Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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my aha moment experience

What’s an “aha moment?” Here is the answer offered on the Mutual of Omaha website:

It’s a moment of clarity, a defining moment where you gain real wisdom – wisdom you can use to change your life. Whether big or small, funny or sad, they can be surprising and inspiring. Each one is unique, deeply personal, and we think, worth sharing.

A few months ago I received an email from the Mutual of Omaha group inviting me to participate in a little video campaign. I have to admit, at first it seemed like spam. I was like, suuuuuuuure you want to make a video of me with no ulterior motives or checking accounts in Nigeria. Then I looked into it a bit more and thought, well my gosh. This might be pretty cool after all. So I made an appointment to record at the Myriad gardens and went about my life. I knew my “aha moment” worth sharing would have something to do with positive vibes and the power of imagination. I loosely rehearsed a sentence of two in my head but did not take it any further. For once in my life I was under-scripted. Ha!

Fast forward to a bright, summery day in downtown Oklahoma City. I arrived at the recording spot which was a very cool Airstream trailer and met three of the friendliest people ever born. One guy even wore a trendy mustache. I know. They welcomed me, told me what to expect (which was much more than I had bargained for) and we sat down to record. It was intimidating, all this production; in fact, the only thing that could have made me more nervous is a frog touching my skin. But it was all still lots of fun!

aha moment

Although I only had a sentence or two rehearsed in my mind, the young woman conducting the interview had a slew of gentle, focused prompts to help me tell more of a story. Somehow, owing only to her professionalism and not my verbal skills, we got enough recorded for the video experts to splice together and make about a two-minute video. So, if you can ignore my almost purple face, excessive necklaces, and very shaky voice, because talking is NOT my favorite thing to do, then you might like at least part of this little video clip:

my aha moment   There is so much behind and beyond this, though. Since my “aha moment” has really been a slow evolution, I have a million more things to say about it and am writing background for you, an outline of the reading material and breaks in life storms that have brought me this far. I hope you check back in for that too!

aha moment flowers and plaque

  Have you had an aha moment? What do you think of mine, do you think I’m crazy, or do you agree that imagination is incredibly powerful? Have you browsed around any of the other recorded moments? Lots of cool people in Oklahoma participated. Check them out! Worry is a misuse of the imagination. ~Dan Zadra XOXOXOXO

stormy pause

We woke to more steady, drenching rain, the kind that hypnotizes you, plus generous crashes of thunder. At some point overnight we lost power, too, so the house was warm and quiet, dark despite the hour. Thick, woolly clouds smothered virtually all of our sunrise. We caught just a shimmer of brilliant lightning first in one peripheral and then another, but mostly we felt the muted dark.

The geese honked contentedly. A rooster crowed from inside the coop. The llamas sat on their verdant hill, facing west, right out in the open, getting soaked and more comical looking by the minute. (Have you ever seen a really wet llama?)

No electricity means no coffee*, but that’s okay. It also means a willful, pressing quiet. It means the isolated staccato of rain falling in our chimney. Stillness around me, absent the air conditioner and other humming appliances.

WW candle books

No electricity means I have a chance to sit and reflect with precious few distractions. No laundry or ironing to do, no music, limited life on my laptop battery, no cooking, no sewing, no vacuuming… Lots of thinking. My heart soaks up ideas and emotions while the fields soak up the rain. No electricity is not such a bad thing. And this weather is such a gift! The gardens will enjoy a deep swig of life without my tangled, cumbersome garden hoses; the animals will be cooled all the way down to their dirty hooves; and the dust on our spirits will settle a bit, collecting some much needed energy after yet another devastating life storm just this week.

The power is off for now, but at some unexpected moment later today it will whoosh back on. The lights will blink silently. This modern house will yawn and stretch and rouse herself for another day of work. Our routines will return to us, like they always do. And we will see that life goes on, that storms always pass, that Love still lives here.

The little reed, bending to the force of the wind,
 soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over.”
~Aesop
XOXOXOXO

*About half an hour after he left for the office, Handsome zoomed his car back up to the front door of our house, and I panicked. I thought something was wrong. But he had just returned to the farm to deliver to his electricity-less wife a large coffee from McDonald’s. So, see? A little power outage isn’t so bad. It can be a breeding ground for romance. Even if your guy has to be gone all day. xoxo

Grape Fruits & Good Thoughts

Have you eaten a ruby red grape fruit lately? I bought a big bag of them last week and have been enjoying one per day ever since. Each one is massive and almost completely edible, even the white fleshy membranes. So tender. They are juicy beyond belief, like biting into the ocean. But a sweet, tangy ocean. They need neither salt nor brown sugar to temper the powerful flavor, because they are naturally perfect lately. When your teeth grip the pink, webbed meat and fruit juice splashes in your mouth, you can literally hear the vitamins collide with your blood cells (it sounds like sparklers on the Fourth of July), and within minutes your future seems brighter, stronger, more likely to improve. I ate one this morning and my bank account instantly went up by like forty three bucks.*

 

grapefruit

 

I’m a pretty big believer that regarding physical health, what you put into your body matters a great deal, as much as or possibly more than what you do with your body. I believe the same about our minds. What we are able to do with them comes a step after what we allow to seep into them. Or at least, the two are so intertwined that we might as well consider mental input-and-output as one. An infinite circle of thought, whether healthy or toxic. And we all know by now that thought is the beginning of action, is the beginning of habit, is the beginning of path and character, etc…

 

What do you allow into your body, your mind, your home, your heart?
What do you allow into your body, your mind, your home, your heart?

 

That’s about all I have right now. Just some encouragement for you to make conscious choices about what kinds of mental influences you allow in your days. Beyond positive or negative: What schools of thought are your entertaining? What social attitudes, spiritual leanings, and life approaches are regular parts of your thinking diet? I know I have to stop and ask myself these questions once in a while. Unexamined ruts are no good.

Also, buy some ruby red grape fruits. They are spectacular right now.

Eat well, listen well, move better, think better
XOXOXOXO

*disclaimer: this is a lie

Friday 5 at the Farm: Upcoming Projects

Happy Friday! Man, you guys, there are so many wild, love-blown, vastly more important things I crave to talk to you about than what projects I’m doing at the farm. So many prayers, miracles, hopes, and worries that need to be named and celebrated. I mean, obviously the worries don’t need to be celebrated; but the conquering of them does. Life is amazing, and the elasticity of time is blowing my mind lately. Einstein had it goin’ on. Anyway.

hammock time

Resting in promises comes more easily some days than others. But I always build up so much energy when I finally do. Keeping my eyes on the light, not the shadows, recharges me.

These important life things I crave to discuss need to simmer a while longer. Maybe forever, I don’t know yet. In the mean time your prayers are appreciated. And let me just say I have recently been reminded that praying is a lot more powerful than just hoping. They compliment each other, but they are not substitutes for each other. I’m great at hoping and imagining good things (kind of an expert). Praying? I could do a lot better. I’ve grown a bit too passive in my day-to-day peacefulness. That’s changing. Anyway.

On to Friday 5 at the Farm.

My personal calendar is about to switch over from spring to summer, and I see fun projects all around me.  Such variety, too! Here is a round up of five worthwhile shenanigans I have up my sleeve:

Book Page Wall…

I’m thinking this will become the new wall treatment for my colorful little kitchen pantry. Last year in New Orleans I bought an old paperback copy of Julia Child’s first cook book, and the pages are the perfect yellowishness and flatness. My idea is to layer those pages first, like you see here, then start adding old family recipes on top, in frames. Really excited for this!

(source via pinterest)
 

 

Farmer’s Market Display…

I’m a far cry from selling produce constantly, but very soon there will be farm fresh herbs, eggs, mixed greens, and veggies available for sale at the Lazy W. Also some llama manure and chicken litter. So… why not? It’s adorable, anyway. “If you build it they will come,” and all.

 

f5 veggie stand

Gold-Dipped Glass…

If anyone ever submits my name to a television show about hoarding, it might be due to my glass collection. Mason jars, cheap florist vases, salad dressing carafes, Mexican soda bottles, you name it. I experience physical discomfort at the thought of discarding a shapely piece of glass. This, coupled with my renewed interest in all things glittery and gleaming, might make for a summer afternoon of gold dipping.

f5 gold vases

New Bees Arriving…

In the next couple of weeks I’ll bring home our new bee colonies! There is prep work to do, and I am so excited. I almost backed out of it this spring but have decided to buckle down and learn what I don’t know. It’s so worth it!

f5 honey sweet

Long Run!

Oh, friends. The marathon. Such a great experience! Then it was over. I ran very lightly the week following it, then I let life funnel my energy elsewhere for a couple of weeks, grabbing two or three miles or maybe some time on the elliptical machine  when I could. Now this week I am crawling my way back to a nice, steady trail routine. I feel amazing. Running is the best! This weekend and next week I have penciled in some 10-15 mile adventures (maybe more) that really have my heart singing! So… pasta!

f5 carbs

 

So that’s what’s up in my world. Also, if you’re interested, I’ve done a fair amount of reading lately and have so many books to tell you about. The garden is really taking off, too. It’s that time of year when I could stay outside for eighteen hours straight.

Now please tell me about you!

  • What crafty projects do you have planned this month?
  • What really difficult challenges have you almost abandoned, then decided to accept?
  • What are your reading?
  • Where do you run?
  • Tell me your thoughts on prayers and hopes and how they are related.

Happy Friday, friends! Thanks so much for stopping in.

“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
XOXOXOXO

 

 

(almost) wordless wednesday

Yesterday afternoon while brushing Chanta I sat down in the grass. He let me stroke his long, sturdy legs. He snuffled the top of my head and knocked my cheap sunglasses to the ground. I leaned against the meat of his forearm, passenger side. Then, exhausted from the morning, I laid down on the grass, flat on my back, still holding his brushes. He look me square in the eyes and exhaled all of his sweet, grassy horse breath on me then swung that massive head to the left.

chanta in sun edited

He started crunching the grass all around the edges of my limp body. He could have walked away, grazing the full expanse of the front yard and vegetable garden area, but he stayed with me. Munching and breathing around me. Almost beneath me, tickling my ribs and moving my legs out of the way if they covered a little patch of sweet clover. My hair sprawled out on the ground was in danger of being mistaken for hay. I wondered if Chanta was trying on purpose to make me laugh and thought for a while about anthropomorphism then felt sad for people who don’t know animals are emotional creatures.

The sky behind him was both blue and gray, quilted with brilliant clouds and warm with the sun. The farm was sleepy, full of birdsong and buffalo chuffing, peaceful.

I know the truth about some things that I can’t articulate. Sometimes I allow fear and grief to drain me, but Love always sweeps in and fills me back up. The storms always calm, and the sky always returns to it gray-blue brilliance.

XOXOXOXO