Simplicity

Seems like forever - time is a mystery, for sure.  I have been struggling with the new design of 'blogger' - finding it hard to navigate and explore with any confidence. Add to that a feeling of  'not-much-to-say' and so be my lack of posting.  I get around and read and comment on your blogs (most) but even that is a chore at times given the new design. The font is so light that I can barely see it.  Oh my, enough complaining, right?

Today is a Spring 'nor-easter', driving rains and wind. The rains are good for our garden and the new grass seed Skipp planted.  He worked hard turning the soil and picking out the rocks. The wood pile, well, what is left of it is stacked and covered just beyond the woods edge - along with kindling and branches left from the October blizzard - our deck is cleaned and set up and ready for grilling and outside barbecue and morning cups of coffee.  All-in-all, life is good and simple and right on the edge of change.

Skipp has to find gainful employment within the next two+ months or, well, I shudder to think.   It is a tough market out there - my Mom is hanging in -she broke her tail bone (coccyx)-,  very painful. She continues to inspire us with her faith and courage.  I think they go hand-in-hand.

We have our Mother's day gathering all planned.  Jennifer is making manicotti and meatballs, my Sis is making the salad and getting the Italian bread, and we are bringing dessert - a carrot cake w/cream cheese frosting, and the wine.  And there you have it.    I always get my Sis the bouquet with three sunflowers. I have been doing this for almost 10 years now - since Clayton died.  Such a tragic loss. And it has become tradition for a few years now to get my Mom a gardenia corsage.  And so they are ordered.

I continue to manage the symptoms of MS and manage the pain as well.  Some days are really difficult. Scary even.  Still we laugh and enjoy and give thanks, for so much beyond the MS.  I guess all things considered, simplicity with all its layers is how we live.  I think it is simple now because we stopped fighting against or even for - there is a place of strength and truth in between those two forces where we live, simply I suppose.  Oh and that doesn't mean we don't try or adjust or compromise or surrender or face whatever is before us, we do.  I am just saying that we live simply in our reality - sometimes that means we cry, other times laugh, some days we have a lot of fun, some days I can barely move from the couch, some days I/we ask "why" some days we don't, we pray, even beg, we resign, even give in, we believe, some times we doubt, we are courageous, and also afraid at times, we have faith, some times we throw our hands up in the air and walk away, - and so it goes, and so it goes, simplicity and its many layers.  Right?

Above is a monastery near our home -  they are a cloistered order - doesn't get any simpler than that, or does it?