early morning

it's actually 7:40, which isn't early at all, but it's Winter so i give myself permission to sleep in when possible. :)

sweetie is still asleep and i'm enjoying the quiet of this special time of day. we have plans to gardenize the yard today....flowers and some veggies. we have been house hunting, but for the time being it's on the back burner, so making the current abode more enticing seems to be the plan.

we have a house guest of sorts who's inhabiting the motor home in the driveway and i noticed that they put a flower pot of Swiss chard on the south-facing bumper. stuff like that makes my heart smile. i have never been much of a gardener and i admire that trait in others. i tend to over-complicate the whole thing, when it can be as simple as one or two plants in small containers.

we've been poking around local nurseries for the past couple of days, and bought our seeds at a small one close to home. the proprietor had bok choy in pots for sale and admitted to pruning them daily to add freshness to his ramen noodles. i wondered to myself if he might live on the property, and realized once more that life can be small and simple, even in a city of a million.

it's encouraging to feel the days lengthening, the temps rising, and the sunshine growing stronger. we don't have much of a Winter here, and after a quarter-century in Arizona i fear i have lost all capacity for truly inclement weather. a few days of cloud cover and i'm in the grumpy zone! so in this brief resting period that we laughingly refer to as "Winter" it is good to rest and take stock, plan a little garden and lay seeds in the soil.

may we all plant seeds of peace and lovingkindness in our hearts during this fallow time as well, that they may grow and bloom riotously with the coming Spring!