This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Earth Day.  It's more than just a day of picking up garbage or planting trees & flowers. It's a reminder that Earth Day is actually a state of mind and a lifestyle. Those three R's - reduce, reuse, recycle - are a daily practice. Learning where our food not only comes from but how it is grown, choosing food that isn't grown with chemicals, and not using chemicals in our own gardens or those we grow for others, takes those daily practices to another level. There are many others ways, so start with you, your family and home. The ripple affect will reach wider than you can imagine. And so on, and so on, and so on.  Then Earth Day becomes a state of mind and a lifestyle, not just a day. That's something we can all benefit from. 

I hope everyone who is celebrating Easter today has had a happy one! 

Sunday In Reverse... Starting with Moonrise, ending with Sunrise. What did your Sunday look like?

Cardinal Climber vine in bloom in my garden, October, 2011. Early morning realization:  I am mourning my garden. Still.  I've lost more than half of my garden over the last few years. It began with hurricane Irene in August of 2011, continued with hurricane Sandy in October of 2012 and continued further with the Winter of 2013-2014, our first real Northeast winter in well over a decade (the first since our moving here to the coast in December of 2005). Plus we were 5 feet above normal for rainfall in 2011 and suffered drought & above normal temps in 2012.  And it's time I begin dealing with my grief vs shoving it away and pretending it isn't there.  I've often made reference to feeling betrayed by Mother Nature and it's true, I do. And that betrayal has hurt so deeply I've lost the joy, healing & comfort gardening always gave me before. I've been saying that this year I will reclaim those good feelings, but to be honest, righ

No cancer!!! We found out late yesterday afternoon and I honestly nearly collapsed with relief and exhaustion once we left the doctor's office. (For more on what brought me to this point, click here ). There's a but - isn't there always?! I have to go back every 6 months to be monitored because I have what are technically pre-cancerous cells, however there is no treatment for the virus (like there isn't for the common cold) and my body should be able to deal with it on its own (like the common cold). If not and it progresses, surgery would remove that area of the cervix and then any cancer would be completely be taken care of if it gets to that point. But for now it's good news and more relief than I can begin to tell! We went out to dinner on our way home from the doctor (I'd been too distracted and stressed all day to think about cooking or even packing to go away this weekend) and afterwards I ran in Barnes & Noble to see if they had a magazine