Category Archives: Seasons

Do vs. Dew

Dec
06
2012
by IBK | 5 Comments

©IBKimage 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Dear Readers,

I’ve taken a break from blogging because, quite frankly, I’ve just been worn out.  I’m learning that just because I can, I don’t have to.  Like the beautiful drops of dew in our image today, there are so many interesting drops of delight that can keep us fascinated and ready to engage in the next good thing.   There have been many good things this year and I’ve learned a lot, and challenged myself and met some wonderful people who have encouraged and nourished me. I’ve “tried on” new activities and discarded old ones (and some of the new ones).  Old habits came back to support me and to discourage me; friendships were renewed and deepened and others let go of; friends and acquaintances received serious diagnoses, and thankfully are recovering; grieving occurred and joy returned.  A year of being human.

 

I’ve also discovered again that it’s easy to let the good things crowd out the better or best things.  Much of my fatigue in the last month, resulted from activity vs. focused engagement on what is mine to do.  Yes of course a lot of our lives require daily maintenance and routine, and maintaining relationships, but if I neglect the inner life for too much outer activity, I won’t be able to distinguish the “dew from the do.”

IBK

Also posted in Insight, Uncategorized Tagged , , , |

Visiting Home

Nov
02
2012
by IBK | 0 Comments

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can’t go home again but you can sure visit a place that you came from, finding there a familiarity that you’ve carried with you all of your life, no matter how old you are or how far your journey has taken you away.  The image today is a small car and pedestrian ferry that crosses the Kiel Canal, at Hochdonn, in Northwest Germany near the area where I was born many years ago.  As we approached the ferry recently, to cross over, memories flooded back to a time when my mother would ride her bicycle, with me in a carrier in front, and my brother, six years older, riding his own.  Our journey was from the small village we lived in before we emigrated to America and our destination was to my maternal grandparents home, in Meldorf,  about 15 miles away. I must have been 4 years old.

 

During my recent visit, I attended a Friday morning market in the town square, where fish, and cheese, egg and vegetable vendors of a new generation offered  their wares.  That brought to mind the trips to the market with my grandparents when the fish were so fresh from the local fishermen’s overnight catch, that some still moved in their wooden crates.  The fish was wrapped in newspaper, put in my grandparents market bags, and off we went, on foot to their house, where my grandmother was soon cooking the fresh fish and vegetables for our noon meal.

 

So many years later, I realize that walking to places, buying my food fresh, building relationships with local vendors, being always drawn to and longing for the sea with it’s attendant breezes, smells and sights, is what I keep looking for in the places I have lived, but of course even the place I’ve described  now has supermarkets (albeit smaller) and fresh prawns  from the area are  outsourced to Morocco for cleaning, preserving and sent back to the area for sale.  In my grief, I can at the same time be grateful that I have experienced the gifts of the sea and the fresh offerings of the land and farmyard. Most of all though, my return reminded me that the relationships and love of family and friends can nurture in us a desire to wander.  You can’t go home again, but I can hardly wait for my next visit.

Where in your heart and mind, is your home port?

IBK

 

Also posted in Blessings Tagged , , , , , |

Waiting

Sep
07
2012
by IBK | 2 Comments

IBKimage©2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m up late tonight or early,eagerly waiting for the outside temperature to drop by at least 40 degrees from its high of 94 earlier this afternoon.  The windows are open … ahhh here comes the north wind blowing in the cooler air. It’s been a long summer of waiting for the temperatures to drop below 90 during the day  and  then it does.

We spend a lot of time waiting for:  answers, test results, hearing back  so that we can proceed , in line,on hold,apologies,a call,an offer, a loan,an acceptance,a letter,family coming for a visit, traffic, stop lights to change,proposals, news from the front,rides ,resolutions and so on. Some of us wait well, others not so well  and perhaps what waiting generally  implies is that we cannot control the outcome of what we’re waiting for. And then the waiting stops and there are answers, resolutions,  tears, joys, disappointments, anger,babies born,forgiveness given, jobs offered, jobs lost, votes tallied,lives significantly changed and so on.

I was blessed this week by an abundance of “waitings” that offered up hope for the future: a new son born to dear friends, a generous offer to take over a care ministry that I was covering until we found someone; wonderful news from a young man who is healing after months of debilitating cancer treatments and complications; neighbors’ 2  1/2 year old son surgically relieved of his liver tumor; news of progress and healing of a friend’s broken heart, my  own positive results from some medical tests and some rest and renewal  in the mountains courtesy of a generous friend’s invitation over the holiday weekend.

Thankfully, we rarely have to wait alone.

Today’s image is of my host’s dog Tink, who waited patiently in a tree along the trail while we , like paparazzi photographed him from every angle.

IBK

 

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Take Me Back

Aug
09
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Dear Readers:

After a two week hiatus or possibly three I’m back at it and delighted to be.  I’ve had visits from friends; our almost 9 year old grand nephew flew in for a visit; and tomorrow our younger son returns to D.C. after a delightful  time with us and other family members.  As grand as it’s been we all are ready to get back to our normal normals.   Watching the olympics and hearing the backstories before the ascent to the medal podium, reminds us again that the steps we take every day are the ones that will come to fruition in some way or other in the next week,month or four years. The time we invest with others, or to learn a new skill or overcome a prejudice or accept a health challenge, etc. does start with just one step.

I remember the exact moment I was finally relieved of the burden of believing that when everything is right and I had  the right tools, and I’d learned enough and I had enough money and …. then I would do x.  Now I know that as I begin somewhere the joy comes from the result of the discipline of using the tools, learning from doing the thing, budgeting money for my choices and by “doing x” I’m actually  able to look back with satisfaction that where I had been was not where I was now.  One of my late mother’s gifts was the phrase: “Every age is interesting and has its own blessings.

As this very active summer begins to wind down and my body is needing to be back in touch with a new normal, I’m reminded of a commercial from my childhood for a bath salt product called © Calgon.  A tired beautiful woman in the city would get into the back of a limousine equipped with a bathtub.  After a long soak (60 second commercial) she would step out of the vehicle dressed in evening clothes and ready for a night on the town with a waiting beau.

The tagline for the commercial: ” Calgon, take me away.”  It was my fantasy for a long time to take a bath in a moving car.  Fortunately, I took up photography a few years ago and can be “taken away” by todays image in Acadia National Park in Maine.  When I need a rest from the busy the sea serves me well.

Thanks for letting me meander and offer two blogs in one.

Joy,

IBK

 

 

 

 

Also posted in Aging, Blessings, Insight Tagged , , , , , |

Jun
08
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two weeks ago today I awoke to early morning light and chirping birds outside of my ground floor, city bed and breakfast in Carlisle England. In the next two days we would walk the final miles  on the Hadrian’s Wall Path, and yet this particular morning I thought back to where the walk began – in Newcastle – at Wallsend . (Wall’s End ) In addition to touring the grounds and museum  of Segedunum, the most completely excavated Roman fort in Britain (circa 128 A.D.), lying at the eastern end of Hadrians Wall – and the beginning of our hike – we walked that first day along the river Tyne into Newcastle.

Today’s image is of the newest bridge crossing the river Tyne at Newcastle, a former shipbuilding colossus and world  coal provider, now trying to “repurpose” itself  as a smaller London Northeast and building Japanese cars for export all over Europe while now importing coal from China. Global is local or “Glocal” as one of my graduate school professors said.  Since there aren’t any major ships coming into this tidal river port now, the bridge is primarily opened for pleasure and excursion boat cruises.  It is a pedestrian bridge that connects two towns on the river, with a new modern art museum in an old granary and a regional entertainment venue (silver bubble in background) along the riverbank.  We were not there on the day they open the bridge for visitors, but imagine the front part opening up like the blinking of an eye.

Thoughts … Bridges can connect the old and the new; they can expose us to the unfamiliar of the familiar routine; they can inspire by the sheer beauty of their design and the skill needed to envision and create; they take us away from what we’ve known and found security in; they call us to new adventure, but only if we cross them and are open to the learning (often painful) along the way.

IBK

 

Also posted in New Beginning, Seeing In New Ways Tagged , , |

Everyday Delights

Jun
01
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Morning.  Yes I know it’s not Thursday evening nor have I made contact for three weeks.  I’ve been preparing for and have taken a two week hiking trip to Northern England, specifically an 84 mile hike along Hadrian’s Wall Path from east to west. My companions were 8 members of the Colorado Mountain Club .  With walks in London to lodging, train stations, tubes (subway) as well as our bed and breakfast lodging off trail, it was well over a hundred miles  in 10 days.  Even though I’ve completed the walk and the open blisters are healing and I’ve walked gently every day since coming home, I’m still astounded that I did “this”.

Time spent walking, away from the cacophony of modern noise and incessant marketing,allows one to reflect at many levels.  Walking through many pastures of  “moms” with spring lambs, seeing a brand new baby calf minutes after birth with the mother still laboring to deliver the afterbirth, listening to the sweet music of birds singing,  reawakens ones delight in the  beauty possible in every day.  The challenge is to remember to take intentional steps to experience that delight when we’re slogging through the ordinary.

Since coming home, I have become a morning person with the jet lag adjustment.  It’s been delightful but of course most of you reading this already know that.  My challenge to you is try the opposite of the familiar from time to time.

I’l have more to share in the coming weeks about “hiking the wall”.  Todays image is an example of  an everyday delight.  I took a few photos with my phone camera just to see how it worked and was delighted with the results.

IBK

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Change It UP

Apr
27
2012
by IBK | 4 Comments

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before moving to Denver , my hikes occurred on summer vacations. Yesterday  a friend and I went on a spring hike.  The trail started from a parking lot about 15 minutes from my house. Soon we were climbing higher and  proceeded up a series of switchbacks with a generally smooth path along with patches of rocky terrain. We hiked to the top, sat on rocks to eat our snack and then completed the loop of 4 miles back to the car.  I was home by lunch. OK, so what?

Well the rest of the story is that with minimal effort, I saw purple,teal,and fuchsia spring flowers that I had never seen before, hiked up the back of the well known Red Rocks Amphitheater, AND saw numerous nests of caterpillars in their silken  nursery tents  (see today’s image), resting  – perhaps after munching on their host plant’s leaves.  Take that you boring treadmill at the fitness center.

I had so much energy and a great attitude when I got home, that I planted most of my small backyard garden and added some new scented flowers by the front steps in anticipation of the rain which didn’t come until tonight.  Then I got to see the new plants dancing in the rain.  I would have missed this latest delight because I had planned to watch some T.V. after my big day … thankfully the cable was out and I had hours “to be”.

A personal note: Please pray for a young man name Ty who is in a major battle with his enemy, Non Hodgkins Lymphoma.

IBK

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also posted in Seeing In New Ways Tagged , , , , |

A Picture, Few Words

Apr
20
2012
by IBK | 1 Comment

©IBKimage2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring in Washington D.C. … Hours of walking, talking and the gift of time with my youngest son whom I visited last weekend … guests at my table … good conversation … meaningful work and interactions as a volunteer at the Habitat for Humanity Restore Home Improvement Outlet … news of a long awaited adoption occurring soon as a friends travel to China to bring a new daughter home … sharing nourishment for the mind and body with book club friends … discovering Brene’ Brown on “Ted Talks” online  (Google to find this) … preparing the garden soil for a new season … making  a first of season salad from tender leaves in my raised planter  … and so many other blessings  in one week …and now good night dear readers … or good morning as the case may be.

IBK

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Let It Rest

Mar
30
2012
by IBK | 5 Comments

©IBKimage2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The word I’ve been thinking about this week is fallow.  Generally we think of leaving a field fallow; it is plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a time to restore its fertility as a part  of crop rotation.  Leaving a piece of ground  fallow will also reduce the risk of disease or parasite transmission.  I experienced it this week in the form of people that came into my presence who are in need of rest after experiencing long seasons  of growth along with storms and other challenges; I noticed a garden area in my neighborhood that after 3 years of “nothing” seems to be sprouting new growth in our very premature warm spring. Some might recall that I didn’t send out a blog last week … my creative energies have been fallow after several months of learning,doing,scheduling,adjusting,recovering and so on.

The interesting thing about a fallow field is that it’s plowed and ready to do what “it” does; but it is intentionally not sown with new seed; its taking a break from providing a new yield at harvest.

What could you leave unsown in your life  in this season that will allow you to experience rest and restoration ?  What do you need to say no to be able to say yes to a fallow field or two ?

IBK

Also posted in Courage, Insight, Letting Go Tagged , , , |

“Shake off those guilty fears, arise …”

Mar
16
2012
by IBK | 2 Comments

© 2011 IBKimage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The words of today’s caption are from a song sung on Sunday mornings at my church.  Our single stock of wheat  in today’s image seems ready to shake off it’s snow covering  to arise to grow again  after a winter’s nap under a protective blanket of snow.  Wishing you joy as you await the gift of a new spring. Arise.

IBK

Also posted in Letting Go Tagged , |