There’s nothing like the remains of last summer’s garden to serve as a reminder of the inevitability of loss. Luckily, a garden, even a dormant one, is an equally potent reminder that life will spring again from the remains. Not necessarily as soon as we had hoped, but eventually.
What hope of new life do you harbor through the winter?
You just never know when and where grooming (trails? dogs? one’s self?) might happen. Really, aside from things like sunsets and tides, you don’t know when anything might happen. So you can be on the alert for threats and dangers that lurk around every corner, or you can watch for glimpses of unexpected beauty or kindness. It’s all a question of what you are grooming yourself for.
What will you be on the alert for today?
When faced with a seemingly insurmountable task, like climbing a tree with no branches, it doesn’t always help to try harder. Sometimes you’re better off stepping back and trying to come at the problem in an entirely new way.
What creative solution have you come up with recently?
The second candle in the Advent wreath, lit as we enter the second week of Advent, represents love. “All you need is love,” sang the Beatles, and it’s possible they were right.
What love sustains you?
This is a picture of a house—if you look hard enough. Otherwise it’s a picture of three birch trunks. It wouldn’t be a great picture for a real estate agent trying to sell the house, but then, if the house were in the foreground you’d miss the texture of bark and lichen.
When have you changed your relationship to a situation by shifting how you looked at it?
