Voted, Relief!

Time

Once again that time of year

when taking on the care of another Orchid

becomes an imperative,

a ritual of recent years,

to celebrate the passing of time

and honor life.

Moth Orchid

an army of militant moths marches by

New Orchid/New Moon/ New Beginnings

 Happy New Moon! Happy New Beginnings!

Today January 4th, 2:03 AM Mountain Standard time with the Sun and Moon both in 13 degrees Capricorn a new cycle begins and our new year starts in earnest. It is a great time to ring in the new,  for me here with setting my focus on my new Orchid. For us though better yet to renew our intentions and  reconsider our priorities. It is an especially propitious time to take a moment to calm down and intuit what may lie ahead. What may need tweaking or may be in need of a radical overhaul so we can become the person we may want to be. On the practical side today is an excellent day to change the batteries in your fire alarms, to change your water filters if you have not done so yet, to defrost the fridge, to declutter your closets.

Splurge

Amazing Orchids are now blooming in their 6th month in my home and are still going strong, proliferating with more buds pushing ahead, wanting to fulfill  their destiny. This investment of thirty bucks, that brought on slight guilt about splurging, even, or especially for my own birthday, turned out well worth the investment of 22 weeks of  pure pleasure with more to come.

Acquisitions

 

Today, in the spirit of celebration, I treated myself to not one, but two new Orchids. I placed them together with my  now crestfallen white Easter Orchid inside the milky white glass top of a now defunct lamp, which happens to fit perfectly in to this old, but favorite bamboo basket. I hope the glass container will be suitable in holding the moisture for these plants which show over 30 potential blooms, now still in a bulbous state. Did you know Orchids grow naturally up in trees and love the feel of circulating air?

Since it is my birthday today, I got up with the dawn of light and made it out to the dog park by 7 AM, before the heat of the day and undeterred by the lure of the internet. An hour later we were hanging at the coffee shop, me with a double Cappuccino and my pups with treats they provide. On impulse I stopped by the adjacent book store where I had seen The Lazy Dog's Guide to Enlightenment and snatched up the second to last copy on sale. While the images in it are not of the greatest quality, they convey the message and one page after another makes me smile from one ear to the other.

We all make mistakes, but who we are is not one of them.

Will it do it's intended service and inspire me to a compilation of sorts of my own making?

Despite my expenses in an intolerable, unsustainable race with my laughable, defeated from the outset income (not because) I recently acquired objects I predict will stay close to me and my heart for a long time to come:

My 'Kentucky Derby Hat' makes me feel more, rather then slightly ridiculous wearing it, but at my age that is no longer a deterrent. The truth is my Anglo light skin is in dire need of protection from the sun when walking my pups and this to me justifies the expense. The Video Librarian's encouraging "go for it" helped me too in my decision to splurge.

A heavy duty wooden black shelf of folders, so necessary for the endless flow of papers that threatens to overtake my tiny by some measures space, proved irresistible. The introduction of this shelf necessitated a rearrangement of my whole working space, a work in progress. The heavy duty serious leather bag, hanging now on a heater that has not been used in decades, is actually what I have been missing when taking my laptop to a nearby coffee shop on bike. It is in perfect condition with all zippers working, I bless the writer lady that no longer wanted it along on her journey, may she travel safe and that much lighter to Hollywood and find the success she undoubtedly is seeking.

I sign off with another quote that I hope will make you smile and a shout out to Nancy who inspired this post with her request, thank YOU and thank you all for reading! 

Leave no door unopened ... unless it's time to nap.

Two More To Go

Yesterday's Bulb - Today's Blossom

Easter Sunday

I gifted myself with the acquisition of an  Orchid.

The idea of Easter makes me ravenous for signs of Spring and since there are few yet available to us here, where Winter has decided to hold out and hang on, I had to resort to the extensive assortment of Trader Joe's floral selection. Bless them for making flowers once again almost affordable. I justify the expense of my Orchid with the photo ops so obviously inherent in this most exquisite of what has been called an epitome of evolution.

This Easter Sunday actually blessed us with a perfect Spring day that started out warm enough to get out early to the dog park, my pups were in heaven. After so many delayed walks due to my unwillingness to brave the cold, they could barely believe their good luck in being out and about before 9 am and acted rambunctious with Isabella chasing Sumo and Sumo tossing sticks up in to the air out of pure exuberance. 

After a stop at the coffee shop and sitting in the sun with a real cappuccino and a snatched Sunday paper we headed straight back again to our dog park, the best in the country, so I am told. I blame my cough, now in it's 3. week, for my sitting back down again, with feet up, back warmed now by the late morning sun, while facing a calm high desert expanse. 

Secretly I had hoped for something of an epiphany, some big aha, some sign that would guide my way in to a very uncertain future. Nothing of the sort happened, but for a moment I noticed a sublime sense of well being. And then it was time to move on. In my exuberance I splurged and brought home a spectacular Orchid.