New blog link

Since I have been locked out of this blog and have to borrow a computer to get on at all I have created a new blog at:

http://paustk.blogspot.com/

Hoping for better access on this new site.

March 24, 2014

     It is somehow hard to believe the above, when the forecast predicts a snowstorm and a high temperature of 32 degrees.  I was thinking about it though, as I listened to strangers discuss the weather...it is the one thing that unites us all, the one thing we all experience and can't get away from, or do anything about, short of get on a plane and fly away to a warmer climate.  So in some ways, it is the great equalizer, rich or poor or somewhere in between, we all have to deal with the climate, we can't change it, we complain about it, it gives us something to talk about with people we will never know.

March 21, 2014

 
     There is a certain innate beauty in the remnants of plants from last autumn against the stark spring landscape.  I purposely don't tidy the garden in the fall so that birds can forage for food in winter, and to give the garden some form during the long winter months.  As soon as I do clean up the debris the garden almost looks too orderly and dull for awhile, waiting for summer to spur on its sprawling growth.  Every season in the garden is beautiful to me, even the the desiccated old growth as we wait for spring.

 " There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens,

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot...He has made everything beautiful in its time."

                                                        Ecclesiastes 3

March 20, 2014

     Spring is approaching tentatively this year.  Each day there is a little less of the mountainous snow pile that was in our front yard for months.  But I will treasure each incremental sign of this new season. I am willing to keep my winter coat on, if the air even smells like spring it gives me hope.  Hope for things green and growing after the toll of this harsh winter.  Removing the plants that didn't make it, with regret.  This is all part of life, reassessing, taking account of what remains, moving on with hope for better days.

March 19, 2014

    Trying to convince others to cherish the same things we do isn't always an easy thing to do.  I would spend the entire day outside in the summertime, my family...not so much.  The best way to coax them out is to share the love of nature by sheer persistence.  I pushed my children as long as I could in a stroller so that I could continue taking my long walks every day.  When we go to our cottage it is a little easier to convince them to go for hikes in the amazing wooded areas surrounding the lake.  There is just nothing to compare to being outdoors on a beautiful day especially in the spring when everything is coming back to life.

March 18, 2014

     The artist perfectly captured the look on the character's face in this illustration to show how he is feeling..."I want to so much to change, but I don't know how."  I have been in this place many times.  Sometimes its a just a matter of getting up off the comfy chair and into life.  Many times we need someone to spark that change by giving us new ideas and directions as incentive.  We may think it is never too late to change and grow, but I have seen that sometimes we grow too old and are hampered physically in order to do so.  So...seize the day, gather the roses while you may, whatever adage gets you motivated and live while you still can.

March 17, 2014

"It has never struck me as harmful to make a conscious effort to elevate one's thoughts, in the hope that by doing so one's writing will get off the ground, even if only for a few seconds (like Orville Wright) and to a low altitude. I am an egoist, inclined to inject myself into almost everything I write. This usually calls for good taste, if one is to stay alive. I'm not against good taste in writing, however unpopular it may be today."   E. B. White.

    

    If E. B. thought good taste was gone when he was writing, how much more so is that a fact today.  I would rather reflect on the beauty of life around me, than to try to be witty and use expletives sprinkled throughout my writing as so many authors and bloggers do today.  It seems shock value is more popular that fine tuning our words.  So I will continue to go back in time to find mentors for my writing... and I don't think I will have any regrets.