Category: gratitude

Changes · gratitude · vision

A Word with My Blog

Joanne4 Comments
Journalling my thoughts

Dear Blog,

Oh, how I have neglected you in recent times! I promise you, I have not forgotten you at all, constantly being aware of your existence, wishing to spend time with you, yet other commitments have seemed far more urgent than visiting you.

Well, at the time, I thought they took priority over contacting you to let you know I cared, assuring you that you were still a significant aspect of my life.

I knew that you were there, patiently awaiting my return. But were you really?

Just this Saturday, spending time in the garden, thinking of you, taking photographs which you may enjoy, missing you, intending to visit with you when I came back indoors….

Where were you, when I came looking for you? Stolen from my grasp. Gone.

Were you lost somewhere in cyberspace? Did they treat you well, the strangers who invaded you, taking you from my reach?

Did you know that the moment I found you were missing, I sent out a search party?

Did you know how I missed you and longed for your return?

We are so lucky to have the friend who returned you to me, seemingly unharmed and fully intact. Adjustments have now been made and I do hope that you are now well and truly out of harms reach.

Not that I could have ever imaged you were in danger to begin with! I thought you were safe, each time I bid you farewell and left you safely accepting visits from our online friends.

How could I have known otherwise?

Not to worry. Now you’re back and I will not neglect you again.

You are still my trusted friend, my special place where I wish to continue recording my thoughts, findings and photographs.

Hopefully, our friends will continue to enjoy visiting us, as you and I build on what we have and grow together, just as we will continue to visit our online friends.

Who knows, perhaps we will find new friends during our continuing journey together!

I have plans for our future. Spending time without you has given me the opportunity to consider what our future will bring, the changes we will make to improve upon what we already have.

Be patient, Dear Blog, ‘til I return, tomorrow.


 

Australia · gratitude · happiness

Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Mountains

Joanne2 Comments

The theme for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge for this week is irresistible to me, being “mountains” and it’s the easiest photo ever to come up with, considering my recent trip to the Blue Mountains, where I visited the world-famous “Three Sisters”.

Mountains have the power to move me; to make my soul sing; to bring an overwhelming feeling within my heart that everything is, and always will be, right with the world.

Mountains bring a smile to my face. I lose track of time when I look at a mountain, any mountain, even if it is just a photo of mountains I am looking at.

However, whenever I have the rare and fortunate opportunity to visit “The Three Sisters” all of the above feelings are magnified, one thousand times over.

These massive rocks, the surrounding mountains and the valley below simply take my breath away! 🙂

daughter · gratitude · happiness · Mum · son · traditions

Mother’s Day 2011

Joanne4 Comments
A recent photo of me with my two beautiful daughters, Hayley and Emma.

Mother’s Day comes and goes on one day of every year, year in and year out.

In a perfect world, we would show appreciation to our mothers every single day of the year. I for one didn’t realise the extent of my own mother’s feelings toward me and my sisters until I actually became a mother myself.

When I finally “got it”, (better late than never!) I constantly tried to show my mother the total appreciation, love and gratitude I felt towards her.

The “job” of being a mother isn’t an easy one. If you do not have children yet, and do hope to be a mother one day, if anyone ever tells you it’s easy being a mother ~ they’re lying!

When your new, precious little bundle is placed into your arms for the first time, with the flood of love and emotion you feel for your precious newborn baby, you may be fooled into believing that that’s as good as it gets.

Wrong!

Being a mother of four myself, I have learned that the first love you feel for your baby is only the beginning. The love just grows.

It can sometimes be an overwhelming love, distorting your usual calm and sensible demeanor, reducing you to tears. Other times, your love for your child can rage out of control, as you feel total panick for the well-being of your child, who doesn’t always make decisions for their life which you would regard as well advised decisions!

When your child finally reaches the ripe old age of eighteen years, a time when they are “mature” enough to head out into the world all alone, making their own decisions for themselves, you may be tricked into thinking you can stop worrying about them, finally.

Wrong, again!

Three of my four children have passed their eighteenth birthdays now. Take it from me, you still care, you still worry, you still wish for your child the most wonderful life, filled with amazing people.

To all of the mothers out there, who one day took the giant leap of the ultimate responsibility on earth by becoming a mum, I wish you the happiest of days on this Mother’s Day, 2011.

We all deserve a day to put our feet up and relax, don’t you think?

birthdays · friends · gratitude

Enough Love for Every Day

Joanne1 Comment

“A birthday is just the first day of another 365 day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip”. ~ Author Unknown.

It was my birthday a couple of day ago. I don’t like to think of how old I am these days. A wise person once said, “You are only as old as you feel”. If I keep on reminding myself how old I really am, I may start to feel old! It’s better to forget your age, I have decided.

Having said that, I quite like having a birthday. It’s a day for me, just me, when I indulge myself by doing whatever I feel like doing. If I don’t feel like cleaning the kitchen I have a great excuse, “It’s my birthday”! If I want to watch a particular programme on TV, the same applies, if one of the kids wants to watch their shows. I remind them, it’s my birthday.

I guess it could be called emotional blackmail, or even a guilt trip. So what? I only get one day a year when I can do this, which is totally out of character for me. Funnily enough, I get my way.

“Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional”. ~ Chili Davis.

After an incredibly delicious meal on the night (which I had organised but the family cooked) it was too late to clean up the kitchen. We stacked the dishwasher and went to bed, leaving the unwashed pans and the “not suitable for the dishwasher” crockery sitting dirty on the kitchen bench.

Did the cleaning fairies appear overnight and clean up the mess? Ha…ha…ha…as if they would!

So, before leaving for work the next morning I cleaned up the kitchen. Isn’t their always a price to pay? That’s what I get for using emotional blackmail on my family ‘coz it was my birthday!

On a brighter note, I had a great long list of “Happy Birthday” messages left on my Facebook page. Now, that was really, really nice! Some messages came from family and friends, but many of them were from my blogger friends. After I have been given so much by these people, in their sharing of their thoughts, ideas, photographs and wisdom, I am further rewarded by their kind words on my birthday. It doesn’t get much better than that!

“Friendship isn’t a big thing, it’s a million little things”. ~ Author Unknown.

I really must check the birthday announcements on Facebook more often. I just, well, forget to look! The birthdays column really isn’t in the most eye-catching position. Perhaps those in Facebook Land should look at making the birthday notices more prominent.

After the warmth I received from my friends wishes, I really must make an extra effort to check those birthday announcements.

Or, even better still, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all remembered to send our friends and family warm wishes every time we have contact with them? Why wait until it’s their birthday? 🙂

“Three things of life that are most valuable – Love, self-confidence and friends”. ~ Author Unknown.

 

Australia · autumn · gratitude · Mount Warning · Tweed Valley

Autumn Sunset

Joanne6 Comments
An autumn sunset over Mount Warning

“How fine has the day been, how bright was the sun,

How lovely and joyful the course that he run!

Though he rose in a mist when his race he begun,

And there followed some droppings of rain:

But now the fair traveller’s come to the west,

His rays are all gold, and his beauties are best;

He paints the skies gay as he sinks to his rest,

And foretells a bright rising again.” ~ Isaac Watts.

With summer now behind us, Mother Nature has taken it upon herself to have her last hoorah of hot summer’s days and nights, which we know to expect during the months of the summer season.

During this afternoon, I noticed the temperature had reached 31 degrees Celsius, a hot day for this time of year.

But when you see the brilliant red formations of clouds in the western sky late in the day, it is so worth the unseasonal heat!

Following my previous photos of Mount Warning, The Mesmerising Mountain, I just had to add yet another magical photo to the series. How could I resist?

“Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glows In yonder West : the fair, frail palaces, The fading Alps and archipelagoes, And great cloud-continents of sunset-seas.” ~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Looking to the west of Mount Warning