Simple Pleasures...but Above All LOVE

“After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.” 

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

I love a clothesline. 

 It's the bright colors of our wardrobe, dancing in the breeze...

 I love seeing that I'm provided for, blessed.

There are many many reasons...

 I just love a clothesline.

I love a sturdy mug, handmade and fired and smooth.

I love knowing that someone shaped it with their hands,

they were proud of it when they were done.

So proud, that they etched their name in the bottom. 

I love tea outside by my clothesline.

The cherry tree bloomed its first few flowers. 

I can see them from my clothesline, cup of tea in hand...bees buzzing about. 

My feet are tickled by the upcoming grass and a robin struts nearby,

calling out. 

It's a spring day ... nothing remarkable has happened except for the extraordinary.

Love. 

I glanced up from my garden and was overwhelmed with love,

and the knowledge that right here....right now...

everything is okay.

 In this present, even though there are parts of my mind that are troubled,

I can be okay.

Even though their are pieces of my heart that ache often,

 that sometimes struggles to let go,

to work through...

I am blessed here and now and Loved.

I have a clothesline, a tea cup, flower blossoms and smiling children. 

Everything is okay and when there is Love.

We will be gone for a bit ...taking a long road trip.

I hope to see you again soon.

Before I go, just a few glances of some of the finer things that have been going on about me...

~ Sewing machine out again...thrifted linen

~ I accomplished the teeniest of sewing projects ever (a new valance) but I felt 

very glad on the inside :)

~ my simple handmade spring wreath ... green is so very friendly...don't you think so?

~ I was at TJMaxx the other day and saw some planter boxes that I adored. I didn't so much care for the $40 tag that came with them. So, a little eyelash batting and a "baby...do you think...?"

Viola ... and a new free planter box for me (lumber was gifted)

There was love.

~ beautiful pincushion made it's way to me from Arkansas from a dear friend.

Three of them to be in fact...I'm rather swimming in homemade goodness right now.

~ Ah yea,  let's not neglect my house numbers and that handsome number on the left. 

I found this on pinterest and adored it...he created it.

He's a good man yall.

~ last but not least...I think I'm getting closer to choosing an exterior house color.

I'm pretty in love with the English Channel with white trim and our cedar siding. 

Have a lovely week friends finding your own simple pleasures. 

~Alyssa Spring

“Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.” 
― Pierce Brown, Golden Son

The Beautiful

 I looked out the window

to find the sun setting in the west...

 creating cloud mountains in the east.

Glowing purple and yellow and orange,

radiant puffy cloud mountains,

like sorbet piled up on top of the world.

Then the birds came.

Soaring high up in heaven, dipping through the air

intentionally, freely...gracefully,

they called to each other their night song.

I flew with them in my mind,

through my camera lens I flew.

Sometimes I stare at things that are beautiful...

I think because I can't quite understand it.

Then there is the part of me that stares because I know all of it.

Beauty is terrifying because when it's truly beautiful,

authentically beautiful,

it changes. 

A river rising and bubbling and freezing...changes.

Trees stand still, sometimes bend....lose their covers...them magically knit together new ones. 

They change.

The sky...sunshine breaking through black...then to blue, back to orange...and then black

glowing with moonlight.

It changes.

We do too I guess.

When you are beautiful,

you grow...in every possible way.

Your heart gets bigger, kinder, gentler...when you are truly growing towards beauty.

Your hair silvers with the natural way of things,

lines streak  away from your eyes and hug your mouth...

It's beautiful when we see it as the way it's suppose to be.

My children grow...everyday breaking my heart just a little bit more that they are almost gone.

I know there is still time and that they will always be "mine."

Things will change though...they already have.

They are taking more time to themselves then every before.

Their little bodies aren't really that little,

Brady's feet are almost the same size as mine.

In two years, he will be looking me in the eye.

I guess that will be part of the beauty though,

being able to be nose to nose,

looking in each other's freckled faces and knowing that we are friends.

I looked out the window at my world...

and knew it wasn't something to be taken for granted.

It's changing, each day equally valuable,

each moment important.

Every sunset, no matter how golden or blue or purple or nothing...

is another sunset. 

Everyday is another opportunity to find beauty in the changing,

and not stand still,

except of course...

when the soul needs to take in the splendid.

Then by all means

Be Still.

The Wonder and Awe of It

 I would like for you to meet my baby. 

This lovely creature isn't really mine...she's the earth's...God's.

But, just for the sake of sakes, I'm going to claim her as my very special friend...

because you see...

she ate right out of my hand. 

Yes.

I was slow, she was slow...I was patient and she was brave...

and in the end she won a date (not the sit down dinner and movie variety...the nature's candy dried fruit kind) and I won an extra dose of awe and wonder.

You see, it's special moments like these that remind me that life really isn't that bad.

It's actually pretty remarkable. 

Rough though...tough.

This life can be very tough.

I was reminded today that it's okay to be small. 

It's okay to blend in and not be the one with the published books or the scores of friends or a million likes...it's okay to be small. 

It's okay to not be seen.

It's okay to not be heard.

It's okay to not be admired or thought of or envied.

It's okay to not be noticed by the universe because , in the end ... I'm noticed by the One Who Loves Me Most. Maybe I'm not so small after all. 

"Look at the birds, 

free and unfettered,

not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. 

And you count far more to Him then birds."

- Matthew 6 The Message

Free and unfettered...dancing through the sky, soaking in the warmth of the sun,

dipping in and through the clouds,

 the wind rushing over and beneath and around,

the cool air gliding off the backs...sparkling, free of expectation 

free of "description"

simply just being. 

He cares for us even more then He cares for the birds...more then I care for that little deer...

more then I care for my blue eyed babies. 

Yes, I've been reminded today that it's okay to be small, to not have a "title"

...because it's then, and only then...

I can be lifted. 

It's then and only then that I can truly be vulnerable and brave.

It's there in the smallness that I can see exactly who it is that I am,

not who I "need" to be to feel important. 

The sky has been changing a lot lately - clear and blue, then a build up of unreleased storms.

The sky never gets old....never loses it's authentic beauty and it's serenity and it's power. 

The sky is beautiful because it simply is itself .

"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief,

your body fills up with light."

- Jesus

I am reminded to simply be.

I am reminded to simply be who I should be - 

a little person in a very big world

with wide open eyes,

viewing everything with a sense of awe...

from soft doe ears to giggling blue eyes to pink and purple sunsets -

and not taking them for granted. 

I'm a little person in a big world that knows it's all for me...

If I accept it. 

That's the gift.