keep our thoughts in the sunshine

I’ve been blessed with 4 nieces on my side of the family, the oldest of which is Shenna, whose birthday it is today. I had been looking forward to spending her first birthday back in Canada with her, but alas, the universe has other plans.

So instead of spending time with her physically, I’ve gone through some of my photos and pulled out a few of the best. My quest has revealed that I’m missing 3 years worth of my photos so I’ll have to go searching for them - a good isolation day pursuit (although hardly an idle pleasure!). It’s also shown that as is often the case, I have more photos of her than any of my other nieces...

It’s a bright sunny day with little wind, thank goodness, as the mercury is hovering around the freezing mark. 

I’m feeling that the shut-down must surely be coming to an end… I feel antsy for company but find the allure of going out is fading. I’ve always been a homebody and I’m afraid this has been reinforced so I might have a challenge once life is ‘back to normal’ (whenever or whatever that is).

And now for Shenna:

    On my 40th birthday

    At the Royal Winter Fair

   She got decorated in my painting phase

     Shenna’s first horse ride

I had many pleasures today, although I had to look hard at times. It was fun going through my photos and remembering so many pleasurable times - that was one of the easy ones. In the afternoon I was floating in a sea of vanilla bubble bath with sun in my eyes and the water reflecting on the walls, Gordon Lightfoot was strumming on his guitar. A moment to embrace. Sadly my playlist randomly selected several derge songs after that, starting with Leonard Cohen’s Tower of Song… it went downhill from there! Walking around outside was a pleasure today - I even went out without a coat for a while - so nice! 

I’ve included quotes by Frances Hodgson Burnett many times before, but somehow her wisdom seems particularly apt for these difficult days. Let’s all keep our thoughts in the sunshine.

Headline tonight:  19 dead in worst mass shooting in Canada’s history. 791,625 cases, with 42,458 deaths in the US. There are a total of 36,670 (35,056 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 1,680 (1,587 yesterday) deaths to date.

“One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live... surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.

"Where you tend a rose, my lad, A thistle cannot grow.”

~Frances Hodgson Burnett