Thankslisting 2012

Time to give thanks for the last 12 months.  This year I am thankful for:

1.  Baby Betty in my belly.
2.  My beautiful, creative, increasingly confident Stella, who plays the violin and excels in all subjects.
3.  My beautiful, creative, goofy and joyful Rosie, who is learning (and loves) to read and write.
4.  A new friend.
5.  Seeing Anne Lamott.
6.  Obama's re-election.
7.  Spending time with nineteen or so in-laws this summer.  I won't forget that visit.
8.  Asheville food, art, and grand views.
9.  Seeing another niece born to my birth warrior sister. (This is now on 3 out of 5 Thanksgiving lists on my blog!)
10.  Birthing from Within class.  Care from amazing doulas and midwives.
11.  Facing fears.  Ouch, but ultimately healing. 
12.  My Angels.
13.  The leaves on the trees, the wind that moves them, and the stillness I feel when I see it.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends.  

God, I Hope...

I've been working on a playlist to listen to during birth.  I've got twelve songs, just one short of lucky thirteen.

So yeah, I'm losing sleep, I acquired a case of the blues, and I'm working hard to Take Care these days.  What did I post about autumn?  'Tis the season for courage and sadness.  Winter ahead, but spring ahead too. 

What time will we find out who won today's vote?  God, I hope it's Barack. 

Betty's moving.  It's so amazing to feel it and realize there is a baby inside me.  So close, yet invisible for another two months. 

Last week my van had a flat tire.  We replaced all four.  The next day my van wouldn't start.  We replaced the battery.  The sight of a spare tire is so pathetic.  The roar of a new battery is something, though. 

There's always something.  A roar or a distant howl, new life so close, yet invisible until outside forces and inside forces converge in a moment of pain and beauty and joy so holy and powerful. 

Sounds like hope.  (I may not be missing a song after all.)

She saved the world. A lot.

My alarm clock is about to sound, but I've been awake for some time.  I slept a few hours, after watching the final scene of Buffy season 5.  "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it," Buffy tells Dawn.  "Be brave.  Live."  Then she gives her gift.  Sisters give a special kind of love, and I'm so thankful for it.  I'm thankful for the music I am listening to, the trees in Trexler Park, the old gardener who lead the tigers away, and the divine mother who has always been with me.  That is more than enough for this sleepless soul.

We Cannot Escape Fear

"We cannot escape fear.  We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures..."  ~Susan Jeffers

I'm learning so much about fear this year!  (It ain't so scary.)

2 Jokes & a Sketch

Here are two jokes I've been working on:

Q: What did the river say when a wayfarer tried to stop its flow?
A: "I'll be damned!"

(That one's better spoken aloud than written.)

And:

Q: What is the destiny of a silent frog?
A: Someday he'll croak.

Ha!

Finally, a sketch I doodled today while waiting in the carpool line:

 

 

Check out the mug on this guy!

 

 

 

 

 

I make my own fun.  :)