Enjoy a Quiet Moment

    I picked up this little vase one day while out with my friend Rachelle. It was a couple years ago now. It has survived four moves somehow and has lived on a couple different window sills and been the vessel that bouquets from my children go in. It is a constant reminder of some very important things I wish I had known from the beginning. When I became a mother and before I was a mother I had not learned the value of self care and just how nurturing it was for the soul. It was a long journey (and is still a struggle to this day) to realizing that I needed to take care of me regularly if I was going to expect myself to keep caring for others well. I had this idea that others were supposed to take care of me and desire to take care of me. I did not feel loved if this was not happening. It really was the case of me not loving myself. Love is an intense word. To love myself and to love yourself means something different for everyone. When I bought this vase I was in an antique shop and it had been a whimsical and inspiring day. I had been going through a lot and little Holly Hobby in her dress blowing in the wind, standing in a field just evoked all that I wanted to have in my life at that moment. If you stop for a minute, close your eyes, and let yourself quiet ~envision where your most happy and favorite spot in the world would be. Once you think of that place ask yourself why. Mine is in a field beside a stream. I am under a tree and there is a gentle breeze, the gurgle of the stream and birds singing. The air is warm and wild flowers abound and there is the aroma of peace. I think that the reason I find this picture the most comforting and happy is because when I lived on my farm as a young girl when I was sad or lonely or overwhelmed I often would go and sit in this little garden someone had planted and it was right by a creek. Other times I would go out into our back field and just sit silently among the grass and just be still. I knew already that being out in the air and the open filled me with something I needed the most. Sometimes when you can't be where you know you'd do best or heal the fastest you need to bring that feeling or that moment or that reminder to right where you are at. This little vase is that for me. I am in my kitchen at the sink a lot and this vase sits there, often with a flower or two that a child has brought for me, and I remember. I am reminded that I need to 'Enjoy a quiet moment now and then.'