Blog Archives - A Cottage by the Sea

December 31, 2019

12/31/2019

Today, New Year’s Eve, is a pivotal day for me: the first day being 80 years old, the last day before a new decade. It is also a cottage day, that is until this evening when we go to friends for early supper.
It’s been many years since I’ve forced myself to stay up to watch the Time Square ball drop, and I have no intention of doing so tonight. Twenty years ago I watched the new millennium make its grand entrance around the world, clearly a once in a lifetime happening.

Great weather all week

12/21/2019

The forecast for the the week and into the weekend is made for holiday (and birthday) travel. Temperature in the high 30s, and a combo of sun and clouds. Very grateful.

Don't worry about the weather

12/20/2019

It's going to be a beautiful day.

I live more in the future than in the past; I don’t worry about what’s going to happen. For the most part, I ‘know’ everything is going to be okay, actually more than okay. I’m an optimist, which is a definitely plus to living in the present moment.
However, I am currently facing a challenge to stay in the NOW, working hard not to obsess about the weather, specifically next weekend when family is gathering to help me celebrate my 80th birthday at the Wayside Inn. What Jim and I can’t get home from Lancaster, PA? What if family can’t make it from Connecticut, Vermont, or even venues in Massachusetts?
Let it go, I tell myself. You’ve done this before, and it all worked out. I don’t recall even thinking about the possibility of a snowstorm when Jim and I got married December 28th back in 1963. Say in the NOW.

Another Cottage Day

12/16/2019

Another Cottage Day, another day writing at the library. I want to report that I’ve given myself high marks for staying away from the news. I didn’t listen all weekend, nor did I tune in this morning. I feel a shift back to purpose that I can control and meaning to which I can contribute.

Renewal at the library

12/14/2019

Today is a Cottage Day. I’m replicating as best I can those winter days at the cottage by the sea that I rented from 2009-2014. It’s not hard to begin if I do nothing more than keep the TV off. During those five seasons I only recall turning it on twice: once to watch President Obama accept the Nobel Peace Prize, and once to check the weather.
How easy it has been to be drawn into the impeachment drama. Addictions come in many forms; my absorption in news has taken me away my longing to live a life in solitude, silence and simplicity. This morning that longing returned and I found myself making a conscious commitment not to check in with the news today.
Instead, I walked across the street to the library and here I sit in a comfortable chair in the original octagonal building of 1863. No TV then or now.

Be hopeful, let go of frustration

12/11/2019

Hope

I’m feeling a little frustrated with my blog server. I add a picture, click ‘post’, and the wrong picture appears—a picture from a recent post, or from my other blog. Ah, you ask: you I have two blogs? Yes, this one, and www.aprayerdiary.net.
Enough about my frustration of misplace photos, enough negativity, enough of the blame game. Hopefully, my blogs are positive, one about silence, solitude, and simplicity, the other about my faith journey.
So, as you continue your day, which could be filled with frustration about the weather, the negative language by the president, blah blah blah, I hope you will stay positive and go out and do something for others, something that will bring peace to them and the world. AMEN

Eckhart Tolle tells me to pay attention

12/8/2019

While in the car I’ve been listening to Eckhart Tolle read his Power of Now. His message is simple; pay attention.
• stay in the present moment and let go of thoughts
• when tending to a task in time, pay attention to what you are doing
• be aware of your body

As I try to pay attention, I am amazed at how easily my thoughts keep taking over. My biggest amazement, however, is how uselessness, repetitive, and judgment those thought are.
Try this. Take a walk and attempt to stay present. When a thought arises, notice it and ask yourself: What’s the point of going over that experience again? What judgments, subtle or obvious, come up? Don’t dwell on this analysis for too long, nor repeat it every time a thought comes—you’ll get the point the first time, and that will be enough. Answer the questions quickly and return to the present moment.

Winter walk

12/4/2019

I drove up the street to Our Lady of Fatima’s parking lot yesterday to start my afternoon walk because the walkway I usually take to get to the back roads, was too icy. Truth be told, I was tempted to stay home and read my book. Need I say, I’m very grateful I got off the couch. The pictures say it best.

First snowfall

12/3/2019

The first snowfall of the season has lifted me into a comforting mood of solitude. A winter wonderland before winter officially begins. An interlude between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A snowstorm that feels like the calm before the storm.
No place to go, no reason to search for one. Books on the table, leftover turkey in the refrigerator, firewood in the wood box, jigsaw puzzle laid out.
No power outage to halt computer messages or the TV from blurting out breaking news. Ah, but I can always push the OFF button for all three-- silence, solitude and simplicity.

I heard a bird sing

12/1/2019

Betsy Thompson

I heard a bird sing
   In the dark of December
A magical thing
   And sweet to remember.
“We are nearer to Spring
   Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
           By Oliver Herford