One Wild and Precious Life

Springtime, and Thought for the Day

I'm sorry I don't post more often.  My friends Fran & Loretta are my heroes for regular posting.  Someday I hope to get there.  But a Lent is a busy time in a priest's life, as it involves both more things in the parish and a springtime surge in other activities, as well.  I'm also, I confess, in just a little slump about having finished my spiritual direction program, and only now beginning to formulate my next "independent study" program.

But I did get 2 takers on my "pay it forward" giveaway, and am happily planning something clever and crafty to send away.  I'm actually pretty excited about it.

And my garden!  I have Lenten roses, viburnum, crocuses, and snowdrops blooming, with another shrub (I can never remember the name, but must cut it back after it blooms) just about to burst forth.  My head is full of fantasies for my perennials, and at this time of year there's so much hope for actually keeping things under control in the coming season.

Plus I'm about to change over from predominantly red indoors (winter holidays colors) to green (for St. Patrick's, Easter, and springtime), and so keep finding green things that need to be moved from other parts of the house into the parts where I live most (living room, study, and dining room).

I've also been using Freecycle to get rid of some odds and ends that were cluttering up my garage.  Every time I look around, I find more stuff to offer.  It's really fun, to just give away stuff I've accumulated that I'll never use again.  I just gave away my cute little one-speed bicycle to someone who, coincidentally, works in my veteranarian's office!

So I've been managing to keep myself busy with puttering and the church.  Maybe after Easter I'll do better at regular posting here....

Tagged, and So Much More!

I have been tagged by my new friend, Stacey, for the following meme:

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now, I've already posted a list of 7 early in 2007.  So I don't know how many more random/weird/even slightly interesting facts about myself that I can come up with.  But I'll do my best, and here goes:

1. I was positive that I was not creative/could not make art for most of my life.  Nobody ever told me that if I practiced, I'd get better.  Nobody ever told me that just because my art didn't look like "fine art" that I saw in museums, it was okay.  Nobody ever told me that everyone is creative and has their own unique vision to share with the world.  I was good with language and knew I could write, but never dreamed I'd ever be able to make visual images that pleased me and others, too.
2. I like singing songs to my dogs, including "You Are So Beautiful To Me," "My Darlin' Clementine," and "Love Puppy, Love Puppy, Give Me Your Hand."  I also use the old basketball cheer:  "Buddy, Buddy, he's our man -- he can't do it, no one can!"  Hey, I don't get out much.
3. I can't for the life of me figure out why it's so darned hard to lose weight now that I'm in my 50s, and yet gaining pounds is as easy as breathing.
4. My big life goal is to find a way to combine travel, writing, art, and religion/spirituality into a living wage, or to be in a situation where I don't need to earn a living wage (see below).
5. My big secret life goal is to get fabulously fit and thin, and marry Paul McCartney or some other handsome multimillionaire (his/our fame is not necessary, though it might be fun, but in my fantasy, riches certainly are, and I'll admit Paul McCartney has figured prominently on and off since I was oh, about 11).

Oh, this may be way, way too much information!  I'm almost blushing!  I'll include my "tags" at the end of the post, as instructed, but there is more to tell.

I'm excited to say that I've become part of an exciting endeavor (or endeavour) by the selfsame Stacey who tagged me for the above exercise in self-humiliation:  I have an article on dreams and creativity published here.  Sorry, you can only see a blurb about this really neat e-magazine here, though if you subscribe to the email newsletter, you would learn a little more.  But Stacey promises to send me my own article in a .pdf file later, and I will do my best to make that availabe here on the blog.  She has also given me the fabulous opportunity to be part of her Panel of Experts, which means I get to write articles, create art work and publish it, and even offer e-classes (more about this in the future, I know)!  I am so honored, and so excited.  I know, I know, just yesterday I said I thought I needed to be Joshua for a while and just wait for what's next.  But this is really just too exciting to pass by.

On a slightly less-exciting, but still good for me front, I finally had an eye exam and ordered some new glasses.  It has been maybe 3 years since I've had any new ones, and I've lived with falling-apart frames that I hated for all that time, and lenses that I scratched badly when I fell and collided with a creek rock.  I know, I'm hard on things.  My glasses go off-and-on-again dozens of times a day, as I tend to remove them for reading and computer work.  But the screw has been falling out almost since I bought them, causing the lens to fall to the ground (thank God it landed on the step when I was doing the rain forest canopy zip line tour in Costa Rica in 2006) -- and the temple comes apart from the front part of the frame on a regular basis, too.  Why has it taken me so long?  Who knows?  So often many of us women neglect 'basic maintenance" on our physical well-being.  Everything and everyone else is more important than we are!  But it feels like a major gift to myself, to have it taken care of -- and I discovered that my optical coverage on my new insurance is better than it was when I got my previous glasses!  So congratulations to me!

As far as other tags for the 5 unusual facts meme, I'll tag a few of my best blog buddies:  Fran, Ellie, Hedwyg, TBird, and Michael.  See you all soon!