I feel like I just visited with you over October coffee, where did November go? I wanted to hold on to November, the deep blue skies and the brilliant yellow leaves of the Norway maple, but try as I might, I could not stop the days from their flight.
Writing these monthly posts do slow me down, in a mindful way. I have to think, what did I read? What did I learn? The days become more than to-do lists and numbers, they become opportunities to remember.
So here is what I am:
Reading: “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” by C. S. Lewis, love it, never gets old. I just finished “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, I am not sure I liked it, it was…different. And I am savoring and walking slowly through, “The Inner Voice of Love” by Henri J. M. Nouwen. The reader is gently encouraged to not read too many pages at once, but to treat the meditations like salt – just a bit, not too much. I highly recommend it, it is like Fr. Henri is speaking right to your soul.
Baking: Bread, dense, chewy, whole grain loaves and rolls, brushed with butter out of a hot oven. Bread wants to be made, yeast wants to live, bread is a testament to life. There are no strangers around a loaf of bread.
Cooking: Anything with quinoa! My new favorite in the kitchen. Quinoa Broccoli Cheese casserole, Quinoa Protein Bars, it is great plain with a little butter. And chia seeds, I made blackberry chia seed jam on a whim with some of the frozen blackberries that we had picked in the summer. I was surprised how it thickened up without large amounts of sugar and pectin. It is delicious, fruity, jammy, perfect in plain Greek yogurt. Good times in the kitchen this month.
Exploring: We attended “A Night of a Thousand Lights” at Longwood Gardens as part of their Chrysanthemum festival. Pure enchantment. What struck me the most magical was that hundreds of people from different cultures, speaking with varied accent
s and languages created an atmosphere of joy. Young, old, strollers, motorized carts, people of a rainbow of colors, enjoying each other and the beauty of the Asian culture. How lost we would be without all the colors of the world. We walked in procession from the conservatory to the outdoor theater with our own little lanterns, and what a literally moving sight we were, what an absence of fear and strife for those few hours.
Struggling: yes, everyday. Holidays. You can be innocently selecting broccoli in the produce section and “I’ll be Home for Christmas” starts playing all of a sudden you can’t breathe. Holidays are tricky to navigate.
Learning: That grief is a chronic condition, it ebbs and flows, but it is a constant that needs to be acknowledged.
Embracing: An Advent book study. We are using “Advent in Narnia” by Heidi Haverkamp. Hence why I am reading “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe!” One is never too old for Narnia. Hoping to find my way out of the wardrobe.
Dreaming: Winter photo shoots, cold, clean air. Finding a place where I can see the winter sunset paint the snow colors. Dreaming of seeing the moon reflecting off solid fields of snow. Dreaming of a place where I can see big sky and stars.
I hope that November brought you many moments of peace and that whatever holiday you celebrate as we turn the calendar to December, that your heart is filled with warmth and goodness.
I would love to hear about your November and what you are dreaming of for this December. My coffee cup is empty and I am going to indulge in another cup of encouragement.
Much love to all, Terri
If we had coffee I would tell you I was toiling 🙂 trying to find what’s next for me in so many facets of my life…
I love that word “toiling.” I can see it and feel it, Makes me think of breaking up earth for a new garden. I have every confidence that your toiling will bear good fruit Carla.
Have another cup of coffee please, I enjoy your writing! Not to get all Scrooge like but November and December are not my favorite months of the year. It is dark too early and not daylight early enough and the weather is chilly and damp and it all makes me whiny!
Thank you Haralee! Oh and please, let us get all Scroogey! I love Ebeneezer! I miss the early summer sun too and the lingering sunlight in the summer evening.
Terri, I love your meditative, heartfelt writing. You find joy in the little things, little things that make life worthwhile. Blessings to you.
Thank you Helene, your words are a gift to me today. Words of encouragement that my heart needed. Blessings and peace to you and your house also!
I loved the Alchemist. It changed my view of the world and my life- remembering that God/Spirit is always for me- always cheering me on towards growth and life and fulfillment. I am reading “Loving What Is” by Byron Katie. I have to admit I am going through it slowly. She offers much food for thought and some of what I have read is taking time to digest.
Quinoa. I have heard good things about it but have yet to muster up the courage to try it. We both know I am not near to your level of expertise in the kitchen. Would love to make bread- may do that when my kids come back home for the holiday break. I made cinnamon rolls from scratch when they visited and they turned out pretty well, considering my fear of yeast. 🙂 The cream cheese buttercream frosting on them was amazing! I have found butter and cream cheese can cover a multitude of sins.
Here is hoping you have an easy December. <3
I have not
Not sure where that “I have not” orphan came from. OOPS. 🙂
Butter and cream cheese make everything better! I still have “The Alchemist” out on my desk. I may need to read the last bit over again. Not quite ready to shelve it.
Quinoa is pretty friendly stuff and there is always butter.
I love the little “I have not” orphan, it is almost like a writing or thought prompt. Here is to more coffee and all things good.
Great post! How do you find so much time??? I miss reading as much as I would like – do you have a Kindle? I gave away SO many books during my move I hesitate to buy more…but I thought perhaps a Kindle might be a good way to go. If, after reading on a Kindle, I felt the need to have the book, I could get it then. But honestly, how many do you actually read more than once? Although the Narnia Chronicles definitely fall into the “more than once” category. P.S. I read “The Alchemist” after reading Coelho’s “The Pilgrimage” – I didn’t get the hype.
Hi Deirdre! I do have a Kindle, a Paperwhite and I love it. I almost always have my Kindle with me and I can read for 10 or 15 minutes here and there. The best thing about the Kindle is that it always remembers where I left off. I found quite a few of the classics free on Amazon, and usually you can get great prices on ebooks. My eyes are so bad that I take my chances with print books these days, the Kindle allows me to have the typeface as big as I need it to be, which I love.
You are a marvelous wonder! A whirling dervish of baking, writing, and reading! I’m with you on Coelho, he’s too “everything will be just peachy if you think it will” for me. Everything happens for a reason. We must not question tragedy because it is written into the history of the world. Poor people are poor because it is their destiny. Rich men become rich because they had the wisdom to listen to the omens and claim the treasure that was destined to be theirs. Basically, if you make something vague and profound enough, everyone will see themselves reflected in it. Bread. Wow. My attempts with bread have never worked out very well. I too am yeast-phobic. Love you so much!
I took Coelho to be saying “life is happening FOR you- not TO you”– did not see it as him blaming folks for their lot in life, but I guess one could see it that way. Funny how the same book can be discouraging to one and encouraging to another. This is why I use the “take what you can use and leave the rest aside” strategy. 🙂
This is what I LOVE about book studies and technology! We can’t sit around the table and share our different perspectives, but I love that we can share our words via cyberspace!
Me too! 🙂 Because while I LOVE coming to your house and chatting over coffee, it is a bit of a haul– and there is no WAY Teen could come– unless you have a private jet you haven’t told me about. 😉
Thank you Tena! Love you too!
I really enjoy reading Henri J. M. Nouwen. My church posts something by him every morning on their Facebook page.
Your bread photos make my mouth water:)
I did not get the Alchemist. Now that my second book is coming out I am hoping to get some reading done over the winter.
Longwood Gardens is so beautiful all the time but it is special during the winter, especially over the holidays.
Thank you Doreen for your visit and note! A small group of us did a Lenten study with Henri J. M. Nouwen’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son.” I could read that book over and over and never exhaust all it has to teach. I turn to him quite a lot for guidance and encouragement. I love that your church shares something from him everyday.
I hope you can snuggle up on those cold January and February days and read too. I find some days I need old friends, so I read Lucy Maud Montgomery or revisit Pride and Prejudice. There is nothing quite like the respite of a good book.
This is our first Christmas at Longwood Gardens. We hope to go next weekend to see all the Christmas lights. We went on a lark one day last February, we were totally enchanted. I don’t know whether it is the beauty or all the oxygen from all the happy growing things, but I always find such peace there.
Thank you again for your note, wishing you many peace filled moments this Christmas season.