Julanne's Village Jewels

BLUE SKY VINE SOFTLY I talked with someone the other day while I was in the midst of an uncomfortable situation that my mind would not let go of. I was not angry, exactly, but I was characterizing myself as someone not as kind or understanding as I wanted to be. The person suggested that I approach ’myself’ SOFTLY, as though I were talking to a child who had spilled her milk. There was no need for a scolding or a reprimand for such an easy mistake .   I immediately saw myself as that little girl who had spilled her milk (quite by accident) and with the SOFT words coming my way, I immediately relaxed and felt the ‘accident’ as just that . . .an accident . No need for guilt, cruelty, pressure or anything other than UNDERSTANDING about what it was . . .an accident. Somehow in my years of growing up, I ‘took on’ accidents or mistakes as being my fault and it left me with a feeling of failure, clumsiness, or something where I felt shame. I see how there are times I...

FIRE CRACKER AUTUMN Ahhhhh! I feel the subtle shift of AUTUMN coming our way. The way the sun shines in my room in the morning, the shadows are changing morning by morning, the air is such a delight of soft feathers gently passing by my skin. Even a few leaves are falling from the trees indicating that their ‘greenness’ is coming to an end. I do so love it when the leaves fall and sound crispy under foot when I walk. The whole idea of HARVEST Time is drawing near, as well. I have no harvest to pick of my own other than a few herbs that look very tired at this point. Perhaps in late October I’ll plant a few veggies, herbs and flowers, but I’m not really sure about that yet. My passion for gardening is waning ( except for houseplants) since the hot summer so we’ll see what the AUTUMN will bring. I love the way I can CHOOSE my activities so easily and without consequence to any one. Such FREEDOM I experience here! I’ve met a few people and listen to their situations and...

OLD TREE WAITING Now there is a word, WAITING that usually elicits boredom, frustration and irritation in most of us. We can choose WAITING as a game we all are forced to play whether we choose to or not. It truly is considered an inconvenience we would do most anything to avoid. At some time or another in everyone’s life we confront this bit of annoyance of inconvenience. When this happens to us under the best of circumstances, we handle it in a variety of ways. We can become irritated, blame someone, blame ourselves, angry, uncooperative , fearful unpleasant. This is a result, as I see it, that we are grossly inconvenienced because circumstances are not going our way. We can look over our current life and see how that has come to pass. For example, moving into the Village, there might have been many inconveniences and waiting time for each of us to ‘get on the road’, and get ourselves settled the way we’d like to. So . . ., what can we do to make life a little...

AFRICAN VIOLET NURTURING I love the word NURTURE…ING. It sounds very juicy, nourishing, and full of all good things. Kind actions and words, gentle intentions and actions are all a part of NURTURING. The ing part of NURTUR --ING is the action, movement aspect that is the most critical. It is what shows up in our relationships and in the world. I have been AWARE of ‘NURTURING’ since I was a little girl. All I ever wanted was to be a mother and a teacher. I have been blessed to be both, to this day. I wasn’t as AWARE of NURTURING myself while I was raising my family as I am now. Over the years, I have learned the importance of NURTURING myself by PAYING ATTENTION to all aspects of my life; my body, mind and spirit as much as possible. It certainly has paid off because even though I am older and can’t do (or want to do) many things I used to do and love, I can and do take care of myself. It was so easy and automatic to NURTURE my children and other people in my life...

GRAPEFRUIT HAPPENINGS As we might all know, there are HAPPENINGS in our lives everyday. Some are small, some medium and some very large, indeed. They are truly everyday occurences and some are easier to ‘accept’ than others. Last Sunday, I was determined to dig up a favorite plant from my garden bed and ‘pot it up’ in a nice container. In my enthusiasm, with my right foot inside my garden bed and my left foot trying to get into my bed, I tilted backwards and my left leg took a slide down on the edge of the bed, resulting in a 3 inch cut straight across my shin bone. Somehow in all the frenzy, I managed to dig out the plant, plop it into a pot and proceed to step out of the bed and walk to the Village. A friend had stepped into the garden area at precisely the moment I did this and generously helped me by taking me to the emergency room close by. I didn’t need stitches ( skin is too thin at the shin to stitch) only glue and some healing strips. I was amazingly blesse...