Monthly Archives: November 2024

Big Day On The Homefront

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If you live in America, today is a big day. The Presidential election has finally arrived.

If you don’t live in America, you’re probably watching this election with some degree of stress as well given that our choices at the ballot box play a role on the world stage.

Here’s my advice to you: vote and then find something useful to do. Personally, I voted days ago because I always worry that something will prevent me from doing it in person and I wasn’t missing this one. I have a busy workday ahead of me followed by a hair cut after work. I will welcome the distraction and hope that it’s enough to keep my mind free of worry and stress. 

If you can, I suggest you find some way to achieve the same goal. Go for a walk. Better yet, go into nature for a long hike and time with the squirrels. Turn on some good tunes and use that nervous energy to clean your house or organize a closet. 

If you voted, you did your part. Now it’s out of your hands so let it go and try focusing your attention on something that will improve your day or someone else’s. Worrying won’t make it better.

PS – The above photo is from a 1943 era cabin that once housed WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). You can see this cabin and many other interesting things at Carillon Park in Dayton. Approximately 100,000 of these WAVES volunteers helped to win the war and I always find comfort in this cabin. I like this scene with the flag.

The Earth Grows Quiet

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“In November, the earth is growing quiet. It is making its bed, a winter bed for flowers and small creatures.”

Cynthia Rylant

November has arrived, the time has changed and now is the time to make your winter bed. Don’t fight the seasons and don’t deny Nature her will.

Embrace the quiet and peace of these restful months as the earth grows quiet. It’s a wonderful opportunity to focus on self care and other joys of the season.

Happy Monday, friends!

Light In The Darkness

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Everyone complains about the time change. Occasionally the politicians will come at it with threats of abolishing it and social media is clogged with people complaining about the early sunsets and dark mornings. But, ya’ll, I have been looking forward to this moment since we sprung forward in the spring.

Hear me out. 

First of all, I feel better and and sleep well in the winter. This feels like the natural time for me. 

The time change and the winter season are a part of nature and the rhythm of the year. It’s important to humans to have this period of rest and calm. It’s not punishment. It’s an opportunity to focus your attention inward, toward your body, mind, spirit and home. 

Look to nature in the winter. Nearly everything in nature lets go of what it doesn’t need and enters a period of rest. And why not? It’s cold outside and often gloomy where I live. There are nice days perfect for outdoor fun but the long nights are perfect for doing things you don’t make time to do when the days are long and you feel compelled to stay busy. 

Long, sunny days make you feel bad for going to bed early even when you need rest. Long days force you to devote endless hours to lawn care. Summer days make you feel like you should be out  running from one activity to another. 

Winter means there’s time to make soup and settle in with those movies you’ve been meaning to watch. Winter means you have time to work on your hobbies or maybe try a new one. Long nights mean you can organize your closet, make some comfort food and turn on the fairy lights as you feather your nest. 

Winter means there’s time for self care and for introspection. It means that calm and rest can be a priority if you allow it.

If you have been diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder I hope you will seek ways to make the winter more bearable and maybe someday you can find some relief and even a way to enjoy it. 

As for me, I am so excited to dive into my quiet winter life. It’s hard to describe what it means to have license to embrace this season of respite, to reset, recharge, rejuvenate and realign my  intentions.

Enjoy this season and find delight in what you think you don’t enjoy.

This Weekend

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This weekend will be one of forced rest. I hurt my ankle earlier this week and ended up making an unscheduled trip to the chiropractor yesterday. While I can walk on it, it has some issues and I’ll be spending most of this weekend with that leg  elevated. 

So, I did what any rational book hoarder would do and popped into Wheatberry Books to pick up a page turner of a book to help me through my convalescence. Mind you, I could be crushed under the weight of my to be read pile but I didn’t have this book and that’s an important distinction.

I needed this book. 

I was dying to get out of the car and walk around Yoctangee Park. I yearned to soak in the Autumn colors and walk through the leaves but didn’t trust myself to walk far. So I had a car picnic and enjoyed the view.

Today I’ll make a little veggie tray for snacking, use up some stray potatoes in a soup, and spend the day with my feet kicked up and a book in hand. If I’m lucky, Scout will curl up next to me to make sure I don’t get lonely. 

He’s an attentive little caregiver.

Happy Saturday, friends! Stay home and be cosy or go forth and adventure. Whatever you do, enjoy your day!

Discovering Ansel Adams

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When Ansel Adams turned fourteen, his father gave him his first camera. For you camera junkies out there, it was a Brownie Box model by Kodak. Just after that, his family vacationed in the Yosemite Valley, a trip that would change his life and the face of 20th century photography.

Last month, I stood in awe of a large collection of his images and notes on his life at the Cincinnati Museum of Art. There’s an exhibition underway until January 19, 2025.

An only child born to wealthy parents, Ansel Adams survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake but suffered nasal injuries that left him a mouth breather for the rest of his life. He was prone to frequent illness and hypochondria and contracted the Spanish Flu during the 1918 flu pandemic. During his recuperation, he read a book about lepers and became obsessed with cleanliness.  He was an intelligent young man who taught himself to read music and play piano.

The thing that truly captured his interest and attention was photography and nature.

These are things I learned at the museum. I also saw a picture from his first trip to Yosemite as a fourteen year old. Adams wrote “I climbed an old and crumbling stump of arboreal grandeur with my camera and was about to snap the shutter when the stump gave way, and I plummeted to the ground. On the way down, I inadvertently pushed the shutter.”

Friends, that photo teenage Ansel Adams made while falling off a stump was superior to anything most of us will ever make. Sigh. 

It’s an interesting collection of photos that represent what you might expect of Ansel Adams and some things I didn’t expect to see. Photos of indigenous people, ancient cliff dwellings, Georgia O’Keeff, and a New Mexico church caught my eye as much as any of the landscape portraits he was known for creating throughout his career. 

There were also some terrific portraits of Adams throughout his life and the entire experience went a long way toward humanizing this larger than life artist. 

Discovering Ansel Adams will run through January 19, 2025 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. This museum is amazing and general admission is free but there is a $12 admission for adults to view this exhibition. Seniors, college students and kids pay a reduced rate. Learn more here.

Cincinnati has a ton of things to entertain you for a fall or winter weekend. Live performance, the American Sign Museum, bookstores, a walk at Spring Grove, the Newport Aquarium (just across the river in Kentucky) and lots and lots of public art to enjoy will keep you occupied and wishing you had more time.