At The Edge of the Ocean

At the edge of the ocean is where I'm be when you come looking for me.  From the time I was born the ocean has never been more than 15 minutes away from me.   The ocean pulls me in and fills me up,  in is part of who I am.

In New England,  Massachusetts to be more precise,  you are surrounded by the ocean.   My first memories where of the beach.   When we were young we would actually go by ourselves as kids and spend the days. Life was more carefree and safe in the 50's than today...I do wonder now as I look back and think of how I am with my kids and grandkids,  why my Mother never worried about me drowning...maybe a matter of two many kids and to many other obligations.   So every day, all year long the beach and the ocean are available to me.   I love walking it and hearing the waves lap on the rocks.   It is so calming and mysterious.   Different each time you visit and the smell of the salt air relaxes the brain.

We are also fortunate in New England to be surround by Mountains....not great big ones like the Rockies but Mt. Washington is a decent size and it's majectic in it's own right.   We we leave Massachusetts and head to Maine,  New Hampshire or Vermont it's like traveling the globe...mountains,  rivers, streams.  Then you cross meadows,  lakes and pine forests and fishing villages.   The landscape is so devesified you can never be bored.It is also a great window for photography...summer sun and ocean adventures,  fall in glorious color on those maple trees,  winter abundant with snow and cold and of course always the renewal of spring with it's wildflowers and rebirth.   Birds tweeting most every season brings music to my ears.   Windows open,  sounds and smells enter...

I feel so blessed with all the beauty that my senses experience in my tiny town...New England is mapped by very small towns for the most part.  It is a safe place filled with beauty but mostly it is always the ocean that calls me home from travels...the ocean and my beloved woods of Maine.   I am never more than a foot away from solitude,  peace and the mystery of nature.  I feel an sense of awe each time I grab my camera and go.I do love to travel but my heart loves coming home to New England and all the gifts it offers up.   Living here reminds me everyday of the Grace that is given to all of us when we learn to appreciate what we have instead of what we think we are missing...

Thanks Kim for this lesson..it is sometimes important to track things in writing to bring them back to our minds and hearts.

Liam learning about the beach,  one ice cream at a time.  Every good beach has an ice cream stand.   Goes really well with the sand.

Another gift of the ocean and New England.   We love going to one of our seaside towns and sitting outside for dinner.   The view is always fantastic...and the sun setting over the ocean is so beautiful.   It doesn't always have to be fancy.  Just sitting at the rail with the view, beautiful flowers in a galvinized vase and a glass of wine.   It makes me feel like I'm in heaven and the cool breeze on a hot humid night is nature's air conditioning.

Life in New England...Ocean living.   Farm land and nature.  I also am fortunate to live in horse country right down the road...I have it all.   Come see me sometime..

Tiny Pants, Big Love

It always amazes me how quickly our world can change.   Some of those changes are so profound that they turn your world upside down in a minute and the results effect the rest of your life.

On June 27th a magnificent tiny boy entered our world way to early.   Oh yes,  we were waiting for him and loving him already.  What we didn't know was that he was loving us also and wanted to be  with us sooner rather than later.   He made his appearance in the middle of the night or you could say,  first thing in the morning at 12:30am.   A tiny specimen of a beautiful boy with  a head of hair and a good loud cry.   He certainly gave us all a scare with his timing but he has shown us what love stands for,  what bravery really means and what fighting for your right to live is all about.   At 2lbs,  11oz.  he has proven to me to be the most courageous person I know.

I have spent the last week watching him go through so many trials that most adults would fall apart under but not Lil Sprout...he's such a trooper.   Everyday he fights to get strong.  He never complains much about all the test he has done and he's so receptive to all our cravings of bonding with him...he has passed every test that is required of him at this early stage in his life and he gives us so much hope for his future.   What a miracle he is.   

His Mom and Dad are tireless in their quest to give him all the bonding and love that he deserves.   I watch the connections taking place even in this highly technical environment and the joy that radiates from all of us that get to spend time with him is palpable .   His big brother,  Lil Man,  goes to see him and brings him Teddy Bears for his incubator and balloons...he loves him already and waits for him to come home so he can show him how to "climb the stairs like a monkey"...my sweet boy's...such a nice ring to that.   Uncle Chris goes frequently and puts his warm loving hands on Sprouts little body so he can feel a connection.   We all have a turn at that and it is amazing how much Sprout loves it and calms down with each touch.   It's the only thing we have to give him at the moment,  but it's an important piece for his growth.   His Mom gets to hold him when she visits and I could watch them forever.   He snuggles in and listens to the beat of her heart just as he would if he had waited a bit longer to join us.   She kisses his tiny head.   One tiny baby,  bringing so much love and connection to a family that is feeling very Blessed.

It is an amazing process to watch modern medicine work it's miracles on such tiny babies.   We are fortunate to live in an area that has a special hospital for children,  one of the finest in the country.   The nurses and doctor's work tirelessly for these children and they also really take care of an entire family in the process.   What I love most about them is their easy way with which they practice...dedicated,  confident but relaxed and so we become relaxed also...

So this is where I have been, bonding with my newest treasure while also spending lots of time with my first love Liam.   One tiny baby boy has changed the world of his family.  This is only the beginning.   Many more changes will come,  more days of struggles as he grows and many hands to bring it all together.   But the one thing that he brings to us already is his Big Love...one tiny heart that beats in all of us.

Welcome to the World Baby Boy...you are so loved here.

Summer Days, Summer Nights

I knew it was here yesterday when I opened my back door to let Gracie out.   There was that smell in the air that is so familiar when it's hazy, hot and humid.   Summer...it is here,  today being the first full day.  I love summer. It speaks of all things bright and beautiful.

Here in New England it is a short season,  winter being the longest.   That makes the enjoyment of it so special. You cannot waste even one day of it.   So many summer things on my list.  Such an urgency to slow down and take it all in.  Yet at the same time it has a relaxed,  lazy feel to it.   A time when I can set monkey mind to rest and go with the flow so much easier.   Oh yes,  there are still classes to take,  chores to be done, errands to run, but it summer I do them with a happy heart knowing at the end their might be an ice cream waiting for me. 

Here are a few of my favorite summer things:   Perhaps you can make a list of your own and while your at it, slow down and smell the air...

Top on my list : Maine lobster

Maine everything...we have a house there so we get to see the sea.

Loons

ice Cream

reading on the deck...reading anywhere and lots of it.

bubbles and playing with my Liam

fried clams

camp fires/ gooey smores

cooking on the grill

hazy,  hot and humid....bring it on

birds singing, babies in nests

photographing all of it,

less clothes, 

fireworks,

drive-in movies....we still have them in Maine

lazy afternoons with naps on the deck

sunsets over Long Lake

 My list  could go on and on but you get the point...more play less work.

Wherever your summer takes you,  be sure to look with new eye's at what is around you.  Spend time with those you love and really become engaged in what happens when your with your favorite people.   Hug more, argue less.   Sandels instead of shoes,   sunscreen.   Do it all.   Be safe and enjoy.

Soft Summer Whites

Hi Folks,

Just popping in for a quick minute today to share my soft summer whites with you.   I'm feeling a bit behind on my Beyond Layers class this week...short week and busy days and my homework suffers...so today I said "o.k. Cheryl...start with day one and just post something,  day one of quotes being the topic.  The first word was Life.

Although I did not use the word in my photo or quote I'm hoping you get a sense of my life and what I love from the photo.   It's our house in Maine and that really is where life happens...so many good times and such a sense of place for me.   I go there with no expectations other than to live life to the fullest or do nothing at all and invite everyone who comes to do the same.

In the spring I lighten the load all over the house.  White works for me there.   It is clean and pure and blank. I can add color is  I choose but usually not a lot.   I find the white restful and relaxing but it also stirs my creativity.  There was a time when I would not have chosen white for myself what with kids, dogs and people going in and out.   Life changes as we age and all those "myths" of things being suitable fly out the window.   I don't have time for suitable anymore...but I do have time now for white.  So summer white.   When I crawl in that bed at the end of the day I feel like I'm in heaven floating on a cloud.  Soft gentle breezes from the french doors,  yes,  I put french doors in my bedroom and they actually go out to a balcony with only a small table and two chairs...just enough room for hubby and me to enjoy coffee, tea, perhaps a cocktail  and a good book either in the morning or at days end.   All of this happens to the sounds of the lake lapping against the rocks.  

At night it is different.   Muted light from my bedside table..soft white surrounding me along with books, magazines and my white fluffy Gracie.   Those french doors are still open but now I hear the cry of Loons on the lake and when that happens I stop and listen.   One of my most favorite sounds in the world.  Summer in Maine,   I make time for it.   I clean it up good,  I invite the world in and mostly I sit and enjoy.   It won't be long before it's time to put the electric blanket back on the bed and those french doors are closed against the howling wind and blowing snow.

Maine..the Way Life Should Be...it says so on the license plate.

The Kiss

 There are some that say that today we give away kisses so freely.   I suppose in some ways "they" are right. Years ago hugs and kisses were reserved for family and very special friends.   They had a deeper meaning than the sometimes superfical ones that we share today.  In San Diego recently I came across the statue of "The Kiss".  I had not been aware of this real life event before and I must admit that it touched me deeply and on many levels.   It got me to thinking about my parents and the times in which they fell in love.   In a time when men where hero's,  fighting in wars and coming home with a warm welcome of thanks and pride.   Today seemed like the perfect day to post this amazing statue that tells of the ending of World War 11.

“Unconditional Surrender,” a 25-foot, 6,000 pound statue by world-renowned artist J. Seward Johnson commemorating a famous World War II photo was unveiled Feb. 10 at Mole Park in San Diego. Unconditional Surrender is a three-dimensional interpretation of a photo taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt of a Sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, New York City on Aug. 14, 1945, following the announcement of V-J Day.Edith Shain, the nurse memorialized in Eisenstaedt’s photo, and members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Inc., attended the ceremony along with hundreds of San Diego residents.“This statue brings back so many memories of peace, love and happiness,” said Shain. “There is so much romance in the statue; it gives such a feeling of hope to all who look at it.”“During the moment of the kiss I don’t remember much, it happened so fast and it happened at the perfect time. I didn’t even look at the Sailor who was kissing me,” Shain continued. “I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment like any woman would have done.” Sailors attending the ceremony had the opportunity to meet the woman pictured in the photograph famous throughout the Navy community, and the world.“This sculpture represents hope and freedom,” said Quartermaster Seaman Hannah R. Salyer, PCU Green Bay (LPD-20).

Today also seems like the perfect day to share the story of my Mom and Dad and how those days must have been for them.   My mom was never a big talker so when I saw this "Kiss" I started thinking of their early days together.   After much thought I came to the conclusion that my Mom and Dad must have felt exactly like this couple at this very time.

 When I got home from San Diego I remembered a small photo that I had of my parents marriage.   It kept nagging at me as I tried to put together the dates of that statue.   Finally I was able to find the photo.  It was taken in Seattle Washington in March of 1945...My Dad had marked the back of the photo.   It was a photo of my Dad in his Navy uniform, with my Mom standing next to him,  outside of St. Benedict's church.   They had just gotten married.   You see, my Mom, went by herself, to meet my Dad who was stationed in Seattle Washington.   She was 18 years old,  not a traveler, and I'm sure she had a limited income.   This was 5 months before World War 11 ended.   How in love they must have been for her to make such a long journey, at such a young age, alone and in a time of war.  The reason for the journey, most likely by train, all the way across the country,  was because they eloped.  It's an amazing journey in so many ways.   I wish that they could have shared that time with us.  In the yesteryears of my life we did not get to hear of that trip.  Love was private and so were the stories.  

As I look back, knowing more about how it might have been,  I am amazed at my Mom's courage to make that trip.  I know it could not have been easy for her.   My Grandmother ruled with an iron hand and I'm sure she must not have been happy about my Mom's going.   A young woman alone,  on a train full of who know's what kind of people,  well shame on you is what I hear.   My Mom was beautiful her entire life and I'm sure that was also another concern while traveling in war time.   Those trains could be full of service men just waiting for a young pretty lady.   Then money,  where would she get the money,  not from my Grandmother or Grandfather for sure.  They would have held back thinking she couldn't come up with the funds so then she wouldn't be able to go.  Way back then my Mom knew what she wanted and she went and got it.   I wish we had shared her journey.   In the end though the journey speaks for itself doesn't it.   Love conquers all.

Memorial Day is a day to honor all the men and women who have died for our freedom,  for our country.   I have always been proud of my Dad for serving his entire life.   He went in as a young man,  probably 17 years old. Tried other jobs along the way but always before his time-lapsed he would re-up and go off again. My Mom's one brave trip to marry him was all she took. We were a military family but not a traveling family. That can create problems in a marriage and ultimately my parents divorced.    I am sure though that in 1945 when a young girl traveled across American to seek her love, her Navy man,  that the kiss they shared upon arrival was as passionate and loving as the one in the statue.  My brother was born 10 months later in December 1945.   War would not keep them apart.   In the end, life did.   In my heart though, I know that with all the pain and suffering that went on at home during my growing up years,  my parents loved each other their entire life.   I think we all have one great love and no matter where life takes us the memory of that Kiss stays with us forever.

To all who fought the good fight of Love and War...Happy Memorial Day.