Day 16, 17, and 18 of the 37 Day Challenge:
Yesterday I finished reading The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg. This was a truly wonderful book to read. The woman in the novel, Nan, ran away from home at the age of 50. She decided to take a road trip by herself, without her husband of 25 years, without her daughter who was in college, and without any friends, she just took this trip on her own for a few weeks. Some parts of the book are absolutely breath taking. Berg writes with a true, authentic voice, says what many people may think, have thought, and experienced. She says at one point in a letter to her husband about her trip, "I know my own luck. I know how rare it is for a person to be able to do this. And I know more and more what I'm doing it for. I feel a kind of strength starting to happen that is wholly legitimate, that is not some trapping I wear until it falls off. It is as though the thing has roots, and seeks the sun with its face turned toward it. And I know I never would have found it without leaving." I think that people can do little things for themselves daily so they do not take such a drastic measure as to go on a road trip by themselves for almost a month like Nan in the novel did. Sometimes we have to leave ourselves to find our own true authentic self. When I'm in nature, write, paint, read, teach, help others, I come out of myself and leave "me" behind, and in that I find myself.

Days 13, 14, 15 of the 37 Day Challenge:
On Monday and Tuesday it snowed, so Wednesday through today, we have had typical early spring weather. I have been out and about enjoying these gorgeous days, whether it was sitting in the window seat on windy chilly Wednesday at Borders, drinking a hot chai tea, writing, driving to the lake to look at spring flourishing all around me, sitting in the gazebo in my backyard in the evening, or antique shopping yesterday, and afterward eating at the Varsity. Being in nature is a balm for my soul. I have been graciously waking with a smile on my face each and every morning as the sun wakes me. Also I have been writing a poem a day. This is the poem from yesterday:

I hunger for the
Sunlight of Spring
To spread itself
Endlessly
From sunrise -
To twilight
With the glorious
Sounds of birdsong,
Wind whispering
It's rustle through
New greenery, hearing
The pop as flowers
Bloom into raucous
Vibrant colors
A beauty only
God could create

Day 12 of the 37 Day Challenge:
Today on April 7th it is snowing in Georgia. It is gorgeous here. The wind is blowing too hard for the snow to accumulate, but it is beautiful flying around. So I am in a happy, peaceful place right now, drinking mocha, listening to WAH!, watching the snow fall, reading, writing.

Day 11 of 37 Day Challenge:
I went with my family to the mountains for the day. This is a place that my parents took me as a child; the first time we went on a family vacation was when I was three years old. I traveled with them the same roads we had taken many times before to this place that holds so many memories for me. At one point yesterday we walked beside the river with snowflakes sticking lightly in our hair and misting our face. It was a beautiful day which I am thankful for.

Day 10 Sunday:

I could wake
Everyday to
Sunlight
Flooding through
My bedroom
Windows
Caressing me
With warmth

Day 9 Saturday:
My writing is changing. I've had this feeling for about six or seven months now. I don't see myself as rigid as I used to be in my writing. There is a revolution in writing, a new freedom, but it is elusive and I can't quiet define what has changed in it, other than it is different, and I feel great about this. So this is a poem where I am trying to figure out what is going on with it.

I started wandering
With words,
Not a metaphor,
Or similie,
Something in between
Without definition
Uniting of truth
Creating simplicity
A wonderful way
To write and live
A life comfortably.

Day 8 Friday:

Spring makes
Me hungry
For the youth
Of my early twenties
Nostalgia
Sweet and bitter
Like the pungent
Scent of flowers
In bloom
Not able to hide
Their vibrant
Brilliant colors,
Splashes of hues that
Delight the senses,
Obscures inner beauty
That slowly grows into
It's own and emerges.

Day 7:
It was a sleepy rainy night and this morning I pressed my snooze button on the alarm clock three times. I did this because I want to wake up with a smile on my face before I get out of bed. By the third time I was ready to stretch my arms above my head and smile as I hopped out of bed to start my day. This is the poem I worked on:

I invited the night
Full of stars
To dance through
My bedroom window,
Serenading me
With the first
Song of a new season
A buzz of
Insects;
All senses accosted
As I smelled
The burst
Of flower's
Bloom
Tasting it's
Sweet nectar
On my lips.

Yesterday, for day 5 of the 37 day challenge, I did write in my journal, but did not make it to post. I also woke up with a smile on my face, thankful for the new day that God had blessed me.
This is the poem that I wrote yesterday; it is short, sweet, to the point:

Dying embers of the
Setting sun reflect
A change in season.


Today, on day 6, I woke up to the sound of rain drizzling on my roof and windows and honestly snuggled back down into the blankets to get warm to sleep an extra few minutes. Five minutes later when the clock went off, I smiled turning it off, thankful for the five extra minutes of being in my cocoon warmth of bed sleeping, then I smiled again as my feet hit the floor. I was eagerly ready to start my day with a smile.

I am thinking today of one thought that kept surfacing throughout the day. The thought needled me, calling for my attention. The thought is this: People create life stories for themselves and about themselves, and this becomes their prison. Free yourself. I don't know if this thought was meant specifically for myself or in general for others. It has captured my attention and I will give it more thought. I am in the process of shedding some old thought patterns, beliefs and expanding myself. Life is a learning process, to continually learn and expand. This is one of life's greatest gifts - limitless potential.