Everyday Holiness--A Different Kind of Sabbatical

Some day I will travel to a monastery that overlooks the ocean. I will unpack a small bag that contains a pair of faded jeans, an old blue cotton plaid shirt, a pair of flip-flops, the Bible I've had for forty years with dog-eared pages, yellow highlighting and important thoughts scribbled in the margins. I will spend hours in meditation and walk by the sea, speaking to no one save God and the occasional seagull. I'll write uninterrupted thoughts in a soft leather journal and go to sleep listening to the waves breaking on a deserted shore.

Some day.

 

 Until then, I have today.

Today I will have a sabbatical of a different sort. I will wash my sheets and hang them in the sun. Then tend to the baby nasturtiums I've been growing on the patio. I'll scrub my kitchen floor until it shines then stand back and look at it with deep satisfaction. There will be moments of thanksgiving; humming an old favorite tune, taking the dog for a walk around the neighborhood, and a few hours stolen to work on my novel. Maybe a conversation or text message to one of my children. The jumbled pile of tangled earrings will be cleared from my dusty dresser-top except for the sparkly amber ones. Those will go into a clamshell I found on the beach last summer. To remind me of glittering waves and a sandy shore. And tonight I'll sleep in freshly laundered sheets that smell of fresh cut grass and summer breezes.

  It's not as romantic as a stay in a monastery.

 

 But it is, nonetheless, holy.

 

In an everyday kind of way.

 

 

 

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Merry and Bright

Things are getting merrier and brighter in the Rorvig household, thanks to two very special Christmas 'elves'...Kayla and Kayden. They came over and helped me decorate this weekend. They did a lovely job on the tree and set up my Nutcracker Village. It's so much more festive around here now!

 

Of course I had to take the opportunity to try out my new camera lens...a 50mm prime lens, affectionately called the 'Nifty Fifty' by Canon users. All of the review said it's great for portraits and that stuff called bokah that we love so much! So the girls decorated and I played with my camera.

We ate burgers, munched on donuts and hot chocolate, and caught up on what's going on in their world.

 

What really nice girls they are.

 

What a really nice day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made Posie-cat and Baron pose in front of the Christmas tree so I could see just how nice the bokah effect was with this lens. I like it!

 

 

 

Yep. Those two girls are real keepers.

 

Hope your Christmas preparations are all merry and bright!

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A Rainy Sunday at Bellewood

It's been a quiet first-day-of-Autumn Sunday here in the Rorvig household. Hubby rose early and took Baron to the woods for a run...Lazy me...I snoozed until 10. Pure luxury!

The rainy, blustery weather here was a reminder that we indeed have turned the page to fall; time for galoshes and knitted sweaters--steamy cups of herbal tea and toast slathered in jam.

When Hubby and Baron returned from the woods I suggested that we drive over to Bellewood Acres for lunch. I had a hankering for one of their turkey and Swiss sandwiches...besides, it seemed such a waste to ruin my leisurely Sunday with any kind of work!

 Bellewood is...well...it's many things. It's an apple farm, a bakery, a market,  a distillery, a place to take the kids to pick out pumpkins from the patch, and the perfect place to slip away on a drizzly day for lunch. I took my camera today because I had a hunch that the colors at Bellewood would be as scrumptious as their apple-cider sugar donuts. I was right about the donuts AND the colors...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can read more about Bellewood Acres at their website: www.bellewoodfarms.com

 

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Hole in the Sky

There is a place, a peaceful place beneath the maples.

 

A place of wild roses, berries and rosehips. Of statice and eagles and painted daisies. Of goldenrod and Queen Ann's lace.

 

 

And if you choose to leave the  main path and follow a little, almost indistinguishable trail through the maples, birch, and salmonberries, you will come to a beach. A wild, Northwestern beach strewn with driftwood and seaweed. You will be alone here, except for the gulls and heron...and your thoughts.

 

 

 

This is a place where things live. A primitive place teeming with the stuff of creation. Mud, slime and clamshells; barnacles, rocks and all things beautiful and elemental. 

There are buried treasures here. Like sunsets emblazoned in shells on the sand.

                                                                It's a place of pure joy;

 

of contemplation, 

where earth and sea and sky gather together in one place.

This place is called Semiahmoo. (Se-mee-Ah-moo).  Chief James Charles, chief of the Semiahmoo tribe from 1909 to 1952, claimed that the word Semiahmoo means “half-moon,” and describes the shape of Semiahmoo Bay. Historian Lorraine Ellenwood wrote in "Years of Promise"  that “it translates, in one sense, as ‘water all around’ or ‘hole in the sky".

 

Semiahmoo is a spit. And as such, there is water on the east side of the spit, and on the west. Half of the land is protected as a county park and historical site. The other half has some condominiums, a hotel, and a marina. The glorious thing about it is, that one can sit on the beach in the morning and watch the sun rise over Mt. Baker in the east. And from the same beach in the evening you can simply turn and watch the sun set over the water in the west.

 

If I could live anywhere, it would be here.

 

 

I came here as a child. Waded. Collected shells and agates. Dug for clams. I cannot imagine not coming here.

 

Perhaps Semiahmoo is a hole in the sky.

 

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Simple Pleasure...Playing Fetch in Fishtrap Creek

Friday evening after work. A little sunshine, a Black Lab, a stick and a creek. It's all good.

Lavender Cleaning Spray

Just a little concoction to help make your spring cleaning more pleasant; a natural cleaning spray made of borax, vinegar, and essential oils. Your house will smell all lavender-blue, dilly dilly...lavender green! I almost enjoy cleaning the bathroom when I use this spray.

LAVENDER CLEANING SPRAY

3 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup borax
1/2 tsp lavender essential oil
1/2 tsp tea tree oil

Mix all ingredients and pour into a clean spray bottle.

NOTE: Please use a clean, preferably new sprayer so you don't inadvertently mix chemicals. And though this is all natural, it surely should not be consumed. So don't let the kids or pets drink it...and if you use it on your sink and counters, rinse it well. (Just as you would Comet or any other cleaner.)

A Spring Party in the Valley

Today is overcast and the rain is drizzling on my windowpanes. But yesterday was perfect. A fine spring day. So I picked up Kayla and Kayden and we went off in search of tulips. April is tulip season in the Skagit Valley. Every spring, after a long dreary winter, the valley bursts to life in a symphony of color. I once read that Spring is nature's way of throwing a party. Indeed, this is one shindig you don't want to miss! Everybody comes dressed in their finest! Tulips of crimson, salmon, lipstick-pink and candystripes,,  hyacinth of cornflower blue, girlie-pink and lemony-custard-yellow arrive wearing perfume that smells of heaven, good-natured daffodils, and sweet narcissus were just a few of the attendees. And of course my grandgirls were the prettiest faces in the crowd!