!

How humbling to walk among such beauty!

Sequoia National Park-Words can not do these Giants justice!
A dear friend reminded me of this writing from the Daily OM website after seeing our pics. Thank you Ann-

April 26, 2005
Potential Of Growth
Seeds For Living
When we look at a giant sequoia tree, it is hard to imagine that it grew from a tiny seed no bigger than a flake of oatmeal. Conversely, to hold such a small thing as a seed in your hand and comprehend that contained within it is the blueprint for an entire forest of trees that will surpass the human lifespan by centuries is enough to stun the mind into silence. As small as that seed is, we are somehow even smaller.

And yet, we are grown seeds in our own right, originating in our mothers' wombs in a form too small to be seen with the naked eye, imbued with the same miraculous life force as sequoias. We drop our own seeds, in the form of children or creative projects that go on after we pass from the earth and a part of us continues on with them.

The environment in which they grow also influences seeds. A tree on a windswept mountain will have longer branches in the direction the wind blows. A houseplant will grow toward the window where the light comes in. The kind of plant grown is in the seed, but the shape it takes is due to its environment. Similarly, we are the products of both our genetic material and the kind of nurturing we received growing up. At the same time, we are always in the process of growth. Now it is up to us to provide the right surroundings for ourselves.

A lovely ritual to perform as an act of self-love is to plant a bulb or a seed in a pot and allow it to be a symbol of your intention to nurture yourself. Remember that you were once smaller than that small seed. Honor how amazing you have been to get as far as you have. Plant a piece of paper in the soil stating your intention to provide yourself with everything you need now to continue to grow strong and beautiful. Each time you water the seed, or talk to it, or move it to a more beneficial location, you are honoring and fostering your own expansion.