The Joy of Accomplishments

Subtitle: Above the Fold

I solved the Wordle puzzle in three tries this morning...that felt like a nice little accomplishment. They don't have to be big!

You had to know I would bring my current puzzle into joy week. It's festive and fun with bits of gold here and there. When it's done it will take up my whole table from back to front....so I started working on just the top half....above the fold of the guide photo.

I did stray off into some below the fold houses when I needed some color...but I wanted to get the top half done before I shifted it up under my Christmas decorations. 

I'm pleased to report that as of breakfast this morning...above the fold is done...and it's repositioned on my table. However silly this is...it's still an accomplishment. 

I have a feeling below the fold is going to go together pretty quickly...so I may have to take it slow. I'd like to stretch this one out until Christmas.....and I can't believe it's just a week away!

Breath in all the things left on your to-do your list,

breath out that whatever you accomplish will be enough. 

Looking up on my walk.....I love the winter sky!

Joy in Giving

It may be a cliche....but there is an abundance of Joy in Giving! 

As I have gotten older I am reminded over and over how blessed I am....and I've never been so eager and happy about giving my time...my talents....and my stuff! 

I volunteered at Maine Needs yesterday afternoon....and the place was just humming with activity. The first list I picked up was long...but I grabbed a cart and started shopping. I didn't realize until I got going that it was actually for three different families.

Believe it or not I had all of this....including the cleaning supplies you see on the floor... all balanced on the cart or hanging on my arms as I headed to the bagging station. The colorful bag at the top is a "Minute for Mom Kit"...filled with personal and comforting items for a deserving mom. These kits aren't often asked for but we are encouraged to give them freely. Sometimes they are packaged in purses...like the blue one on the floor...sometimes in reusable colorful bags.

It took as much time to tally....sort and bag it all as it did to shop for it...and my heart was full of joy the whole time. Then.....

I breathed in the reality of an unhoused man, who was the next client I shoped for,

and I breathed out that I was able to find everything on his list....including a new pair of LL Bean boots. 

Good and joyful work is being done at Maine Needs. There was a group of four women who were shopping together...laughing and having a good time. I told them how delightful it was to hear their laughter...and to keep it out. Turns out...I had a connection with two of them...and we swapped stories and marveled at how small of a world it is.  If you see joy....say something.

When Paul and I did a shift together back in November we noticed the bins for gloves and mittens were nearly empty.....so we donated money to help stock the bins. I wanted to do the shopping....but they have wholesale resources to get more bang for the buck. I ran into Heather yesterday who did the purchasing and she shared these photos of some of the haul....several hundreds pairs of gloves and mittens.

I am filled with joy in giving.

Quiet Joy

Joy doesn't have to be flashy and loud. Most of the time it's subtle and quiet and hidden in ordinary moments.

I had an appointment early this morning.....and while I sitting in the waiting room I was making a photo montage for Alyson of some photos I took during yesterday's snow. As I zoomed in on this winterberry branch...there is was. 

It's not completely in focus...but a sweet little star-shaped snowflake is balancing on top of this tuft of snow.

This was my favorite photo. I love the textured blurry background and the fact that I caught a few falling snowflakes. That prompted me to embellish it a bit with a few more digital snowflakes. Doing simple....quiet things like this bring me joy.

Breath in the tragic details coming to light of the recent shootings,

breath out hope that things can change.

And look for quiet moments of joy while we wait.

My Week!

At some point during our years in Lexington while Paul was the minister at Hancock Church...I walked into the sanctuary on this particular Sunday and Joan had a big smile on her face and said, This is Your Day! 

It was the Advent Sunday of JOY....and Joan proclaimed it was My Day. And now I'm proclaiming this is My Week! 

 This colorful joy is courtesy of Lynn Guinta.

I'm celebrating a little joy from Judy and a shooting star from Dotty.

Breathe in senseless gun violence, 
breath out color and creativity.

Share your joy!

Comforting and Beautiful

On my way to Marita's birthday party last evening (which was fabulous, by the way) I stopped at an art show in downtown Portland.

I don't like driving at night anymore...and to be real honest I'm not sure I ever did. And I really don't like figuring out city parking...especially in the cold and dark. I get disoriented in the dark.

But I was lucky to find a spot right next to these magnificent lights on High Street. They were as comforting as they were beautiful. 

When I left the show...all I needed to look for was the glow.

I found the poem Wage Peace early this week and I've been mulling it over ever since. It's often credited to Mary Oliver, when in fact it was written by Judyth Hill.

Judyth reminds us that as we breathe in the things in our world that are difficult and troubling.....we need to breathe out what grounds us...what brings us joy....and peace.

Judyth's poem is at the end of this post....and I urge you to read it....then read it again. That's what I did over and over....and I ended up writing one of my own. (Thank you Dotty for letting me know it's OK to use the framework of another poem...to help me write my own.)

Inspired by a Judyth Hill's poem Wage Peace

Practice Joy  MaryAnn Shupe

Practice joy with your whole heart.

Breathe in hate speech and despicable conduct, 

breathe out Christmas lights 

and anything that makes you laugh.

Breath in greed and retribution,

breath out bluebirds and breakfast at the puzzle table.

Breath in loss...and hardship, 

breath out a helping hand and a generous spirit.

Practice joy with a grateful heart.

Make what you love and give it away.

Use what you have and donate what someone might need.

Imagine everyone having enough. 

Never has the world felt so fragile

and joy felt like resistance.

Never has standing on the sidewalk with a sign

felt so comforting and beautiful.

Wage Peace by Judyth Hill

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists 

and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. 

Breath in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds clothespins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the world for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,

imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty 

or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived. 

Celebrate today.

In The Middle

Consider the possibility peace is seeking you too, and the fact that you are searching for each other means you will both be found. Lori Hetteen

Paul was the family elf today and took our packages to the post office...I'm eternally grateful for his willingness to stand in line. I had a flurry of house chores this morning...and early this evening I'm going to an art show and Marita's birthday party. 

Sandwiched in the middle....I'm taking a deep breath and going to sit at my puzzle table with a cup of tea...and maybe even take a nap. I'm certain peace and I will find each other. 

The morning sun as I fed the bluebirds their dried mealworm breakfast. They come within seconds of me putting the food out.

Daily visits from the bluebirds bring me so much joy. There can be as many as 5 or 6 at a time at the feeder and the birdbath.

I moved the bath, which I heat for the winter, and this feeder closer to the patio for the winter. We can see the birds from the living room couch during happy hour...and I can see it from my puzzle table. 

Peace in the Mess

True Peace isn't the absence of tension. It isn't peace FROM fear or imperfection or uncertainty or problems. It's peace IN all of that. Peace that somehow, impossibly, grows in the hardest, most trampled places. Dana Allen Walsh

My friend Dana is a UCC minister in Massachusetts...and writes an occasional Substack article. I was particularly taken with her recent post called Finding Peace in the Mess. 

In keeping with my Lowly Christmas theme for Emily and Max....I had Max covered....but I needed something for Emily. She really doesn't need a thing....but I thought she needed her own Lowly Worm. Since I couldn't crochet her one...I decided to try and needle felt her one. How hard could it be!

I really had no idea if I could actually make it work...even when I was part way through...I was skeptical. There was a lot of messy middle.

With the help of a couple of Christmas movies it took me most of the day yesterday. I went from a pile of wool roving and some wool felt....

...to a hand felted Lowly Worm. I'm pretty tickled with him.

He can even tie himself in a knot....just like his character in the books.

More wise words from Dana's post:

Maybe we don't have to wait for everything to be fixed before we find peace.

What if the invitation is to stop waiting for conditions to be perfect and instead ask: how might peace break through right here, in the middle of the mess?

Peace IN the chaos of the family Christmas card photo - one child crying, the dog refusing to sit, the realness of it all.

Peace IN the tension of the family gathering -knowing that love is messier and bigger than perfect harmony.

Peace IN the uncertainty of a lingering diagnosis-discovering gratitude can live alongside fear.

Peace IN the long road of grief-finding you can hold both the ache and the love at once.

May we have eyes to see it.

Mary we have hands to tend it.

May we have hearts open enough to be astonished by it.

Peacemaker

It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber. 

We're in the middle of peace week and I can't help think of my mother-in-law, Margie....the peacemaker. She was generous with her time and money and spent much of her life advocating for peace and justice.

Margie was so proud of her Peace Wall...and I was able to help her recreate in most of the places she lived. She loved that it told the story about who she was and what she believed in.....and was always eager to talk with others about it.

Margie proudly displayed Gandhi's Seven Deadly Social Sins, Martin Luther King Jr's What is Your Life's Blueprint, a Lion and the Lamb Pewter Peace tray, and a poster with the It will be a great day quote above. 

Her world view and peace work made quite an impression on her kids and grandkids. 

Paul now proudly displays the Gandhi poster Nate displays the Martin Luther King Jr. poster, and Sam displays the It will be a great day poster. 

All of these are so relevant today.

I spent most of my day working on a fun and engaging project. 

Tomorrow would have been my regular visiting day and she would have gotten a kick out of seeing what I made and would have patiently listened to my story. She would have a puzzle on her board and stories of her own to share. 

I miss Margie...the peacemaker.

Gandhi's Seven Social Sins:

1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Commerce without morality
5. Science without humanity
6. Worship without sacrifice
7. Politics without principle.

From Martin Luther King Junior's What is Your Life's Blueprint speech: 

A personal plan for living with purpose, built on three core principles:

1. a deep belief in your own dignity and worth
2. the determination to achieve excellence in any chosen path
3. a commitment to eternal values like beauty, love, and justice.

Lowly Christmas

Subtitle: Superpowers

The Peace of Wild things

by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, 

and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars with their light. 

For a time I rest in the grace of the world, 

and am free.

Lowly Worm is a beloved character in the Richard Scarry books series with a positive attitude and the amazing ability figure things out....even though he only has one foot.

I included him in the remake of a Busytown book I made for two year old Max last year. It was a fabulously fun project...you can read about it here in this post: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2025/03/busytown.html

Since then....Max's mom Emily has texted me Lowly Worm things now and again that make her laugh out loud. Someone actually got a Lowly Worm tattoo and someone else hand crocheted a Lowly Worm scarf. We both love Lowly Worm.

I've decided to do a Lowly Christmas theme for her and Max. Before I thought of the theme...I knew I wanted to make a cape for Max. Doesn't every almost three year old need a cape in his favorite color of orange!

I wanted to tie the cape into the Lowly Christmas theme so I wrote up a little blurb about how Lowly Worm has superpowers even though he only has one foot and the power of his imagination. Now Max can have superpowers too when wears his cape and uses his new magic wand. Is it a stretch? I don't think so. One of Lowly's superpowers is he can s-t-r-e-t-c-h whenever he needs to!

Then this happened....Lowly got his own cape!

It's fun when moments like this can surprise us with delight! 

Here's to a Lowly Christmas...and the superpowers in all of us!

At Peace

A few days ago I hoped for good weather for errands and not too long of a line at the post office. I was 4th in line early this morning to mail a birthday package and although it was cold, the weather was fine and the roads were clear for my errands. I turned up the non stop Christmas radio station and sang my way through traffic and leaned into the tasks at hand. I was at peace being out....even though I love just staying home. 

With all the turmoil going on in our country...and with all the hustle bustle the season can throw at us....it's still possible to be at peace in the midst of it. 

My friend Dotty shared a beautiful poem on her blog about her experience in late November with the bright red leaves of a Japanese Maple that dropped all in one day. She captured the awe and wonder of this very peaceful and "silently magnanimus show." I hope you take the time to check it out.

Dotty's poem prompted me to visit Bessie, my neighborhood hackmatack tree...a rare pine tree that drops all of her needles in the winter. 

The last time I visited her in late November her needles were bright yellow and just starting to fall. Today, she was nearly bare....the yellow needles buried under the crusty snow. I was at peace knowing she was resting for the winter.

Just as I was getting home I looked up...and there were the fuzzy seed pods on the sycamore tree in our side yard so prominent against the bright blue sky. 

I hadn't noticed them yet this year on the bare branches....I am so glad I looked up.

I'm keeping my eyes and ears open to these moments of delight that help me be at peace.

Surprised by Delight

The Advent week of Peace began today. Working my way through these four Advent themes is going to ground me a bit this Christmas season. I will keep hope in my heart...and move on to peace.

This morning I read a substack post by Claudia Cummins called Small Wonders. It helped me shift from reading the news to the peace that can be found in noticing small wonders....one of my favorite things to do. 

Here is what Claudia shared:

The world spins into scary and uncertain territory and our bodies quake with angst. We so easily lose our footing. Our minds tend toward gloom and perhaps even despair.

And then we stumble upon a moment that shakes us out of melancholy and startles us back into the beauties of the here and now. 

We pause. We marvel. We sigh. We crouch closer to the mystery.

We whisper thank you to whatever force it was just now that stopped us in our tracks. and opened our eyes, when we might have trampled over another small miracle., another moment of amazement and awe. 

And when the swoon has passed and we return to the world's challenges and woes, recommit to keeping our eyes and ears open to these soul-filling moments of uplift and delight. We commit to becoming a hunter-gatherer of those tiny packages of light that keep us wakeful, hopeful and whole. 

We open our hearts just enough to receive the improbable and the lovely. And we broaden our minds in ways that allow them to be perfectly poised to be surprised by delight.

Here's to finding peace this holiday season while being surprised by delight! 

A few days ago Lynn from Maryland sent me a photo of a couple of red rosebuds trying to bloom despite the cold and snow. 

This is one of those tiny packages of light that keep us wakeful, hopeful and whole. 

Thank you for taking the time to crouch closer to take a look Lynn!

And a few days before that Ann from Lexington sent me this photo looking up through her skylight where she saw a thousand points of light. Thank you Ann!

It's OK

It's time for puzzle update. You had to know it was coming.

I just finished one I got from Patsy and Brian.... a panoramic image of the waterfront in Kennebunkport, Maine. I started it knowing it would fill in the gap before I moved on to my Christmas puzzles...and the timing worked out well. It was a fun one!

Before I took it apart.....I sorted the pieces for the next one into my album boxes. I like that part too and I stretch it out for days. This one is a 1000 pieces of Christmas fun and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Today is the last day in the Advent week of Hope.

It seems mostly what I hope for these days is a better world. A world where we respect our differences and celebrate our diversity. A world where there is actual justice...and all people are treated fairly and with kindness and respect. Mostly....I hope our country can survive this nightmare we are living through. 

But I think it's also OK to hope for quiet evenings with a new puzzle....and a little time in the studio. It's OK to hope for good weather when I have errands to do....and not too long of a line at the post office when I mail a few Christmas packages. It's OK to hope for a Christmas light tour and quality time with friends and family. It's OK to hope for little things.....even silly things that might bring a bit of joy.

Common Good

Where there is love there is life. Where there is courage, there is hope. Mahatma Gandhi

There's that pairing of hope and courage again. They seem to go hand in hand....especially these days. 

A few days ago I quoted Jonas Salk...who developed the first successful polio vaccine. It was the same day I shared the photo montage of Patty's front garden in the snow....and she and I have exchanged a few emails since.

Patty is active in Rotary and one of their major goals is the complete eradication of polio. Patty's husband Reid and his brother Tom were personally vaccinated by Jonas Salk in 1952 after their mother died of the disease in 1950. Here are some interesting things Patty shared with me about Jonas Salk. 

Salk never profited personally from the vaccine. He chose not to patent the vaccine or seek any profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution. Six pharmaceutical companies were licensed to produce the polio vaccine, and Salk did not profit from sharing the formulation or production processes.

In a 1955 interview, when asked by by television personality Edwin R. Murrow, who owned the patent, he replied: "Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

Jonas Salk is a shining example of someone selflessly working for the common good. 

Kathy commented on my little reindeer in yesterday's photo...and I thought I would give a closer look. He's one of my favorite little Christmas creatures and he makes me smile.

It was super cold today....and the only time I stepped outside was to feed the bluebirds. The photo montage above is one I sent to Alyson from that very first snow several days ago. 

Where there is love, there is life. Where there is courage, there is hope.

Look Up!

Hope is the spark that ignites our hearts, even when the world seems to dim its light.

I walked into the woods a few days ago to snip some pine branches for the kitchen window sill. I was glad I thought to look up....because the treetops against the white winter sky were magnificent.

Every day the news is more shocking and gut wrenching...so many hurtful words and choices that are dimming our light. 

One of the things I am going to do more often is look up....reminding me to stay hopeful.

This is what I saw was today. 

The pine branches I snipped in the woods were lovely in the evening light.