Back in 2013 I wrote a post about an article I read depicting the traditional lifestyle of Transylavanian hay farmers.  In the article the photographer interviewed a young woman, and what she said has stayed with me all this time. The young woman's name was Maria:

One woman she (Ms. Effendi) photographed, Maria, 23, was pregnant and working in the field when they met. She spoke more English than most villagers and told Ms. Effendi that she and her husband had spent a year in France, where he worked in construction. But she missed their home in the fields, and they returned.

In Maramures, Maria told Ms. Effendi, she has room for activity of the mind. People in France were preoccupied with the daily distractions of urban life, and they didn’t have any room left for “beautiful thoughts.” (A Fairy Tale in Transylvania: NYTimes Lens)

When I consider all of the troubles of our times, the senseless violence, moral confusion, disparity, oppression, inequality, antagonism, hopelessness, etc. I wonder what would happen if we allowed our minds to only dwell on beautiful thoughts.

♥

Spring came in breathtaking splendor at the beginning of May and lasted just two weeks. The pear trees that line our lane looked like brides in white lace. 

 "The soul that does not attach itself solely to the will of God will find neither satisfaction nor sanctification in any other means, however excellent by which it may attempt to gain them. If that which God Himself chooses for you does not content you, from whom do you expect to obtain what you desire?... It is only just, therefore, that the soul that is dissatisfied with the divine action for each present moment should be punished by being unable to find happiness in anything else."
— Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, p. 14 Abandonment to Divine Providence

This week is the first one of the entire year that there are no doctors' appointments on the calendar. YAY!!!  The last few months have been so busy, I don't feel like I have had time to come up for air.
So far, the year has not turned out the way I expected it to, but a very long time ago, I learned to surrender my expectations and turn my heart to the needs of the moment and the well-being of those I love. However, I cannot say with any degree of honesty that I am always content/satisfied with the way things are. But, if I could think beautiful thoughts in the midst of every moment, regardless of what happens within that moment, I can see the result would be, if not "happiness" the way most people define it, then at least peace. 

But, it is by far easier to "count our blessings" than it is to acknowledge that all is blessing. Especially when quite a lot of life involves suffering that is beyond our ability to control.

Our little chicken flock is only two now: Trixie and Henrietta. They are seven years old and still giving us eggs. I love keeping chickens, but I wouldn't do it again unless I lived in the countryside. Rodents have been an annoyingly relentless problem for us for the last year and a half. We have cats, but don't dare let them outside in this busy neighborhood after our dear Mischief was killed by a car a few years ago, when he was just three years old.

One of my favoritest things about springtime is the annual warbler migration. I love bird watching, but the window of opportunity for good viewing is a short one in New England, and I pretty much missed it this year due to family obligations. Still, there are plenty of backyard birds to watch: orioles, house finches, cardinals, hummingbirds, and blue jays. Sometimes, Love sends a golden bird to sing right outside your window.

And the kittens. 🐱 🐱 So much cuteness! Even the word kitten is nice. Rhys and Wyatt are six and a half months old now. Wyatt loves making death defying leaps onto the tops of book cases and playing in the kitchen sink:

We went to Boston on May 5th for the Pugs Take Boston event at Boston Common  It was a gloriously, lovely day with every tree in full blossom.

Elvis had a marvelous time. That's him wearing the red leash, and next to him in the neon yellow harness is a quite famous pug called Mochi . He has his own instagram account, comic strip, and even books. 

We had a lot of fun meeting other pugs and their owners. Afterward, we enjoyed looking at the beautiful architecture of the City.

I loved this house on Beacon Street. There were bluebells growing in front of the basement windows:

And now, only two weeks later, summer has arrived to our backyard. The trees are lushly green and fully leafed out.

We celebrated my baby's twelfth birthday last Thursday! When he was born, he was two pounds heavier than any of my other babies, and my older kids nicknamed him the "Big Show". Now, at twelve, he is nearly six feet tall--the tallest in our family!

Wishing everyone a Beauty-filled week. ♥

Love and roses,
Sue

 

 

I have sunlight in the morning 

in shades of gold and red,

And the songbirds serenade me

before I'm out of bed

I have flowers in my garden

fit for a queen's bouquet

And I know that God has blessed me

before I kneel to pray.

I have food for my table 

and some that I can share.

God's goodness and His mercy

follow me everywhere.

I have a family to love me

and friends to see me through,

But best of all, God's promise...

All this, and heaven too!

~Clay Harrison

I've had this poem tucked between the pages of my Bible for years and years.  Although many things have changed in my life, this poem was true when I first read it, and it is still true today.  

My tiny postage stamp sized garden has already given us peas, radishes, tons and tons of salad greens, strawberries, and loads of broccoli (which I spent one sunny morning harvesting, blanching, and freezing--enough to last us the whole summer). We just planted some seeds and seedlings for a summer harvest:  tomatoes, green beans, two kinds of cucumbers, banana peppers, and zucchini. It's a very small garden with a small number of plants, but it's easy for me to manage, and it produces an amazing amount of food.

But, of course, if I could grow only one thing it would be roses. 🌹  (Although, I could be a very happy girl with just some sunflower and zinnia seeds, too.)

I haven't posted much about the piggies lately. Honey and Blossom are big girls now. They love to play outside in the dappled shade of the trees and eat watermelon. The other day a big bunny came by and said hello while they were out. Do you remember the nest of baby bunnies in my teeny tiny strawberry patch last summer? There are new babies under the bushes in our front yard. We love to watch them come out and nibble the clover. Everywhere in the neighborhood there are rabbits hopping and munching. It's like heaven for me.

Here's a little video of the piggies munching a big lettuce leaf from the garden:

For breakfast today I made blueberry corn cakes. This is a recipe from Susan Branch's newest book, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams. This may be my favoritest book ever. It is so beautiful, the story of her life so captivating, and it is filled to bursting with Susan's sweet watercolor illustrations, photographs, vintage postcards, inspiring quotes, and simple, delicious recipes. 

 Here's how to make blueberry corn cakes:

Add 1 egg and a 1/2 cup of milk to a package of Jiffy corn muffin mix. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in 1 cup of blueberries. Spoon batter onto greased skillet and sprinkle corn cake with cinnamon. Fry slowly and flip when edges are golden. Serve with lots of butter and warm maple syrup. Makes 8 pancake size corn cakes.

 ♥♥♥

  

 

  

The view from the pediatric ward on the 18th floor of Massachusetts General Hospital is spectacular. I spent a lot of time contemplating it last week and drinking tea from a paper cup and writing a letter to a friend while Amy slept. It was her fourth hospitalization in twelve months. Sometimes my life doesn't seem real even to me. So I almost understand when people make insensitive remarks. I can only say that I wish I were making up my circumstances "for attention" rather than living them. I really do. Because, on a single day last week my washing machine died, my brother-in-law Joe had a heart attack, and Amy had to be rushed to the hospital (for the second time in a week). But, I am thankful, because even though the unemployment has run out the washing machine can be replaced, my brother-in-law's surgery went well, and my Amy is back home. That is enough. Yet even so, the roses are blooming, the weather is blessedly mild and cool, and God put a rainbow right over our house.

*♥*

While I was in the hospital with Amy, I was thinking about my very early childhood and playing in the back garden of the house in which I grew up. I think I've written before about that house and its ghosts, but I'm not sure if I've ever written about the wonderful old back garden with it's cherry, pear, and sassafras trees, the pussy willow bush, the big, shady Norway maple (who was such a good friend to me), and all of the sweet flowers where the fairies hid: crocuses, jonquils, white bluebells, tulips, forget-me-nots, and wild phlox. My parents did not care for gardening, so there were weeds aplenty, including deadly nightshade with dainty purple flowers and bright red berries. As a very little girl, I loved the nightshade best of all. But, my mother sternly warned me not to eat any part of that plant, as it was highly poisonous. So, I never did. Not even when my cousin taunted and dared me. I believed my mother and trusted her with my whole heart.

Adam and Eve, the first man and first woman--the every man and every woman--lived in the Presence of Love, and chose to believe a liar and a lie. It poisons our very souls.

In the past few years, the circumstances of my life have changed in profound ways, and there was nothing I could do about any of it. I had no choice at all. The culture chirps a lot about choice, as if the point of free will is about your career, your health club, your car, or your handbag. But, I have come to understand that free will was given to us to answer one question only: Who will you follow: Love or Evil?

"I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him."   Deuteronomy 30:19&20

Choose life!

  

At 4 am there was such a loud clap of thunder that it shook the house and woke everyone. At first I didn't know what was happening. My heart pounded so hard I couldn't breathe. I briefly wondered if there had been an explosion (this is not such an odd thing to think; every year at least one or two houses explode for no known reason in Massachusetts. Strange, huh?) A few minutes later there was a bright flash and another loud, house-shaking bang. Then it was as if someone opened a valve and rain poured from the sky for an hour. It was still raining when I got up this morning. I went out to my tiny garden and was amazed by how it had grown overnight. 

It has been a cool, wet spring; good weather for knitting, for walking in the woods, and for growing radishes, lettuces, broccoli, spinach and peas. 

 

Tomorrow they are saying it will reach 90°. It is hard to believe, since the high today is 63°. I am not looking forward to such a dramatic change in temperature. I've had enough drama in the past two years to last me a life time. I want only soft, gentle days; the kind in which the mail jeep and yellow birds in the garden are the most exciting events. 

See this little red-squirrel? She is a mama fat with babies. I love her. 

And, I love my domestic, feminine place on the Earth, hidden beneath the arms of Christ. I don't want anything else.

 

 Oh, and these frosted banana cookies are very good, too:

Oven 375°

Grease a cookie sheet. Stir together 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. In a mixer bowl beat 1/2 cup butter for 30 seconds. Add 1 cup granulated sugar and beat till fluffy. Add 2 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients and 1 cup of very ripe mashed banana alternately to the beaten mixture, beating after each addition. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Drop from a teaspoon 2 inches apart on a well-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from cookies sheet immediately, cool on a wire rack. Frost cooled cookies with Banana Butter Frosting. Makes 60

Banana Butter Frosting: Stir together 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup mashed banana, 2 tablespoons softened butter, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; mix well. If necessary, add additional powdered sugar to make of spreading consistency.

April in Massachusetts. Two days of snow. You really can't think about packing up your winter boots and woolens until May in New England. At any moment the weather may turn. ❆

Honey and Blossom are getting bigger each day. So far they are very charming pets. They love to be  cuddled, which is quite nice, and they make soft little adorable sounds. As I wrote in my last post, it's the little things. ♥

This morning I read the loveliest reflection on the Holy Mother, who is to me eternal spring:

God sent one of his messengers to one of his creatures. The all-powerful One none has ever looked upon, to whom it costs nothing to make worlds without number, approached a maiden poor and hidden, who at the same time longed ardently for the coming of the Messiah; who summed up in her great heart--great because sweet and humble, a heart ready to believe, to accept, to receive--all the expectation of Israel. It is even more wonderful than the sun seeking a single violet in all the earth to unfold it.

When the nuptial hour of the Word and of mankind arrived, this Virgin of virgins alone was found ready, completely ready in her beauty.

She was ready because she was free. She did not need to prepare herself, for she lived in perfect detachment. She lived only for her God; she would not let a single shadow cast by a creature fall across her inner life. Her detachment was absolute because it came from love and the love of this Virgin could bear no compromise. . .

Her heart was wholly his, always he found her prepared, always ardently longing for him, and always she complied with his smallest wishes, fully and wholeheartedly.

What a happy sight for the joy and refreshment of our souls--a sight consoling in its serenity and splendor. This soul so sweet, filled with the Infinite Goodness, awaiting the greatest event that could happen on the earth--the birth of its God. And, thronged about with Seraphs and Cherubs prostrate before the Treasure which she bears, yet remaining the most tranquil of all creatures, the calmest, and the furthest from all anxiety; the readiest to sympathize and understand. 

written by Mother Marie de Douleurs († 1983).

Isn't it beautiful?