Day 298 Weather Report

October 3, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

Weather report: Weather-related closings, cancellations and postponements increase as Hurricane Joaquin approaches the mid-Atlantic region. The hurricane is not expected to reach Maryland’s shore but flooding is expected. Baltimore’s Fells Point Fun Festival and Dog Day on the Bay at Downs Park are  cancelled this weekend. Temperature high 59⁰, temperature low 48⁰, humidity 92%, rain starting in 97 minutes, wind 15 mph.

I stand with my hoodie over my head, close to where the beach should have ended, but today there is no beach. Wind playing with the Chesapeake Bay creates large waves that overtake the sandy shore and beat against rocks and dead tree stumps. One huge log from an uprooted tree rolls helplessly back and forth as water pushes forward and then recedes. Fluid waves beat against grounded rocks and stumps, breaking the water into animated figures of prancing horses and gleeful ghosts.

The fury of wind and waves obliterate any other sounds around me and I am alone. Paradoxically, sound and sight both isolate and connect me. I am isolated from thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow and am immersed in the awe of the moment. As I stand safely on the shore, the power of nature absorbs my senses.

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My gift today is the power of wind and waves.

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> Day 299: Last Fling

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 125 Breakfast Season

April 13, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

Loblollies

There are only a few weeks in spring and in autumn when I can have a comfortable breakfast outside on my back deck. Other times, it is too cold or too hot or pollen is raining down or mosquitos are on the attack. Every year I look forward to the breakfast season and relish these times when I can feel the breeze and hear its breath. I love to have a leisure tea and breathe in a new day.

I am not much of a breakfast person, but this is David’s favorite meal to cook and today I took him up on his breakfast offerings. This morning, I ate poached eggs, sausage and avocado outside while chickadees fed from the feeder just a few feet away. I looked up and watched a performance by the loblollies in my back yard. The breeze played its tune and the trees swayed, waving its branches around, transforming from inanimate to animate. It was a priceless dance. 

Our inner power, our resourcefulness, comes from the quiet inside. Your harmony with the world grows out of your harmony with your inner world. Roderick MacIver

Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance,
And there is only the dance.
– T.S. Eliot

It is times like this morning that I feel part of something bigger than I am. 

My gift today is a dance.

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You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html