~~~Gratitude~~~ Winter Weary...but...still grateful

It is PC to Teach an Old Dog New Tricks!

Today was another great day to enjoy the sunshine through the window!  Below ZERO again!!  Did my chores and spent the rest of the day working on my NEW computer... and getting used to it...

I have been using PCs since that late 1980's... pre Mouse!  I had no experience with Apple until I got an Ipad in 2011.  When Windows 8 became my PC choice for upgrading from my 2007 HP Vista I decide if I have to learn something new it might as well be a Mac.  It is a bit like teaching an old dog new tricks.  For instance, to go to the end of a sentence I keep hitting the "end" key "ending" up at the bottom of the page and making a sort of expletive sound... instead of doing Command - >.   I have this great book By David Pogue and I have Apple Care on speed dial to help me but, it is my nature to try and figure things out on my own first.  This all takes time.  So I am behind in my self appointed goals...like blogging more frequently.

I wouldn't say I am super computery.  I probably could be if I had more interested in becoming so.  I am more inclined to sew or weave or spin or walk or read... you get the picture.  But the life of an Etsian requires a good amount of time computing.  So I have made a few improvements to my office.  Besides the Mac Mini I got my self a stool for my standing desk so I can sit sometimes....especially while I am reading the manual!  I do like my new computer and I am sure it is good for my brain to be learning the differences.  I think it was a pretty good value.  I am still using my HP VGA monitor which saved me a few bucks.  I traded in the magic mouse for a regular Logitech optical mouse.  I found the magic mouse a bit harder to click and sometime some of its features needed to turned off so I wouldn't go nuts slip sliding through pages!

Also, I was gifted a new Etsy office mascot... this big beautiful Monroe Salt Works Pottery Raven.  If you follow my blog you know I have a special place in my heart for these fine feathered friends!  I give her a pat on the head as I enter and leave this room!  She is starting to show up in some of my listing photos...

Valentine Heart ~ Raven NOT included!

I have been getting used to importing photos and editing them on the Mac and have recently added some fun things to my Vintage Shop ~ InJoyTreasures

Like this Goofy Frog 

Time to get ready for Chinese New Year with this nice Lantern

Or how about a Doll Bench ~ Raven NOT included

Wish me luck and patience (I just did it again with the "end" key...glad you can't hear my swearing!).  I think Thursday I will take more time to sew!  Heading to the loom for awhile after this...Thanks for stopping by!

~~~~~~~~~~~My Lively Life~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fiber Art, Weaving, Hand Spun

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Vintage Collectibles, Buttons, Clothing & MORE! 

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Sea Glass & Copper Wire Ornaments with things I have gathered

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"Be Joyful because it is humanly possible"~~~Wendell Berry

~~~Gratitude~~~ Birds of a Feather Flock Together

It has been great weather for ducks and mosquitoes this past week ~ wet and rainy.  But my spirits have not been dampened.  I am grateful for the water in the gardens and the easier weeding that I will get too tomorrow.  My life has been for the birds lately...but not the downer this idiom suggests, it has been quite lovely.  First I found a bigger tub for my duckies among the things in the shed. But this will have to do until they are ready to fly the coop and be free ranging quackers.

 

Have been forgetting to tell you that a fine little Phoebe has been feathering her nest on one of the duck house windows.  2 days ago the chicks hatched.  I have been giving them space but I could not resist zooming in for a photo of these little beauties. Just completely cunning!

 

Then the other day Runa and I were startle by the circle of life as turkey chicks exploded all around us.  I could only get a photo (I had my lens cap on..drat!) of the mother running away clucking "follow me...follow me!!" 

Finally, I have had a number of sightings in the neighborhood of the 5 Raven family since they fledged from our forest.  Of course, I never seem to have the camera.  I did happen to have my camera and startled them near the road.  Most of the photos were too bleary to share but I got this one good one of two in flight.

So what have I been doing all week during this not so gardening worthy weather?  Making bird puppets!  My imagination took flight and I have new design...Raven Puppet.  Parrots & Owls are in the shop, Kingfishers in progress, Red-Winged Blackbird soon to follow.  Raven just needs some thread snips and a photo session.

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/InJoyEcoCutie?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Grateful for Beautiful Birds!

and even a poem today ~ thanks to rain the has kept me more indoors

Bird

Pablo Neruda

It was passed from one bird to another,
the whole gift of the day.
The day went from flute to flute,
went dressed in vegetation,
in flights which opened a tunnel
through the wind would pass
to where birds were breaking open
the dense blue air -
and there, night came in.

When I returned from so many journeys,
I stayed suspended and green
between sun and geography -
I saw how wings worked,
how perfumes are transmitted
by feathery telegraph,
and from above I saw the path,
the springs and the roof tiles,
the fishermen at their trades,
the trousers of the foam;
I saw it all from my green sky.
I had no more alphabet
than the swallows in their courses,
the tiny, shining water
of the small bird on fire
which dances out of the pollen.

~~~

It is my intention, each week, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

~~~Gratitude~~~

a humble bumble

waiting watching ~ arrival!

breath ~ peaceful relief

~

orah

I have to admit I have a little bee arrival anxiety.  With all the bee trouble in the world I get a bit angsty in the late spring when I haven't seen the Bumble Bees yet.  This week they finally appeared!  I am ever so, completely, GRATEFUL for Bees and all the pollinators who make our food possible!! <3

I kept honey bees with my dad when I was a girl.  I lived on the edge of suburbia then.  We had a larger than average yard and in house that was built before the sprawl started to happen.  There was a very large vacant lot across the road for most of my childhood.  It did turn into a subdivision in my teens :(  Anyways, the beehive was one of my favorite places to hang out as a girl.  I would spend hours watching them go in and out of the hive.  It was here I learned that nature was peaceful and had no wish to harm.  You leave us alone, we will leave you alone.  I was never stung while watching the hive even though I sat only inches from their home.

A few year back, before the knowing of Colony Collapse Disorder http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp?gclid=CL-wtrHBxbcCFVSe4AodpmYAqAI thought I might take up beekeeping again.  I was worried that my many vegetables and berry plants were not getting enough pollination.  So I started researching and preparing for the endeavour.  (this was before we had the internet) I read books and contacted Cooperative Extension.  This all lead me to a the head Apiarist for the State of Maine.  I got him on the phone to get further advice.  He was a super curmudgeon!  Very gruff with me and wanted to know why I wanted to keep bees anyways!?  Well, I went on about my pollenation worries.  He cut me off and gave me a speech about only those who truly love the art of beekeeping should be beekeepers and the wild pollinators will serve me just fine!  Well! I became more determined than ever to have bees...by golly..who did he think he was...oh yeah the head apiarist..but telling me off...!!?

Meanwhile, I had recently finished the book Behaving As If the God in All Life Mattered by Machaelle Small Wright (see Amazon Link at the side) a book about co-creating with  nature and some of the principles of animal communication. I kept getting "messages" not to keep bees.  Just one stumbling block after another but I still remained determined! Until one morning I awoke from a very vivid dream.  I actually sat bolt upright from my sleep with the vision of the face of a giant bumblebee in my face.  I "heard" "we don't want them (domestic bees) here!  We will take care of your plants!".  I stopped my beekeeping pursuits that day.  When late spring finally came that year I never before or have since seen so many bumblebees in my blueberries!  You can believe me or not!  But, since that day I have believed in animal communication and have taken many more steps to be a co-creative life on this land where I live!  

Speaking of animal communication....

Yesterday morning as I was about to start transplanting my tomato teens...I heard Raven not too far off.  So we did a little back and forth squawking at each other.  I was photographing my planting set up for a future blog when Raven flew right over me and did a little hover flight above me and croaking!  It felt like a very nice howdy do!  Believe it or not...Raven and I are friends!

  It is my intention, each Sunday, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

{pause & see}

Spring is slowly turning to summer here in Maine.  I paused to see the last remnants of autumn and winter.  Enjoying the the random placements by nature and things that seem beautiful just where they are.  This feather and leaf 180 degrees from each other.  I am quiet...marveling....then...... 

CRRROAACKOK

It is friend Raven!  Again, when my camera is ready.  I keep my eye on Raven and begin our mimic talk.  Raven croaks 3 times, I croak 3 times.  This goes on for a bit when I hear the swoosh of wings behind me.  I spin and snap this photo...it is another Raven!!

I turn back and Raven #1 is still sitting on the branch speaking.  Then from behind this Raven another Raven materializes!  3 Ravens or at least that is how it appears to me.  I stood there croaking with my friend for a bit more.  I was overcome with a feeling of "YES" and "THANK-YOU".  Raven took flight and I was alone....well as a lone as you can be when connected to the "All is Oneness".  I had to call for Runa for over 5 minutes as she had taken my distraction as an opportunity to have her own adventure!  (stinky dog!)

Reiki Story

My Reiki Practice was called Three Ravens Reiki until I took on the experiment of an office in the Town of Waterville.  I thought "Reiki with Orah" might be more explanatory...better---"branding"---something I have learned from Etsy.  Back in 2006 when my son was entering puberty and there was a clear shift going on as my role as mother I started to desire something else...  I was in a hungry exploring stage.  I thought of going back to school to possibly become an RN.  But nothing was really shaking out.  

I had a friend at the time going through a relationship struggle.  Before a visit she asked if I could help her figure out her animal totems since I was "into that sort of stuff".  So I bought "Power Animal Oracle Cards" by Steven D. Farmer, Ph.D. at Amazon.  I read the directions (I am a direction reader that then proceeds to free form it ~~~my ying-yang).  

I decide to pull a card for my Self.  I shuffled the deck and pulled the Raven Card. Raven is "Own your power...Trying to keep yourself little by denying your power so you won't be a threat to anyone merely keeps you in a false bubble of safety. Of course, at least that way you won't get noticed much or stand out.  Well, that trick has worn out its welcome....So stop doubting, worrying, or making excuses, and own your capacity to be a powerful magician.  Use these gifts to help make this a better world for all beings."  Well, I said aloud...this card is not for me!  So I shuffled the deck again. (only one of each animal in the deck) I pulled Raven again.  This sent chills up my spine.  But my type A science self shuffled the deck again...you guessed it I pulled Raven.  Then I said "ok! I'm listening".

I went to visit my friend.  On the way home I saw THREE RAVENS on the side of the road!  The word REIKI popped into my head.  I swear, I didn't know what Reiki even was...but I found out!  And synchronicity, after synchronicity lead me to where I am today as a Reiki Master Teacher with a very fulfilling home based Reiki practice.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I had been thinking that Waterville situation wasn't compatible with me or my practice.  I do not enjoy being in town so much.  Plus, my Reiki practice doubled at home, even with fewer hours and a moderate rate increase. (I only charge $30 for a full session in my home).  So back when I saw Fox I started "feeling" I should let go of Waterville and return to my Three Ravens Reiki name. Seeing the 3 Ravens was confirmation.  As I have been writing this morning I have received 2 calls for Reiki appointments and Raven has swooped by my window.  I am surrounded by truth and wonder!

http://injoyemporium.blogspot.com/2013/04/fox-thoughts.html

This a regular feature I plan to include in this blog.  I try to see something new each day.  It is part of my practice in "seeing".  The art of seeing is essential to any creative work in my humble opinion.  My favorites are the ones that stop me in my tracks!  Like so many folks I have a very busy mind that I struggle to quiet.  But by creating this practice it has given me many opportunities to pause and be with a new wonder.  I love to wonder about wonders.  These little seeings can be just the jolt my creative process needs to get out of a rut.  But mostly they provide a pause which is that moment of peace I need to heal from a frustration. These seeings are grounding for me and bring me to the present.  I will admit to laughing out loud with joy over some of these discoveries. They are a moment of childlike wonder!  

Pause & See

On my snowshoe today I nearly left the camera behind.  But then I thought, "What if I can get that photo of the Raven?"  I have been trying for a long time to snap a picture of the Raven that lives around this land.  There used to be a family of 3 for many years.  But for that last couple of years there has only been one.  I have a relationship with this bird.  Ravens are highly intelligent.  Sometimes we talk to each other...I mimic the Raven's croaks...I hope I am saying something nice!?  Once this Raven flew right next to me when I was running in the back field.  That was an amazing moment!  

Today I was focusing on this lovely beech tree when I heard that familiar croak.  I turned my camera skyward and snapped these 2 photos!  I am grateful I pause at this tree.  It is "loud" snow in the woods today.  I may not have heard the croak while walking.  But I really feel the Raven was "listening" to my desire.  Raven gave me a gift, as good friends often do.

a flying raven

turns her head and croaks at me

YES! I love you too

orah

If you would like to know more about these fascinating birds I would recommend:

In the Company of Crows and Ravens, by John Marzluff & Tony Angell

This a regular feature I plan to include in this blog.  I try to see something new each day.  It is part of my practice in "seeing".  The art of seeing is essential to any creative work in my humble opinion.  My favorites are the ones that stop me in my tracks!  Like so many folks I have a very busy mind that I struggle to quiet.  But by creating this practice it has given me many opportunities to pause and be with a new wonder.  I love to wonder about wonders.  These little seeings can be just the jolt my creative process needs to get out of a rut.  But mostly they provide a pause which is that moment of peace I need to heal from a frustration. These seeings are grounding for me and bring me to the present.  I will admit to laughing out loud with joy over some of these discoveries. They are a moment of childlike wonder!  

"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky"             ~~~Buddha