This is the Zen Den.  Can you imagine having this little place of peace and quiet and serenity just waiting to be used for your benefit?  When I watched the video, the first few people had the right idea….it was a place of quiet.  And, yes, I would love to have one of these in a corner of my living room….but, in my house it would have to be sound proofed to be effective.  Can you imagine, though, how nice this would be?

I’d love to have my own Zen Tent

These floral clogs by CapeClogs.com make my heart happy.  (I ordered myself the floral ones below.) click here to shop for happy clogs for yourself.

My friend Laura introduced me to this fun show last weekend and I just love it.  In the winter, sitting under a fleece blanket and watching sitcoms back to back is almost like comfort food to me. It’s doubly special that the show takes place in my hometown, Chicago.  Mike and Molly are that special comfort for me, as well as The Office.  Seriously, I can’t get enough of The Office.  It’s the BEST.

Mike and Molly is a very cute show.

Which brings me to this….how funny is it Quill.com carries Dunder Mifflin paper, just for fun?  I love it.  Click here to get yourself a box.

I just made this soup tonight-Skinny Tastes Cabbage soup with pork.  Oh.My.Goodness.  Was it good!  Absolute pure winter comfort food.  Get the recipe here.

This book has me dreaming of what I’d like to have in the future….a little farm.  (I’ll write a blog post about that later.  It’s worth writing about.)  The book shows me all things are possible.

My word for 2012

I’ve decided that that is the year I am going to expand my creativity and work on developing my art.  My word for this year is PAINT.  I want to paint on a regular basis this year (several times a week, if not daily), developing my style and reaching 100 completed paintings by years end.  I’m taking a painting class in September with Flora Bowley in Wisconsin (can’t wait!) and I intend to take a few other painting courses in March/April using the Michelle Cassou Point Zero method.

My only intention for this year is to paint.  And that’s exactly what I intend to do.

What’s your word for this new year?

I stumbled upon this tonight and when I watched it  my heart began to ache. I love New York so much.  I have visited numerous times and still, I have so much yet to see and do.  I have to get back.  It’s calling me.

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Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighbourhood

 Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood

But I’m taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line

I’m in a New York state of mind. I’ve seen all the movie stars

 In their fancy cars and their limousines.

 Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens.

 But I know what I’m needing, and I don’t want to waste more time

 I’m in a New York state of mind. It was so easy living day by day,

 Out of touch with the rhythm and blues, but now I need a little give and take

The New York Times, The Daily News 

It comes down to reality, and it’s fine with me ’cause I’ve let it slide.

 Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside.

 I don’t have any reasons I’ve left them all behind

I’m in a New York state of mind 

This morning, Xander and I went for what’s becoming our regular morning walk at the St. Francis Woods.  Today was particularily gentle weather-wise, and we took advantage of it.  Tomorrow calls for snow flurries and colder temps.  Walking with my sweet dog and sipping on a hot cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is a great way to start my day.  I was grateful for the chance to take him once again and witness his joy as he ran and chased squirrels and explored.  We even met a few ladies there who couldn’t resist patting him and talking to him.

This morning at the woods.

Little chapel at the woods.

I love windows with divided light. I find it enchanting.

There is just something about windows with a lace curtain that sets my heart all aflutter.  I find it enchanting-charming-lovely.  I especially love this type of window in old farmhouses, or older homes with character.  Ahh, to sit by a window with a view and just soak up the  sunlight, or to curl up in a chair beside one on a drizzly day.  Windows are perfect to focus on or through while gathering thoughts or ideas or contemplating something.  Pair a book and a window and you have the ideal simple pleasure.

What lies beyond?

How do you feel about windows?  What’s your simple pleasure?

Right after Thanksgiving I started to give some thought to my list, wondering what I should include this year.  I pondered it and tossed around some ideas, but honestly, I just wasn’t feeling that ‘Santa Baby’ vibe this year.  I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted and I was distracted and a bit ill at ease about the whole thing.  I’m in a place right now where I’m  fairly content with my life.  I just don’t feel the need for a lot of stuff.

This has been such a volatile year in the markets, the country’s economy is out of whack and I have a couple of dear friends who’ve hit enormous difficulties being out of work for the past two years.  They are wiped out-the safety net is depleted, they are seriously struggling and it’s not getting any better.  I am fearful for their future.  I also am worried about my 83 year old mom who is suffering with some serious health problems relating to her kidneys, bad heart valves and clogged arteries. I’ve been doing a lot of praying lately.   So in the spirit of not being insensitive towards my hurting friends, my mom, and others out there who are suffering from the same economic catastrophes, I’ve decided to waive the Santa Baby Christmas list this year.

What my thoughts keep reverting back to this Christmas season is the simple things.  How I love books.  And a warm bed with cozy blankets and pillows and a warm fire with my sweet dog curled up next to me.  How I enjoy walking through the St. Francis Woods with Xander on crisp winter mornings, soaking up the serenity and solitude my soul is crying out for.  How I love being with my kids and just having them around me.  How I enjoy coffee with precious girlfriends, creating art and laughing till it hurts.  How I love curling up on the sofa with a warm blanket and the dog and my family and watching a marathon of The Office or some other show I’m really in the mood to see.

I don’t need anything fancy this year-ever really.  But what I would love more than anything is to have my friends catch a break from the universe and land that job that’s gonna make it all better.  I need my mom to have more good days than bad ones.  I need her quality of life to improve so she smiles more and has the energy to do the things she’s used to doing everyday without getting out of breath.  These are the things I need.  Are you listening Santa?   God?  That’s all I need.

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There is a point in life where death ceases to be an abstract thing that happens to unfortunate and older people, but becomes something that is closer than many other things, and not really abstract at all. That is a turning point in life, I think, and you can think about it and learn about it, or you can get your pills and diapers and senior discounts and run and hide from it and get blindsided when it comes.  This is not morbid for me. In a way thinking about death is thinking about life, and how one wants to live. Perhaps this is why I became a hospice volunteer a few years ago, and just finished a three month tour for a book about grieving for animals.

If you have animals, you will learn about grief and loss soon enough, and I’ve had a lot of animals and learned a lot about it.

What have I learned?

Grief and love are twins, connected to one another without boundary, equal and haunting beautiful parts of the same whole. Life does not exist without death, and grief does not exist without love. You grieve what you love, and grief is a process with its own mind, sometimes. I have learned that grieving is critical, purifying, cleansing, like death, not something to be avoided or denied.

And always, always, right next to grief is the beautiful reality of love, two of our most powerful emotions locked in an eternal dance with one another. Because you will never see one without the other right behind it.

What have I learned?

Grief is love, and love is grief. Just as there is no light without darkness, there is no love without loss. And although this seems to often catch us by surprise, it is one of the unalterable truths, I have come to believe.

”Come In, Lord.”

“Beautiful is the new snow falling in the yard and the fox who is staring boldly

up the path, to the door. And still I believe you will come, Lord: you will, when I speak to the fox,

the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea-goose, know that really I am speaking to you

whenever I say, as I do all morning and afternoon: Come in, come in.”

- Mary Oliver, “Making The House Ready For The Lord.”

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My Story by Jacob Schemmel