This is a scan of some notecards I created from a photo of aprons hanging on my clothesline. The message I chose to insert on the front and continues on the inside states, "Of all the paths you take in life... make sure a few of them are dirt." For me, that means to slow your pace now and again so as not to miss the gifts that life has to offer. The following description of an incident in my life this afternoon drives that message home.
Today, just before I set out for my walk, I received a comment from "Deborah" on my 2008 Food Blog Awards Results and Free Drawing post. She stated that she had discovered me through the food blog awards and that we are practically neighbors since she lives in Nisswa, which is 12 miles north of Brainerd. I pecked out a reponse to her and hurried out the door. Upon my return, I groaned when I discovered that the email I had sent her had come back as undeliverable due to an "unknown user account". Not to be deterred, I found a blog address that she had included with her comment submission on my blog. I am a firm believer that when we slow our spirits down to a pace so that we can be "in the moment", we are better able to absorb and accept events that can so easily be missed or brushed off as "luck". The receipt of Deborah's email, and my response to her followed by the returned mail message, was such a snippet in time but monumental in its end result. Let me explain... In the natural progession of this event, I clicked on Deborah's blog address and discovered the most delightful insight into this woman whom I have not yet met but have so quickly formed a connection.
In her "About" section, she describes the direction that her blog will take. I quote... "Like my previous blog, Exuberant Lady, I expect this one to lean heavily toward the relationship between garden, kitchen, and table, but with a decidedly more political edge... mostly of the small "p" sort. Supporting the local economy, being a committed organic gardener, growing a row for the soup kitchen or food shelf, saving heritage seed varieties, buying grass-fed meats, improving my composting skills, and encouraging others along all these lines are as much political acts as are writing to one's members of congress. I believe with all my heart that real politics resides in little acts of conscience."
You must check out the First Snow poem by Louise Gluck with Deborah's interpretation of it and the beautiful snowy landscape view outside her kitchen window.
I decided that my next book purchase will be Deborah's recommendation of Weathering Winter by Carl H. Klaus.
So you see... If I had deleted Deborah's comment with a mere, "Oh, wasn't that nice," or had not taken a few extra minutes to attempt an alternate way to contact her, I would have missed this blessing. For it is these moments that are the essence of life itself.
Feb. 3, 2009
Today’s mileage: 2 mile walk outside
Total monthly mileage: 6 miles
Bible reading? affirmative