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Time for reading~

12/30/2016

     My reading list is growing, mainly through Face Book friends. I suggested GRATITUDE, by Oliver Sacks. Here’s a quote that has resonated with me and helped me find the time for more reading.

     “I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work, and my friends. I shall no longer look at the NewsHour every night. I shall no longer pay any attention to politics or arguments about global warming.
     “This is not indifference but detachment—I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future. I rejoice when I meet gifted young people—even the one who biopsied and diagnosed my metastases. I feel the future is in good hands.”

     What do we choose to do with our time—chronos (sequential time) and kairos (spiritual—the opportune or supreme moment)? Sacks wrote this after being diagnosed with cancer. I am healthy, but the message speaks to me.

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2017 Reading Challenge

12/28/2016

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My birthday is coming up. From years of experience (plus sharing my birthday with my sister), I am well aware that birthday gifts are hard to come by at the end of December. This year, all I am asking for is the title of a book people think I would enjoy. I’m getting ready to join the 2017 Goodreads Reading Challenge. If I choose to read a book a week, I will definitely need suggestions.
Everyone has a birthday, so when yours come up, or even before, here is my birthday recommendation to you: Into the Magic Shop, by James R. Doty, MD, and Gratitude, by Oliver Sacks.

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End of the year gratitudes~

12/26/2016

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Time to review end of the year gratitudes, rather than dwell on what seems not to have gone well. As my mom used to say, “Every day I’m thankful for my family, my health, and my life.” I add “my faith” to that.
Here are ten other things that come off the top of my head as I write.
1. The sun on the tree outside my window.
2. My eye sight so I can read.
3. Trips to Italy.
4. My church community that flies GLBT flags.
5. Sticky cinnamon buns from The Publick House in Sturbridge.
6. Eight years of President Obama.
7. All who helped refugees from drowning in the Mediterranean.
8. Jigsaw puzzles.
9. My fitness to walk.
10. That I am never lonely.

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Christmas trees through the years

12/22/2016

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Tree is sitting on a table.

     It’s quiet at our house right now before Christmas. Family is arriving tomorrow. This year we have a smaller tree, one in a pot to be planted after the holidays. It’s small; we have to carry it. I think about the tree my dad cut down from our woods when I was growing up. One year he decided it would only have blue lights, and I recall being a little disappointed at that. But that’s he only disappointment he ever gave me, so how lucky was I? VERY!
     When our kids were little we purchased our tree from the Boy Scouts. The lights that I bought way back then started shorting last year—they were old—so I threw them out before disaster happened. Now we have little ones, which match our little tree, and which are safe.
    Christmas traditions change, but they also stay the same. Memories through the years, and new memories being created. Very grateful!

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Revisiting the three sieves

12/19/2016

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Well“ Socrates says with a smile, “If the story you're about to tell me isn't true, kind or necessary, just forget it...“
I never know when it’s time to revisit the three sieves. Someone says something to me, and they appear. I get told something that may be true, but it sure doesn’t feel kind or necessary. It’s gossip, that’s what it is, and gossip is never kind.
The other day I was told something that definitely wasn’t kind or necessary for me to know, but now that I know it, I can’t erase it from my mind. Perhaps I can release it’s negative energy and power, and be attentive, to the possibility that I am capable of such gossip.

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Farewell morning walk in Florence~

12/16/2016

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   It’s a challenge to stay present to the moment on my last day here. I’ve tried to do just that, living here day by for these past twelve days.
    My final early morning walk about the city is over, and now am sitting at a favorite café with my usual cappucchino and brioche. It is located on Piazza Spirito, Oltrarno, on the other side of the Arno, the artisan district of the city, where locals come in to sip coffee and read the paper. This morning an elderly gentleman is doing just that. Two different friends have stopped by and told him stories of woe about their dog and their job. He looks up from his paper, listens, but doesn’t say a thing; on they go and he returns to his reading.
     I’m interested in ways people listen. Some are really good at it. Like this man, who doesn’t speak, and yet they come.

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Sunny day in Florence~

12/15/2016

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    It is 10 o’clock; I have walked three miles and am now enjoying my second cappucchino.
It’s sunny today. The morning sun on the Arno opens up a spirit of hope within me. Childhood memories, precipitated by yesterday’s rain, haven’t come forth today. Sun makes me more forward thinking.
     Although I’ll be flying home the day after tomorrow, I’m trying not to dwell on the logistics of that long day, nor perseverate on the exciting Christmas holiday that awaits me—both with a dearth of silence, solitude, and simplicity. And what about a date when I can return here for another couple of weeks of silence, solitude and simplicity? I going to put off thinking about that until after the holidays.
    I want to stay in the moment on this glorious day. Whenever my mind wanders, I look around and take in the beauty of this awesome city.

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Rainy day in Florence~

12/14/2016

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It’s raining here. Hearing the rain this morning while sitting in Santa Trinita activitated vivid memories of those rainy days of my childhood, those days called latency before imaginative play becomes tempered by hormones. On such Saturdays or summer days I always knew my mom would give me the entire rainy day to live alone in my world. She never pried or spied; she had deep respect for the individual’s journey and knew that privacy was a necessary ingredient.
A rainy day continues to catapult me back to childhood. Those memories energize the spiritual longing I have now. I have always been walking with God, knowing that rain is serious, rain is profound, and rain is hopeful. I walk and play in it, and then embrace a sunny day.

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Firenze Flight Festival~

12/11/2016

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Every evening I walk by my favorite spot along the Arno and see a spectacular show of lights on the Ponte Vecchio. Check out the ‘Firenze Flight Festival’ on YouTube. No words of mine are necessary.
I would, however, like to tell you about this favorite spot. I must have picked out on my first visit here with my parents in 1956 because I have a little black and white photo that I took or the exact spot. Why is the only photo I kept from that brownie camera of mine? Over the years I’ve stood at the spot where I can look west toward the bridge and north through the Uffizi courtyard to the Piazza della Signoria. My ancient photo is back at home; when I return I’ll post it, along with a pen an ink illustration of dad’s.

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Morning church walk in Florence

12/11/2016

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Even though I am living in this city for only two weeks, right now it is my home. So I decided to take an early morning walk to survey the major churches that have been a large part of the city’s history and that draw me here. These churches as we know them today were built, often on preexisting foundations, toward the end of the thirteen century to accommodate a rising city population. Although subsidized by city government, many represented a particular religious order.
I started this solitary walk at Santa Maria dei Fiori, stopping along the way to take pictures of each façade, and to enjoy a couple of cappucchini. Last church, Santa Croce.

Santa Marie dei Fiori: Cathedral church of Florence
Santissima Annunziata: Servites
San Marco: Domenican
Santa Maria Novella: Domenican
Ognisanti: Umilita
Santa Maria del Carmine: Carmelite
Santo Spirito: Augustinian
Santa Trinita: Vallumbrosan
Badia Fiorentina: Fraternity of Jerusalem
Santa Croce: Franciscan

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