Pumpkin Sunrise

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Guess what?  I was in Old Montreal over the weekend! Originally we were planning ( I was planning) to go in August but our son expressed an interest so we moved the trip up to July so he could go with us. As you can imagine, I had lots of fun but I missed home more than usual.  Getting old? street performers! We left on Thursday and stayed two nights and took in the sights and sounds.  I loved the basilica and all the holiness inside of it.  That is when I love being a Catholic the most, the statues, the candles and the history - so so good! Friday we walked everywhere and I clocked over 21,000 steps walking towards downtown which is 12,000 more that I like to do with my RA but I survived (after complaining and pouting). Isn't that church magnificent? I think so!

For me when the string of ordinary days occur, I hit my blissful self.  There is nothing like the same old same old over and over that soothes my mind and brings contentment to my days. I've been like this since I was a child. I had anxiety whenever the school had a field trip and the schedule shifted. As soon as I was on my way, I was fine (sort of, when the tears stopped).  So when I'm faced with boring days, endless sameness over and over - I'm my happiest! I will admit that traveling makes appreciation my focus.  I do enjoy seeing new places doing new things (sort of..) but I shine brightly at home getting all my tasks completed.  Ordinary days gives room in my mind to center my intentions on myself and on others.  That focus helps me feel like I'm helping in small ways. Gratitude lists, praying for others helps me train my brain in mindfulness, a skill I've lacked growing up.  How lucky am I that I've found my way to this practice. 

Well, you must be thinking I'm someone else the week.  I am reading The Martian  which is completely out of my reading comfort zone.  I did love the opening sentence of the book which is R rated and kind of sarcastically funny.  You see, both my son and my nephew insisted this is my kind of book and the content isn't as important as the way the story is told.  So, I'm reading it and I'm liking it. I finished The Nest  and it was fantastic!!  Sure it's about a dysfunctional selfish family of middle aged siblings but I kind of liked them because it showed the "ugly" side of us, the petty, the unforgiving and the horrible stuff that might cross our minds when we are feeling vulnerable or sad (or selfish).  The characters were interesting and most of them had personal growth. My knitting!  Can you see it?   SOCKS .  I felt like if I cast on another shawl I was going to groan.  So I needed to do something else, and socks are the answer to knitting ennui.