JENNY LOU'S JOURNAL @jennylou72-blog - Tumblr Blog

Autumn Sunday

It finally feels like fall today--change, transition. Mornings will be in the 40′s but afternoons back up to the 70′s. Everything in the garden is still very green, and most of the flowers are still blooming. My bougainvilleas never bloomed this summer, perhaps because I didn’t fertilize them.

It was a beautiful weekend for the local Chalk Festival, sidewalk mural painting with chalk at the city square. The predicted thunderstorms never happened. The art was lovely. I don’t know if I could bear to work that hard for two days on a mural only to see the city workers power wash it away a few days later.

I just had tea and cookies on the front porch and loved the feel of the north breeze, but alas, the mosquitoes--nasty little critters--are still very active, so much so that my meditating over my yoga class notes for tomorrow was ruined.

The weather channel states that this will be a La Nina winter--warm and dry in the South, cold and wet in the North. I suppose that eliminates all hopes of a white Christmas, not that we ever have much hope of that, anyway, any more--global warming.

If you don't accept responsibility for your own actions, then you are forever chained to a position of defense.

Author Holly Lisle

#takeresponsibility

A Fall Funeral

My husband and I went to the funeral of a friend today, more his friend than mine, really. It took place in a quiet, small sanctuary in the old part of the local Presbyterian Church. What a peaceful place filled with glorious stained glass windows in brilliant primary colors. I was unaware that such a tiny treasure existed in our community. Fall is an appropriate time for passing from this life into the next phase of existence because it is the seasonal time of transitions and is a gentle reminder of our own transient natures.

A Fall Day in 2017

Fall has been beautiful these last two weeks with crisp mornings and warm, sometimes hot, afternoons. This is so much better than the years we have gone plunging from summer into winter within 24 hours. Fall should be this way--a gentle transition so there is ample time to reflect on changes in our personal lives as well as in the seasons.

Summer Day Thoughts

I was born in 1945, a Texas farm girl. I remember my daddy and others exchanging the greeting, "Hot enough for you?" There would be accompanying chuckles as the temperatures soared. No one seemed to have outdoor thermometers or listen much to weather forecasts on the radio, if there even was such a thing. The forecast was in the bones, in the sky, in experience honed by years of working the land. I still have some of these weather feelings ingrained in me. I just know sometimes when it feels "sultry" (my mother 's word for the heat/humidity combination) that we are going to have a thunderstorm that night. I like to watch our five cats stretch out in the sun in the open air atrium. On these hot days, they just stop and absorb the sun's rays or lie in the shade of one of the plants in the atrium. Animals are wiser than we are and seem to stay attuned to nature despite generations of domestication.

The River Trail--a good place for a soul walk

Walking

There are walks...and well, there are walks. Yesterday because it was so hot my daughter and I traded our usual walk around the nearby park for the city's new River Trail which meanders along the Guadalupe River. Cypress trees hung their arms majestically over the trail. Dog walkers with enthusiastic pooches greeted us, and the ducks at the river's edge gave us only passing notice. A turtle paddled lazily in the water under one of the bridges. As my daughter noted, "This may not have been one of our most challenging walks, but it was a good soul walk."

#soulwalk

Life with Furples (Fur People)

There are some people who might think me eccentric but I love my house full of furples--five cats and three dogs. Furples' antics bring me joy. This morning watched my 13-year-old back and gray tabby climb up a red wooden ladder in the atrium, a recent acquisition from the Vintage Gypsy which is a local second chance store. He then found himself in a dilemma. How could he get down? He meowed but refused my help as I monitored the situation. It was interesting to observe his decision-making process. He finally jumped to the first rung, then leaped down. There's a human life metaphor in there somewhere. Furples' medical issues instill deeper compassion and patience in me. My Chocolate Lab has storm anxiety, and I often sit with him during periods of thunder and lightning to comfort him as he trembles. My Siamese kitten has FHV1 and has to take medication daily. Her sweet spirit inspires me. The loss of many of my cats and dogs over the years has taught me much about the grieving process, dying with grace, and appreciation of life since their life spans seem so short. Every time I lose a furple, I think, "No more pets for me. I can't do this again." However, life goes on, and someone who needs me always appears. Honey showed up in the engine of my husband's truck in 2014--a bedraggled classic orange and white tabby kitten with feet burned by the hot engine. Sasha I discovered on the Animal Control website. She was such a tiny, vulnerable-looking Siamese kitten. When I met her at the Freeman-Fritts Shelter, I drowned in her blue eyes! As I grow older, I feel sad thinking that my current furple family may be my last, especially since cats can live 17-20 years. I would not want to leave them alone to become shelter animals. They have taught me acceptance, though, and the power of living in the moment. I appreciate every moment with them.

#myfurfamily

A New Perspective on Pain

I have scoliosis. Mine is a slight right bend at L3-4-5. L3 particularly wants to translate left. In doing so it tugs on the piriformis which in turn pulls on the greater trochanter. A tight piriformis hurts. Trochanter bursitis pain is excruciating and so is the pain and soreness of the iliotibial band which lies peacefully under the trochanter until the knee moves forward. I have been told that my left leg is slightly shorter than the left and that most people with leg length discrepancy will eventually develop scoliosis. Carrying kids on my right hip and heavy purses, computers, and book bags over my shoulder no doubt only worsened the situation. Being a runner for years without proper orthotics was also a contributing factor. Now I pay the price--for genetics, for ignorance. I can't walk for exercise without pain. Yoga helps. Steroid injections help--for a while. Chiropractic care helps. Nothing, however, has been a permanent fix. I am determined to continue serving others through teaching yoga. I will continue to be hopeful for a cure for my pain about which I have a new perspective. One of my students, a middle-aged author, stayed after class yesterday to say, "I needed that. I need you. I will.be back." I had an epiphany, a humbling epiphany, that God has always put me where I need to be in order to help others best. As a middle-aged woman with limitations, I understand the pain and vulnerability of others. My style is slow, gentle, old school yoga. Pain has been my best teacher. For that I am grateful. As Buddhist teachings say, I may be in pain, but I do not have to suffer.

#transformingpain

Waiting for the Big Chill

Saturday, December 17, 2016 It's warm today...,maybe 80 degrees. I am enjoying a cup of apple cider on my front porch. My neighbor Barbara across the street is mowing or more probably just using the mower to pick up leaves. Her husband Pete, who has Parkinson's, is slowly making his way around the driveway sweeping leaves. He isn't making much progress, but I am sure he likes to feel useful. Roofers are hard at work in the next house up with a steady rat-a-tat-tat as they try to finish the job before the Big Chill hits tonight. I worked in the back yard all morning and my daughter helped this afternoon. I raked leaves and lopped back perennials like Esperanzas and hauled them off to the curbside for Monday pickup. Katie mostly lopped tree branches, and with her OCD she's very thorough. My hip hurts as I expected it would--but the work had to be done. I really get tired of the pain and feel frustrated that the steroid shot didn't work apparently. Nature seems to be basking in the warmth and sunshine--much like a vacationer on the last day at the beach. Tomorrow morning we will wake up to WINTER and 60 degrees colder than today. Therefore, I, too, shall bask out here a little while longer.

Quiet Morning

It is so still outside this morning that it is eerie. There is not a breath of air moving. Even the leaves are not falling. It is as if all of nature is holding its breath to see what will happen when Hurricane Matthew hits the coast of Florida.

Fall

There is that suggestion of Fall in the air now...very cool mornings and warm afternoons. I always feel a certain melancholy at this time of transition. Fall puts me in touch with my own mortality.

"I know you're in there somewhere!"

I Remember

Yes, I remember 9/11/2001 as though it were still a present moment. I had just come in from a long, hot walk. My son came into the laundry room where I was standing in a robe and tossing my sweaty clothes--black shorts, as I recall--into the dryer. He told me in urgent tones to come into the living room and watch the tv. A friend had called to wake him up and told him to turn on the tv. I was dumbfounded. My first thoughts were that our country was under attack and we would be going immediately to war in our own homeland. I didn't know with whom. I remember being confused and terrified. I managed to get dressed and go to work but didn't want to be there. My husband worked for a defense contractor and his facility was on lockdown so I couldn't even talk to him. The rest of the day is a blur as we watched those planes hit the towers over and over again. We didn't want to watch but couldn't seem to turn away.

#remembering history

Photography and Yoga

It is no wonder that people fall in love with photography in the same way they fall in love with yoga. There is a deep sense of spirituality and connectedness about photography. It is a perfect example of mindfulness that Eckhart Tolle teaches…catching and recording that breathless moment when the sun sets or the moon rises….noticing and recording the sunlight on a cat’s whiskers. Like mindfulness practice, photography requires being in the now totally, being aware of subtleties of colors and light, of geometric patterns. Being a photographer also teaches that awareness of and acceptance of impermanence, how quickly a moment can shift with just a breath of air–and “"the shot” is gone. In the same ways yoga teaches an awareness and appreciation for the beauty of movement, of patterns of movement, of connectedness within and without.

A Late August Morning

Sometimes I think the only truth is in nature as I watch my garden plants respond to the vicissitudes of rain and drought. Nature does not make promises it cannot keep or lie about what is. It simply IS. It is the ultimate metaphor for acceptance, for finding peace in impermanence.

Walking in the park in the mornings reminds to find delight on the tiniest offerings of beauty.

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