A number of things come to mind when I hear the word “bird”–a Thanksgiving turkey, maybe, or a rude hand gesture–but I’d like to offer you some better options. In this family, our favorite “bird” is Brittany.

I don’t remember when or why her sisters started calling Brittany “Bird,” but it stuck. Even these two cuties are in on it.

They call her Birdo, or maybe Bird-o, I’m not sure how it’s spelled. But I’m thinking of birds especially this week, because Brittany has recently taken some great photos of Australia’s gorgeous bird life. Enjoy!

And maybe not as beautiful, but impressive all the same is the rare Cassowary. This photo was taken with a long lens. You can’t get this close to a Cassowary without serious repercussions. There’s a sign in the area reminding people to be “Casso-wary.” It says to remember they are WILD and they HATE you (with all caps for the essential details). They have massive CLAWS and they’re always ANGRY.  Hence the zoom lens. Still, they were pretty excited to see this one in the wild.

And now we’re back to turkeys.

Brittany and Andy had an excellent trip celebrating their birthday week, the 12th (Brittany) and the 18th (Andy). The 18th was also Helen’s birthday, an impressive 96 now (but she always was impressive). Hope it was happy, Helen! The 18th also would have been David’s and my 45th wedding anniversary, which hit me a bit harder this year than I expected, but I was surrounded by dear ones throughout that week and weekend, then had a lovely Thanksgiving with other treasured friends. What a treat.

I’m thankful for all my memories of past festivities and even memories of hard times when others showed up in various ways. I hope you, too, have wonderful memories and people who show up when you need them most. I want to be that kind of person.

There will likely be more from Australia in the months to come, but if you can’t wait and this post didn’t give you enough birds, here are a few links to other posts with birds. Try here and here and here and here.

And now one last bird photo from days gone by in France.

I miss my La Rochelle friends. J’espère que vous allez très bien, Pascale et Jacky. I will forever be grateful for all our adventures.

Blessings on all of you this holiday season!

. . . and vice versa, of course. Mid-August, people traveled from far and near to celebrate the wedding of niece Ellie and her now-husband, Vivek, whose extended family came all the way from India. It was held at this magnificent historic New Hampshire hotel, Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa.

It’s a long way to travel for a weekend, so I started the week at Lake Sunapee, where the sun allowed only one day of paddle-boarding, but it was beautiful all the same.

Friday morning, the 18th, the Sunapee contingent, including Helen . . .

. . . headed north into the White Mountains.

The weekend was packed with charming people and gorgeous color.

There was beauty all around to appreciate. But a few highlights had nothing to do with décor or nature, like the Sunapee cousins’ dance–choreographed by a friend of the bridal couple–for the Friday night Sangeet.  Considering this was well into the evening and a few cocktails may have been consumed before we took the stage, we weren’t bad. Cute kids always help.

A few non-dancing family members took videos. This one is short and accessible enough to load here. Plus, you get a glimpse of the bridal couple. I left the carpet shot at the end so you can hear all the wild cheering. Just saying. We PRACTICED. 

https://videopress.com/v/bt1fx3M2?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

If you found me (in the middle), you may have . . . suggestions for improvement. 😉 Yes, I know I need to work on my “Sprinkler” and my clap counting, but still. It was SO MUCH FUN. 

Now I’m back from the east (coast, that is), and this past Sunday, north met south–or mostly reconnected–for a neighborhood happy hour, and it was also delightful. We all live on one smallish, T-shaped street, which makes it manageable to sort of know everyone. I love that. 

I was sorry to miss Beckett’s birthday while I was gone, but it looks like he had a pretty good weekend without me!

So this month, I’m wishing for you times of connection with new friends and old. Cheers!

And as always, grace and peace.

Who doesn’t think of love in February? Be it friends, family, or partners who spring to mind, there’s no escaping the ubiquitous theme of the month. In our family, it was also Brooks’ first birthday, a definite celebration of love for this little guy.

And for his big brother, Beckett–plenty of love to go around…

I don’t know if Brooks loved his vegan cake, but he certainly seemed to enjoy it…

A few days after the party, I was with my friends Tom and Christy French.* Christy had invited me to come see the new Pathways Inpatient Care Center on Valentine’s Day. She would be playing a meticulously rebuilt and restored 1920 Steinway grand. This is the hospice organization that helped me care for David in his final weeks and then helped me begin to process my grief. I’m not sure what I would have done without them.

Christy plays weekly in the great room of the inpatient center for anyone who cares to listen, beautiful music that soothes the soul even when heard from down the hall. I’ve since learned that a number of my pianist friends also volunteer in this way. It’s a luminous, peaceful place, brimming with gorgeous art and overflowing with love–and sometimes with music. It was the perfect place to spend a bit of Valentine’s Day.

Then over to Chelsea and Brian’s to babysit and get my dose of love from Beckett and Brooks. I was a very good day. That morning, I had woken up to this…

…at the height of perfection just that one day. It felt like a Valentine’s Day gift from beyond.

Wishing and praying for you loads of love, both to give and receive!

*The link on Tom and Christy’s names will take you to another post they’re in, as I usually do with my links, but it’s also the post with a link to the slideshow we showed at the Celebration of Life for David (including the little videos we showed only at the reception). Couldn’t resist watching it again and found myself smiling so much my cheeks hurt. Love does not end, thanks be to God!

There’s something about this photo–out of focus, but somehow capturing the joy of spending time with this big man, my beloved. He’s been gone nearly five years now, and I still thank God every day for him and all the memories we made together.

What we focus on matters. I feel the truth of that every day and highly recommend The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay. In his book he doesn’t shy away from  tough subjects, but manages to find delight every day in spite of disheartening, even maddening realities. Truly inspiring.

I was also thinking recently about a book I read nearly a decade ago, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. I remember being challenged–even in the midst of hard times–to start a gratitude list,  presumably with the goal of eventually reaching 1000, at which point gratitude might be almost automatic. One would hope, anyway. I’m afraid I began to stress out somewhere around 200, trying to think of new things, until one day I wrote, “#182–Realizing it’s okay to thank God more than once for the same thing.” Yeah. It took me a long time to come to that genius conclusion. I confess my list never made it past 200, but I still have the journal that holds it, and even that simple list inspires gratitude when I reread it.

I find old photos are excellent gratitude triggers. So in the spirit of thanks giving and Thanksgiving, I am forever grateful for . . .

. . . great big stunning vistas like this . . .

. . . for Paris and that perfect French blue . . .

. . . for La Rochelle and the inexhaustible patience David displayed for my frequent photo stops . . .

. . . for sunsets like this . . .

. . . and this . . .

. . . for fields of poppies on Île de Ré . . .

. . . and dear friends who would stop the car to let me jump out and get a photo pretty much whenever I wanted and who shared so much of France with us . . .

There are too many adventures to choose a link, so just check out the France category to find them all. Merci, Pascale et Jacky, pour tous!

I’m still grateful for this amazing tree . . .

. . . that inspired me so much I wrote a poem in which it was featured.

As I continue to spend much of my days with Chelsea’s little ones, especially Brooks, I’m reminded of when our girls were small, and I feel great big gratitude for this pic of some of my favorite people . . .

Praying for you: grace and peace and no trouble at all finding delight and reasons for gratitude every single day.