Each day is a gift with my body, my life, my love. Today I am blessed.


a poem

Otherwise
by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed
On two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise.

I ate cereal,
sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach.
It might have been otherwise.

I took the dog uphill to the birch wood.
All morning I did the work I love.
At noon I lay down with my mate.
It might have been otherwise.

We ate dinner together at a table
with silver candlesticks.
It might have been otherwise.

I slept in a bed in a room with paintings
on the walls,
and planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

The waiting game

Well, here it is, almost February. Our house is still on the market. When we made our master plan were were going to leave in January. This is very confusing. Were we meant to stay longer for something? Maybe taxes. If the house sale is much later the whole complexion of our trip changes. We had originally planned our route according to weather in each location. Now I guess we can plan on going with the worst weather in each location, and falling dollar values. We can sit in the rain and eat expensive sour/ salty yak tea with curd. This is going to be awesome.

I don't really care where or when we go. We may end up being free from our erroneous plans. We may have been over planning our trip. Each day at home seems a gift now. We have grown to appreciate each day and every task. It's really interesting how knowing we are leaving helps us to enjoy what we do day to day.

Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you.
Fate is at your elbow;
Make yourself good
while life and power are still yours.

Book four, Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

Planning a World Trip

The sheer amount of considerations for a trip around the world are overwhelming. There is the route to plan, sites to see and also guessing the amount of time spent in each place. We have language barriers and no money. Not to mention the preparation of selling a home and all of our possessions. Of course selling our home has become a real challenge in this market. The day after we put it on the market Jumbo rates went up. Then the market took an unprecidented plunge like no other in our lifetime. Values are dropping faster than the dollar against the Euro. The economy is in the very unique and interesting position of being in a recession at the same time as inflation. I can tell you our house value is in recession.... however all of our other costs are in the inflation category. Every buyer has become an expert on homes. Our realtor never calls anymore. I suspect she may have gotten a second job!!
Jill my sister in law sent us a St Joseph statue that we can bury in the yard and then pray for a home sale. She wrote "if you believe it will happen". OOOKAYY. What the hell, why not. We look outside and have more snow now than in the last 7 years combined. Can we just toss him into a snow drift? Does it matter that he seems to be sinking and looking at us? What do we pray for? Do we pray he stops staring at us? That we can someday bury him? That a buyer will see him and feel sorry for us because we are good and faithful people? Hopefully a squirrel won't chew his head off.

Beside the point

Beside the Point
by
Stephen Cushman

The sky has never won a prize.
The clouds have no careers.
The rainbow doesn't say my work,
thank goodness.

The rock in the creek's not so productive
The mud on the bank's not too pragmatic.
There's nothing useful in the noise
the wind makes in the leaves

Buck up now, my fellow superfluity,
and let's both be of that worthless ilk,
self-indulgent as shooting stars,
self-absorbed as sunsets.

Who cares if we're inconsequential?
At least we can revel, two good-for-nothings,
in our irrelevance; at least come and make
no difference with me.