join me on the path

big day

This was a day packed with both gifts and challenges. I love my work and today I got to do something scary but fun. I moderated Horticulture's first online workshop with our guest Alice McGowan. Alice talked about growing veggies and I learned some cool stuff about how easy it is to grow veggies in containers.

I'm exhausted but happy. Doing work I love isn't work at all.

long beautiful hair

I thought I'd left my hair obsession behind but it's returning. How quickly we forget. When I went through chemo in 2007 I lost every bit of hair from my head. And I learned an amazing lesson: I am not my hair! Sound silly? Well, let me tell you I've wasted hours and hours (perhaps even days or weeks) of my life worrying about how my hair looks. Being bald set me free!

Yet now, two years later, with my good health returned and my lovely hair growing, the obsessing has begun again. Grow it long, some people urge. Keep it short, others say. Some days I'm thrilled with the simple fact that I HAVE hair, and who cares what it looks like.

But then at night, when I'm sleeping and my subconscious brain takes over, the hair dreams begin again. Curses! Perhaps it was looking at all those old pictures yesterday that were taken when I was 20 or 30 years old and had long, beautiful hair that got my brain working last night? But I'm not 20 or 30; I'm 47 and damn glad to be healthy and strong. It's time, again, to make peace with my hair.

peace & love

rockin' robin

Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet ...

I tweet, therefore I am ...

Who knew technology could be so much fun (or so addicting!) Do you Twitter? Let me know if you do so I can follow you ...  @pattycraft

peace & love & no more Fail Whales!

i've got a crush on obama

Did you ever see that crazy video by the Obama girl during the election season? Not the way I campaigned but that's the beauty of our country. We have freedom of speech.

The reason I have a crush on Obama is because he's a leader who's willing to encourage us to take action. He reminds us that the problems we have didn't occur overnight nor as the result of one incident. He wants us to work together and to remember that it's going to take time to resolve the problems, but that YES WE CAN.

I've got a crush on Obama.

what matters most

This morning we're attending the funeral of a friend who was a recovering alcoholic but who gratefully died sober. Last night we were told of another friend who'd died suddenly, and we'll be going to that friend's funeral tonight. Two funerals in one day seems like a not-so-subtle thump on the head to pause and remember what matters most.

At times like these I'm reminded that life is brief and so very fragile. The first prayer I say every morning before I even get out of bed is: Thank you, God, for another day. Meister Eckhart said: If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is 'thank you,' that would suffice. I have to agree, but like to have a longer conversation with my Higher Power as the day goes on. The good book tells us to pray constantly—prayer, to me, is when I talk to God. And it's been suggested that the way to improve my conscious contact with God is through prayer AND meditation. Meditation, in my book, is when I stop talking to God and listen for awhile.

However that works for you—prayer and meditation—may you spend part of this beautiful day doing both. Peace be upon us all.

spring has sprung

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
                    Henry Van Dyke(1852–1933)
                    Fisherman's Luck (1899)

This year April had a blizzard just to show she did not care...
                Dar Williams

...therefore I eat

Experience tells me that if I just stuff it down, I'll survive. Nevermind that by stuffing "it" down I'm just distracting myself from the stress because I'm busy beating myself up for making a pig of myself.

When I'm nervous, I eat. Yesterday was an eating day. I consumed (in random order, and in addition to my meals):

1. My weight in Lay's Kettle Cooked potato chips (they are like crack to an addict)
2. A chocolate chip cookie the size of Rhode Island
3. A dozen peanut-butter-&-jelly crackers
4. A Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

What had me so worked up? I'm not sure, but perhaps it was a little post-traumatic stress from attending a high-school reunion party this past weekend where there was one former boyfriend (to whom I owed an amends for atrocious behavior on my part in our past) and one woman who hated me and antagonized me mercilessly in junior high and  high school (mean girls suck).

Or perhaps it was because I had a working lunch yesterday with our CEO and some co-workers, and the last communication I had with said CEO was to tell him his Powerpoint presentation (that he'd be presenting within the hour to college professors) had some glaring spelling mistakes.

Both the amends and the lunch meeting went off without a hitch. And experience tells me that stuffing my face had nothing whatsoever to do with that success. I know that the prayer I said before both events really was the key:
  Dear God, please keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.

He never lets me down and he still lets me learn the tough lessons on my own -- like eating your weight in potato chips solves nothing.

Here's to a brand new day filled with peace & love.

peace on the path

If there is to be peace in the world,
there must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
there must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
there must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,
there must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
there must be peace in the heart.

            -- Lao Tzu (570-490 B.C.)

when we grow up

What do you see? Three happy women on a Saturday night, heads titled together in affection and smiling for the camera.

I see cramped high-school hallways, first dates, learning to drive, Friday-night football games, cheerleading skirts and hot gymnasiums during basketball season, dreams and heartache, talk of boys and what we'd do with our lives when we grew up.

Last night we had a reunion, dug out the yearbook and talked about that time in our lives that shaped us and set us on courses that sent us out into the world.

We're blessed by ties that bind us forever together in a shared history of growing up in our tiny river-valley town. Some of us moved away but most of us still live here; raising kids and fulfilling the dreams we dreamed decades ago.   

Julie's a teacher and has been married to the same man for decades (Julie's on the left). Kim survived a brain tumor and is married to her high-school sweetheart, Rob. That's me in the middle, just damn glad to be alive and looking forward to being a grandma later this year. We've grown up and life is good.

Peace & love

blown away

I went to play in my hundred-acre woods yesterday. Mother Nature turned up the heat to 75 degrees and it was a classic blustery day in March, so I strapped on my hiking boots and took off into the woods by myself. (Yes, Hikerguy, I took my walking stick and my turned-off phone in case of emergency.)

Two hours later I wearily climbed the Wildflower trail out of the meadow and headed back to my car. Here are the gifts of the day:

*Standing by the waterfall listening to the soothing sound of the water
*Climbing the first major hill and resting at the top with a Clif bar and my bottle of water
*Hearing a joyous "hi" rising up the trail from a little boy who'd spotted me
*Seeing the first butterfly of the season
*Passing two teen aged hikers resting at the gazebo (and surely wishing I'd get myself gone so they could go back to making out in their hundred-acre woods)
*Sitting on a big rock in the middle of the creek with the sun shining warmly on my face and my fingers dipping into the still icy water
*Inspecting the hundreds of buckets collecting sap that were strapped to the sugar maples
*Marveling at the never-fail return of the winter aconite and snowdrops

It occurs to me that the gifts in my life are abundant. It wasn't so long ago that every day was a challenge just to stay alive. I am truly blessed.

Wishing you peace on the path and the chance for a walk in the woods.