Here is What I Know Today,September 28,2017

 Today I know that sunshine, blue skies, and turning leaves of autumn make for a perfect day. These were pictures I took a year ago of the glorious autumn in Kellogg.

"Autumn writes her own poetry,

we are merely observers."

~Terri Guillemets

Here is What I Know Today, Sepember 27, 2016

Today I know that one of the best things adults can do for children is read to them. Every week I go to Angel Wings Daycare/Preschool and read to a group of about 26 kids. They are excited and their eyes light up when I read an exciting part or a part that makes them laugh. I thnk they would sit while I read ten books, but we only do three. I look forward to the visit each week. I am pleased when I hear children say their parents read them a certain book, or a babysitter, or grandparent. I have so many favorite books I have read with children over the years. Here is a sneak peek of one of my favorites I am reading tomorrow.

I also know that with the generous donations our library has received to honor of Mom I will be able to spend delightful time browsing for books to purchase. I made a list of books that Mom always loved to read to her students and to us. A series on the list was the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books. I later read them to my students also in my early years of teaching. Maybe I could find an audience of kids that come to the library after school and share a few of her "cures."

I know that Dr. Suess got it right.

Here Is What I Know Today, September 26,2017

Today I know I now love living in a place with four seasons. I used to always say "autumn is my favorite season" to anyone that asked. Now I have found beauty in each and every season. Seeing the seasons through the lens of my camera has helped.  After moving back to North Idaho I discovered unique beauty in winter along the river road, the Cataldo Slough, and in the skies at sunset. After a gray, cold, foggy end of winter I love the promise of spring when robins return, daffodils bloom, and leaves emerge on the trees. Summer reminds  me that we are no longer plagued with smelter smoke and a polluted river. The hills are green, the sky is clear and blue, and the water in the river through town is clear and is surrounded by lush growth. Autumn is time I slow down. The gardens are put to rest, everywhere I look trees are bursting with oranges, reds, and yellows, The smell of burning leaves fills the air. Nothing beats a autumn sunset. Yes, I love four seasons.

I also know today my mother's influence ran deep with the people she touched. Knowing this has helped me cope with my grief. Whether it is a note from one of her former students, a post on Facebook by a dear friend thinking of Mom while on a trip to the Oregon Coast, or patrons at the library coming in and telling me stories of Mom's generosity that I had never heard. All these examples keep reminding me what an amazing woman my mother was.

I know that it helps to have a quote to get through the day. Here is mine for today:

"You don't have to be a "person of influence" to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me." Scott Adams  

Here Is What I Know Today, September 25, 2017

I know that after the brutal heat of August that often the night cools down, the days are more moderate, and the garden flowers recover and have a final burst of blooms. I love it when this happens.

I know I function better being organized. That being said, I often have a difficult time doing it. Right now I have check off lists, a calendar, and daily to do sheets so I hope I can stay the course. It is a busy time and lots of events are coming up so I hope I can keep myself afloat.

I know hope is all around me. It is what helps me get up in the morning and keeps me trudging away at difficult tasks. My mother gave me hope. She may have had joint pain or felt fatigued from lack of oxygen, but she always found hope to move ahead. My mother just loved Erma Bombeck. I think this quote is close to what Mom was thinking at the end also.

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me' ".   Erma Bombeck

Here are a few more September garden flowers.

Here Is What I Know Today, September 24,2017

I have returned to writing on my blog. I enjoy both my siblings' daily postings, so I am jumping in to join them. You can find their daily writings here and here. I have done much thinking and writing in the past months, but haven't put any of it here.

Here Is What I Know Today, September 24, 2017

Getting a new puppy during a time full of grief and stress was a good idea for me. We said good-bye to our Springer Spaniel Annie in July. Mom was struggling with congestive heart failure and complications that come with it. Hard decisions were required. As I was often surrounded by a fog of grief and depression, Riley, our new Soft-coated Wheaten Terrier brought sunshine into the household. He gave his herding brother Tucker a job, a big job!vWhen Mom died, he provided love.

Music transports me to other times and other places. I am putting together a play list for my mother's memorial service and in listening to songs I am remembering the memories those songs  evoke. Here is one of those songs, remembering how much Mom and I loved watching this film together.

As a form of written word, poetry has often provided me a way to understand the world. Here is a favorite I often return to. I have been surrounded by kindness during my mother's illness and death. I will never forget all that kindness.

Kindness Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.  You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and      purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say it is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you every where like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,