the cords have relaxed a bit from when this photo was taken and now hang straight - here the beads look wobbly still.

ceiling plate

This is what I have been working on. I'll use a different chair there and I wish the countertop could be veneered in concrete but I like that I could play around in this small space and leave it with a smile. My husband and I collaborated on "making" these light fixtures - tickled with how they turned out!


This will be my 60th year. Wow. That used to seem old!

Honestly, it doesn't feel old. I mean, yeah, this or that in my body might talk to me after a long road trip or even after a day which required too many positions, but basically I feel fabulous.  It's true that my hearing has steadily declined during the past few y, okay since the seventies, but that music still begs the question: How loud is too loud? I don't hear well and I kinda like it like that. There's so much stuff in the air these days that it hits my soul like Texas Cedar popping hits my sinuses. There's only so much time one can spend trying to make sense of the senseless.

I predict this will be The Year of Circles, hopefully closing, maybe staying open.  
Yes, my Christmas gift "scolds" me when it looks like I'm neglecting my circles.  Cedar pollen has not been a kind work out buddy this season.
I wish the Apple watch would let me choose it's accent. 

This is (so far) my 60th year "project".  Here it is - Remember all your best memories, find ways to celebrate and reinforce the joy of those golden moments.

Like the third grade field trip to the Burke Baker Planetarium. Like Miss Hazel always letting me win at tick tack toe - she'd laugh when I tried to get her to take a hint. Momma said she was an old spinster before Mr. Alvin came along, but my daddy said they'd been married since he was a small child. It would be fun to play tick tack toe with a child.

So - I'm trying to access some memories to fortify and  take forward with me, and that idea companioned this one - find sad memories, bad memories, hurtful memories by listening to myself talk (even if it's just to myself, and maybe especially if). Apply forgiveness. Ask God to wrap it in grace. Forget about it forever.

My Aunt is in her mid 80's. I try to call her with some routine. She is my mother's younger sister and I'd say clearly Momma's best lifelong friend. When we talk my Aunt rambles through her hurtful memories and sometimes she even gets riled up in the telling. Every time we talk. Those are the memories that she has rolling around in her head and she works her way through them as one might the beads on a rosary. It makes me so sad for her. It's a meager feast for her old age. I suspect all humans suffer. as well as have moments of joy. I'm hoping I might discipline myself towards reliving the good moments when those days arrive for me.

I am old enough to remember how marvelously cool Dick Tracey's watch was. 

Happy New Year!

2019 Wow. There have been a few events, celestial events like the passing of Haley's comet which when I learned of the expectation of them I wondered how old will I be when that is supposed to happen? 2019 is the year I turn 60 and 60 seems like a perfectly wonderful age to be. 

  

I've been looking forward to 60 without even realizing it. 

Last week my middle daughter, C, and I toured the caverns near San Antonio. It was all pretty cool - my kid had three or four geology classes (idk exactly why, but she is basically a geologist next to my knowledge of anything earth - ask me a weather question though) and made the tour fascinating to the point that I'll read up a bit on that on my own. She wants to revisit Carlsbad Caverns during our summer drive around. We'll drive a route that reaches as far NW as Zion National Park. We are working on "finding"things to see all along the way and back via Denver.  That will be in June and helping with the planning is one of the gifts I will give myself this year. This year wants to be a year full of joy ... I can feel it in my bones.

Noteworthy: The Natural Bridge Caverns, Hidden Passages tour, culminates in a total black out, Everyone was seated and expected to experience totally darkness. 

It was interesting. I appreciate having the opportunity to "see" that expansive   it's black and it's utterly dark but it doesn't feel vacant. It feels unknowable. My brain could not find the place to start figuring it out.

I'm enjoying think about that.  Light.