Things that are happy - small but significant.

THE GREAT WAVE-HOKUSAI - image

So it's been quite a week. or quite a number of weeks. i was talking to a friend recently and saying how i felt like i had been hit by a particularly grueling wave set, recently. Like in the ocean (yeah yeah, california girl... making ocean metaphors...) the waves come in sets... three, six, ten at a time, and then there's a period of calm. 

and i feel like i've been ducking waves for the past month, coming up for a quick breath and then heading back down to avoid getting thrown... but i'm hoping that the set has passed, and that i'll have some time to ... maybe just tread water and try to remember where i was headed before all of this... 

and there are certainly some things to be glad about. excellent times with family, i gained a beautiful new sister-in-law :), long talks with good friends. and all the little things that can somehow both lift and quiet your spirit. things like 

the fact that there are mustaches in my pencil jar:

Laughing like this:

Going on Nature Walks and making collections:

These sunny jonquils:

Good buddies:

Sunset Picnics:

These awesome faces:

and all the lovely things bursting into bloom outdoors. in the spring i always want to be out. the house is always messier and the yard always cleaner... mostly because outside looks like this:

my neighbor's frog :) anni calls him whiskers.. for some inscrutable reason. 

little bird

and because there is, finally, GRASS!! 

living in the high desert... grass is a big deal. the kids plopped down and rolled around in it for a good long while. long enough to get all itchy and happy. 

What about you? what are the things that lift and fill you when you're hollowed-out by life?

slow and easy,

-shawnacy