Being Still

I’ve been busy–as evidenced by my absence from this blog. Nothing in particular going on. Just life.

And so when circumstances conspired to give me the gift of a day filled with nothing but silence and solitude I gratefully accepted it with open hands.

I took advantage of the time to play with a couple of prompts from the most recently lesson in Be Still – Fifty Two class.

The first: laundry.

I was delighted to have an opportunity to play with some of the ephemera I had rescued from my grandma’s tiny house a number of years ago before everything was sold off. They were perfect subjects for this prompt.

The next prompt I chose to work with was cuppa.

I considered different interpretations of this prompt as I stepped outside in the cool morning air and saw the columbine near the front door. Columbine is not my favourite flower in fact, truth be told, I tried unsuccessfully to eradicate if from the garden last year. I snipped a few blossoms and I saw them with a fresh set of eyes; they seemed simple and old-fashioned to me. Perfect.

As I tied the stems together with a rough piece of twine and I was reminded of a box of letters I had downstairs. I retrieved the box and spent a pleasant half hour or so browsing through it and reading letters written to me by my parents at various times over the years. Simple . . . news about their day . . . insight into their thoughts . . . treasures.

I couldn’t help but smile at my mom’s sense of humour as I read her words at the end of one letter: I was going to send you some money but I had already sealed the envelope. A small scrap of paper attached to the back of the letter with a note indicating she had, indeed, included a small bit of cash to be spent on something special just for me after all.

And so, my solitary and silent day went on. More photography, a bit of reading, tending plants outside, enjoying the still moments I was gifted with.