This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Look up! On my walk home from my primary doctor’s office last Tuesday morning, I thought about how gorgeous the spring weather was: Despite the excessive tree pollen, the air and sky were so clear. It was sunny, and the temperature was warm enough to go without layers, but cool enough to go walking without working up a sweat. Perfect weather! Weather like this makes me happy. I looked up at the trees, now past bloom and starting to lead out in shades of red, green, and brown against a deep blue sky and thought about how grateful I am to be alive. Almost immediately I then asked myself how I can be so grateful, why am I so grateful, to be alive, despite everything I've been through, and everything I'm going through? And almost just as quickly I answered my own question(s): Because I made the effort. Because I make the effort. Because I fought for it. Because I fight for it. For years. Every day. I'm amazed I can think this was because there was a time when I'

Bleeding Heart Petunias, Verbena, Superbells Hardy Azalea Wave Petunia, Geranium Bleeding Heart

Today you are just downright cruel,  letting me wake up without the pain and nausea of this latest round of plague, while bright sunshine crept into the room, and birds chattered away in the bushes outside the windows, refusing to let me press snooze. And then not 5 minutes after I was finished slowly getting dressed for my morning, you let it all hit me at once, everything that comes with rheum, having a stomach virus, allergies, and being a woman. Literally all at once so I had to hold my breath.  I went from thinking about writing and planting up a container on the front porch to grabbing the bathroom vanity with both hands to steady myself so I wouldn't fall onto the unforgiving tiles, thoughts suddenly confused and jumbled, focused on the pain returning to my stomach, overpowering my senses, the words, "Are you (bleeping) kidding me?!" falling out of my mouth in a whisper. I'm not sure how long I stood there like that. Then I made my way back to the b

Book Mail = Happy Mail! Riverhead Books ran a contest back in March via Instagram and Facebook, which author Elizabeth Gilbert shared on her feeds, in honor of the 10th Anniversary of Eat Pray Love's release (on 3/30) called #EatPrayLoveSweeps. All you had to do was share a photo of your well loved copy of EPL for a chance to win a 10th Anniversary Edition of EPL (with new Intro by Liz) and a cope of the new anthology of essays by folks inspired by Liz's journey entitled Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It (Intro by Liz).  I shared a photo on my IG feed of the title page where Liz signed back in 2013 (and filled in my bookplate for me because I had unwittingly left it blank!) which you can also see here in this photo (bottom left corner).  I found out while I was listening to the EPL audio as I was sitting in my mother's hospital room back in March waiting for her to come back from having another TIA/mini-stroke related followup test that I had been randomly ch

Thank you Deep South Magazine and HarperCollins! A SheReads book of Spring. Thank you Penguin-RandomHouse! A SheReads book of Spring. Thank you Simon and Schuster! A SheReads book of Spring! Thank you Simon and Schuster! Currently enjoying this read and recent Kindle special thanks to SheReads rec! What are you reading this Spring?

Ice on the (Autumn Joy) Sedum this morning. Especially when you are a gardener. Yes friends, that is ice on the (Autumn Joy) Sedum this morning during the freeze warning when it got down to 28 degrees overnight and stayed there until well into the morning. The garden is fairly unscathed so far from the first of at least 3 hard freezes expected this week alone, despite covers blowing half off. The next hard freeze is coming overnight tonight into tomorrow morning. Hopefully the winds won't be as wild tonight as they were last night and the covers will stay one. The winds have been ridiculously wild, so short of shrink wrapping sheets and pillow cases to the roses and perennials, there isn't much to be done in the way of securing covers without doing more harm than good. It's April in New Jersey, in the Northeast, so weather like this is not out of the norm (no matter what anyone else says), and it's nothing I'm not used to having been born & ra