Journey to San Juan Islands, Day 5: Renewed, Refreshed, Resurrected

We woke up Terry's official 60th birthday, to no alarms, no have to's and nothing more than simply being alive. I knew the surge of the weekend and Last Year's LIfe Storms would push in, and we would need a morning (and day) free from all expectations.   Letting a day unfold in surprise. is …

Journey to San Juan Islands, Day 4 (part 2): A Taste of Heaven

And just like that - after 4 1/2 days of amazingness packed full into our hearts -  we were on our way to Orcas Island (without the bait and switch this time!) We then made our way north to the top of Orcas' "horseshoe.' Immediately we were taken by the farmland. LOVE the diversity. And …

Journey to San Juan Islands: Day 4 (Part 1) – Goodbye “Friday” Island

Monday morning, Time to say goodbye to Stuart island and our kayaking adventure...   This was our morning view...hard to believe this is the ocean and not a lake. And check out Tip Top Peak! (looking all fresh and golden... such a tease!) Our "ticket" for breakfast was tearing down and packing up our stuff …

Journey to San Juan Islands Day 3 (Part 2) Overflowing

We came back from our hike to carrots, grapes and a sandwich of fresh local veggies, spicy hummus, and black forest ham. (Took this pic sitting in a made-for-me madrone tree.)   Then, refueled, we were ready for a paddle and swim, We were headed for a "quick jaunt" (about a 3 mile ? roundtrip) …

Journey to San Juan Islands: Day 3- (Part 1: Morning) “We be on Island time now!”

It was slated that today would be an exploring island day - "chilling out" from the long paddle. (Tomorrow would be another long paddle)... but we wanted to do at least a LITTLE ride! So, agenda set: Coffee, pancakes with strawberries... bacon? (can't remember now) Personal time while Andy did dishes (gotta LOVE this making …

Journey to San Juan Islands: Day 2 (Part 2): “Front of the line” – When the Light breaks through

When Life takes you on an adventure, it's best to enjoy the crazy, amazing, beautiful ride.   So, we did get off on Orcas Island, and did do the "bait and switch" (being officially guided into the front of the line), ... and we headed back onto ferry headed for Friday Harbor! And at 7:54 am, we …

Journey to San Juan Islands: Day 2 (Part 1): Now the “fun” begins… right?

Four hours sleep, (but woke up laughing at more slaphappy jokes.) Hungry and Time-crunched (but salivating for breakfast on the ferry) We did the ol' "all in one trip" bringing our stuff to the car, and feeling slightly rushed we didn't do the usual recheck to see if we had it all. (Big mistake) But, …

Journey to San Juan Islands: Day 1 – The adventure begins

To say that our adventure began in all the best of ways would not really qualify as an adventure, now would it? From the very beginning, it was wrought with "Will this really happen, or not?" And between the rollercoaster rides of WAY too many Covid twists and turns, hope deferred way too many times, …

Journey to San Juan Islands: Ground Zero – The beginning

So here I sit, having just returned yesterday from a seven day journey with my sister-in-love to the San Juan Islands: tired, full, content. And now, I'm not sure how to even begin this reflective "travel" blog because this journey was so much more than that. This adventure started as just a seed of an …

just beyond the horizon

I look out through my morning window to the trees who've held their breath all night long waiting for Sun's touch   as slowly behind me he unfurls from his blanket of sleep. But I don't watch him rise,  I watch the tree tops instead blushing in the glow of his hug A new day …

Waiting for Spring

Somewhere in this darkness and cold new life waits A seed - with no power of its own              planted deep             buried sure             stilled under the heaviness of time   formed           in the waiting   created             in the dying   hidden in the secret place             of …

Out to the open sea

The new year stretches out beyond me unknown waiting beckoning   These last few years, Hope has been stripped away sacrificed on a war-torn beach like an abandoned shell broken and scattered... dizzied bashed about in the tide of breakers bruised battered and tumbling back out to the open sea     back forth in …

Remember

It wasn’t filled with celebration that first Christmas season.   Anticipation for birth is supposed to be exciting: Moms, cousins, friends… advice, commiserating, nesting - not tinted with overtones of shame   That first season, there were no lights, no decorations... no family. There was only a growing belly There was only rumor of civil …

Outside my window

Outside my window, the four-forked buck walks the silence of our snow-covered yard – confident, regal. I watch him. Pausing, he tugs on the snow-ladened tree, and puffs of snow dust his nose. A few steps, he stops, and our eyes meet. He knows I’ve entered his world. He’s okay with that. Pawing at the …

Not settling for less

In the close distance I hear the rumbling and I hear my bossy self, hiss her warning, “Settle down!” A wisp of uneasiness circles around me trying to land its icy fingers on my heart as I drop into a ball of frightened despair Chills of discontent, Landscapes of loneliness, Whispers of evil intent I …

again and again and again

It’s my birth day today. The real one. The You and me and seed of faith one. 38 years ago, you found me and surrounded by Light, circled in love, I wept not knowing what exactly I needed not knowing how to even pray not knowing that my whole Life was a crescendo leading to …

Wrapped in Hope

Sitting in my morning hideaway, I listen. I watch. I breathe. Wind plays music through the trees. Hummingbird drinks deep the nectar fueling his beating heart. Chimes dance here and there, adding just enough background conversation to quiet my heart.And rising straight in front of me, stands my wall of daylilies, like beautiful sentries, reaching …

…a distant ocean wind

I haven’t written in a while… I guess because everything I see, or hear or write makes me feel more and more distant from you. I walk into your room – and I still smell you. It is a smell I both love and hate because I don’t want to wallow, and I won’t, but …

Rescued Warrior

Early morning and I wait looking out on the morning sun that is peeking just beyond the horizon. It's been a tough year. I feel worn out, used up. In the window I see my rescued poinsettia glowing in the morning's light.   They say you can’t grow poinsettias here in Zone 4. They say …

Echoing still

I’m not sure when I picked it up Like a baby, it just seemed to need holding coddling It seemed so light at the time, so helpless surely I could be for it a safe place, a “knighted” mom a rescuer a hero to the helpless and carry it to the other side ... (for …

… tumbling and crashing to the ground

I did it. I climbed it. I gathered my resolve, and the waning “last” chance and I burst through his darkening silence “I’m going to climb your tree. Now. Will you come with me?”   Forever it had mocked me, For a lifetime it sneered its accusations For an eternity it laughed at my regret …

Just outside my window

Life waits just outside my window vibrant and still quiet and boisterous ... full-to-overflowing life Life waits dancing in its stillness pulsating with every breath White-breasted Nuthatch flits here, soars there Mama Deer wanders by – gone in the silence Baby charges toward its source     Everywhere I look, Life pulsates running in the …

There is only Life

I sit here, on today’s beginning and this thought dawns on me, like Sun’s morning rays awakening my soul: There are no vacations… there is only life     Life to awaken to to explore discover unfetter Life to listen to to stop observe embrace Life to hold on to with hope expectancy gratitude Even …

Beyond the breakers

The ocean stretches out before me. Tugging at my soul, it draws me out further still. And in the morning quietness,  I feel the familiar nudge and I hear the small still whisper, “When you let go, you’ll find what you're looking for.” But that's the problem:  I’m not sure I even know what or …

Re. Store. Joy.

re – do again store – stock up, save for a rainy day, gather up for the purpose of giving away … a place with plenty for those that need joy – deep-down, unshaken-by-circumstance, unquenchable happiness which is infused at its core with gratitude   Re store joy!   Order in the depleted supplies Dust …

He’s back!

He returned! I can’t believe it. Everyone said he would but I worried. I fretted. I held my breath all night long… and then, just like magic there he was!   He tried sneaking up on me. But he’s never been much of a sneaker. My heart could feel him coming even before my eyes …

Pause

I heard your call, early in the morning. I slipped out, past my snoring cabin mates and I went…  out to the stillness. Out to the lake. Out to You. And there I settled, wrapped in my blanket, looking out at the lake stretching before me. Dark Lake, Camp Tamarack - where magic happens for …

Hidden no more

  I am hidden in the secret of this blank page wrapped between a jumble of feelings and the squiggles of twenty-six letters unfolding   into a game of hide-n-seek   with each space and dash, each comma, each line break I search ... for me   seeking Truth I stretch out the letters across …

… every day, the crossroad

Mourning Morning Two peas in the same pod One speaks of death One speaks of life Both must find a way to coexist together. And I find myself here again...   every day the crossroad   choosing which one I will embrace today life or death hope   or   loss   Hope sees beyond …

to the other side

Settle me, Lord.   Take this chaos, this black holed vacuum, this perfect storm of all my emotions spinning, churning, replaying over and over and over around and around and around over under in between and every which way but where they need to be   Take this chaos and bring peace, this heart that …