Thoughts on: Slow Living, Savory Soups, and other Shire-worthy things (that help us through our most challenging of days).
(weekly newsletter: No. 2)
Greetings, dear friends!
I hope you are well and your weekend is off to a wonderful beginning…
(Photo: Sunlight filtering through the old oak tree row to the East, as seen while stopping to listen to the Carolina wrens and cicadas, on a slow Saturday-morning-meander, at The Nature Walk Farm and Learning Gardens.)
This morning…
I awoke a bit later than usual, as soft morning sunlight filtered through the creamy-colored curtains on my north-eastern facing window, and I couldn’t help but notice the chirpy little morning bird, who had visited my bed some time late in the night—for, in her words, just a few extra snuggles—was already up with a smile. After all Saturdays are usually spent with her dad, and they had planned a fun morning bike ride around our tiny rural Georgia town, so it’s only natural that she would be beaming bright-as-the-sun-itself.
Since sending out last week’s newsletter…
About how we’re finding beauty among the in-between spaces and places (and times in our lives), our week has been abundantly filled with beauty and challenges alike. Which is often how things go when folks are navigating everyday life with autoimmune disease and chronic illness.
Trying to balance life, in a multi-generational home, raising (and homeschooling) a grade school-aged child, offering care and support to young adult daughters, working a tiny permaculture farm and a small family business, while finding a new normal as co-parents (as we do our best to treat each other with dignity through our separation and divorce) are all challenging enough, without the added stresses of painful autoimmune flare-ups, too.
After all these years of learning to navigate my life—with health related challenges such as these—I wish I could say that I have it all figured out (but alas!) I’m just not there yet!
Throughout my life I have, however…
Learned that often in times such as this, the best I can do is to simply tend to my family’s basic needs, ask for help when needed, accept help when offered, and set aside anything that isn’t absolutely necessary to our collective wellbeing for another day (or week?).
I’m always amazed at how much of a difference familiar rhythms like: making nourishing meals (no matter how simple they might be), prioritizing rest (even if it means setting meaningful work aside)—and taking time to enjoy simple things like art and music, nature and stories—can really make.
Sometimes this looks like…
Putting on a favorite soundtrack (or playlist), cooking up savory batches of Shire-worthy soups (in great-big, well-loved 'flower pots'), and crunchy (g/f) herbal breads (for dipping in said soups), while listening to your all-time most favorite (super festive) party tune, and adorning yourself in (your older sister's), carefully hand-stitched Elvish-ware, all before rounding out the afternoon watching a bit of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' with kindred, hobbit-hearted folk.
(Photo: Aldi has once again risen to the fine occasion of providing perfect cookware for making all the Shire-worthy soups and stews and other tasty things!
P.s. I like to think that dear Rosie Cotton would have happily cooked up a good many hearty meals, in something like this, for her wise Sam and their collective young Shirelings, if ever such options as electricity and a local Aldi had been available!)
(Photo: According to my eldest daughter, this is what you get when your mother forgets to return your Lembas bread baking sheets to the kitchen after using them for the drying of fresh herbs and flowers, yet again!)
(Photo: If you should ever be in need of the absolute-Hobbity-est-song to dance to while cooking up Shire-worthy meals, this, my friends, is the song for you!
P.s. Just be sure to play it on a loop!)
(Photo: A fair young Elf-maiden, in her big-sister’s handmade dress, ready for an afternoon viewing of 'The Fellowship of the Ring'.)
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Other days it might look like…
Exploring all the loveliest of rabbit trails that lead from a poem to a song, from a painting to garden walks to nature inspired books, and the like, filling up our pockets—and our hearts—with beauty along the way.
In hopes that when our most challenging days do come (and they will!) we’ll never have far to look, to find the treasures—no matter how great or small—that will help to carry us through.
(Photo: A darling little rose blooming among nine-year-old Indie Blue’s very own garden.)
And friends, since this past week has, in fact, been one of those weeks…
And today is, indeed, one of those days, I am choosing to show my heart and my mind, my body and my soul, the very same kindness I would show anyone else on their most challenging days…
(Photo: Saturday morning, gathering treasures—a strong cup of tea in a favorite mug, a bit of poetry from Robert MacFarlane’s and Jackie Morris’ book, ‘The Lost Spells’, a calming view from my cozy old reading chair in the corner, and Helena Sorensen’s book, ‘The Door on Half-Bald Hill’ just waiting there to be explored.)
So, this morning I awoke slowly…
And took my time preparing for my day. I tidied up my table (should I happen to do a bit of creative work later this weekend), and made a fresh pot of tea in my beloved, old forest green teapot.
I gathered my favorite green tree mug (a much-loved gift, from a Rabbit Room Gift exchange, a couple of years back), along with a bit of poetry and set aside a book I’ve been longing to read (that had recently been put on hold for me at our local library).
I set a favorite (Ola Gjeilo, Tenebrae, and Voces8) album to play softly in the background so that everything would be ready for me to write my weekly newsletter.
Meanwhile…
The shop isn’t going anywhere without us.
My work in the studio can wait a bit longer.
And, well, everything else will simply have to wait, too.
At least, for the time being, that is...
Because, right now, there’s another cup of tea waiting to be enjoyed, another little song to be heard, another good poem to be read, another lovely view to be thankful for, and yet another beloved story to explore.
And, who knows?
Maybe by taking good care of myself now—and with a bit of luck—a fresh new week will soon arrive with fewer challenges, and perhaps even a good deal more energy for reading and writing, working and the wonder-filled exploring of fresh new rabbit trails—of my own—to be shared in another newsletter soon-ish!
In the meantime, friends—
What are some of the nature inspired poems and stories, songs and meals—and other lovely things!—that help to nourish your heart and mind, body and soul, as you navigate your own challenging days?
(Because… You never know when sharing, a handful of the things that have helped you along the way, might also help to inspire others in their own journey!)
(Photo: a lovely view of one of the many whimsical gardens that Nana has dreamed up and planted, tended to and grown)