Julanne's Village Jewels

  ARTICHOKES PATTERNS It has been brought to my attention that we all have PATTERNS that we use or follow every day. I have heard this before but I had forgotten  to NOTICE! I started going over my day, my daily PATTERNS and realized I do  have a regimen I follow quite closely. Some of the reason for this is so I won't forget anything important!  This can be a good habit to follow as long as it doesn't produce BOREDOM or avoiding doing other important tasks. That can lead to feeling 'put upon' or irritated with the way things are! Once I recognized some of my PATTERNS, I see that I can do some things DIFFERENTLY than the usual routine. Imagine! Being creative with when  I do what and feeling good about it! We are trained  from a very young age to do things a certain way and in a certain order. This is very sensible for someone just learning a new 'skill'. It helps establish habits, 'PATTERNS' and ways of accomplishing many things. After these PATTERNS a

  GIFTING This lovely statue of the Buddha was in my back yard for me & others to enjoy. I made it a focal point in my garden. Not long after I moved to Gainesville, I was in a shop one day talking to someone about my garden. ( I don't remember if I mentioned wanting a buddha statue, which I did!) This young man walked up to me and said "I have a Buddha statue I'd like to give you! I'm moving and I'd like you to have it!" (It turns out, he was a friend of my son's but didn't know me!) It wasn't just the Buddha statue  itself  that was so marvelous, it was his whole way of GIFTING it to me. He was gentle, open and with soft enthusiasm he offered me such a precious possession he'd enjoyed. It was such a sweet gift and a complete surprise, which can be such as surprise! GIFTING a person or an organization or something, whether large or small in size and value is a very important gesture. There have been times someone GIFTED me with something a

  WILD AZALEA RESILIENCE This is a photo of a Wild Azalea tree that I planted in my back yard a few years ago. It is my favorite azalea and after seeing it in the wild I simply had to have one.  Year after year, it would bloom in the spring and was so gorgeous, not only the flower but the scent. It was RESILIENT every year. I'm learning a lot about RESILIENCE lately. I made some changes in my life recently in taking care of myself and gaining support that is needed. It was UNSETTLING for me, wondering if I made the right decision,etc. I have experienced that I made a very wise decision.  I have experienced a new AWARENESS in just WATCHING myself either go with the flow or not. Somehow, a lot of the time I can feel RESILIENT! I can slide around in UNCERTAINTY for awhile and then in the blink of an eye, I'm in a different place. At least I know  what is happening. When I look around me, I see so much that is RESILIENT. I see it in people, certainly in NATURE, my plants after a dr

 TAPESTRY I have always been drawn to TAPESTRY. It is an art form that is many centuries old. Each piece I have ever seen whether large like a rug or small like this pillow, have intrigued me with  it's precision, colors and beauty. The picture today is of a pillow I bought at a thrift store for 75 cents. I actually bought it for someone else and when I brought it home, I couldn't part with it. TAPESTRY making is a real mystery to me. From what I understand a TAPESTRY must be made on a form of loom in which there is yarn or possibly threads that run up and down, VERTICAL is called the WARP. The HORIZONTAL threads/yarn is called the WEFT or WOOF.  I know so little about the actually WEAVING technique except to say that one uses a SHUTTLE with yarn attached to the end to weave it over and behind the warp to create a design of their choosing.  What is so amazing to me is how anyone can create a TAPESTRY  so intricate as to create a scene or design  with all the colors, shapes and

                                                                                            MANDALA GREETINGS This seems an appropriate symbol for the NEW YEAR, filled with color, space, shapes, possibilities, wonder and much more! To wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR seems so trivial when I want to wish for you so much more! HAPPINESS, of course but also AWARENESS, LIGHT, COMPASSION, CONSIDERATION, ENJOYMENT (of all kinds), NEWNESSES, and all good things! I have spent the last few days in a space I rarely let myself go into so seriously. . . quiet, introspection and just being. A reevaluation, if you will. I have discovered that the way I want to spend more of my time is doing what I've done with much more writing included.  By letting things 'settle', I seemed to have opened up a love of 'poetry', particularly Mary Oliver's poems. They so speak to my soul and my heart in a way no other poet has. The pureness of her thoughts ,which lead to her words on paper, stir