Life Well Lived #7: Change
To change is to be vulnerable. And to be vulnerable is to be alive. –Alexis De Veaux A phrase that makes me smile [sometimes grimace] are Seneca’s words about how those who go willingly are guided by The Fates while those who resist are dragged. I smile thinking of times I’ve resisted changes of habits, work and associations and had to be dragged in new directions. Change can be difficult. It means stepping away from the familiar and into the unknown. It can also be vital. In researching good reasons for change, I found a list of ten reasons, including new opportunities for happiness and the fresh starts that add excitement to life. Read more. Another list offers twelve benefits, such as the increased resilience, versatility and confidence that build strength. Read more. Change. Hmmm. Now I’m thinking: What must be modified before The Fates drag me again? What door must close so that new ones open? How can I feel more alive? The answers are challenging. How about you? When has a change helped? Why not share a few words? Comment on this post [Leave A Reply below]. * Fireballs & Star Showers Social distancing and quarantining has definitely limited entertainment options. Next week, the heavens offer two marvelous and free shows. With a waning, quarter moon, they will be easy to see. Here’s how to find the celestial star shows. [Fortunately, as Earth spins, Pittsburgh will turn toward those constellations at night, rather than during daytime,] For summer’s best and brightest, see the Perseids Also view The Delta –Aquariids and alpha Capricornids Comment. Leave A Reply [below] if and where you see the star shows. Enjoy. * This Week’s Special Offer Each week, my Featured Art is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. Shop here. Thank you for visiting my galleries and for your purchases. They support Succeed and Soar.
Life Well Lived #1: Baby Grapes
Attend to and nourish the garden of your becoming. -Jean Houston This post begins the new Succeed and Soar theme: Life Well Lived. Each week, you’ll receive a wisdom to consider. Because the first quote mentions garden, my floral photographs will illustrate this theme. I was going to take a summer break to focus on my own gardens and my novel. Last night, I decided to stay in touch and hope you’ll take a moment to meditate on the featured picture and quote. What fruits do you want to grow in your garden? Share your thought here. In the meantime, live well. Stay safe. The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug. — Mark Twain One of my EMail joys is the The New York Times “Word A Day “. It’s called, “The most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace.” In this one-minute read, I gain a word’s: definition origin and usage Author Hart Crane said, “One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper patterns at the right moment.” Word A Day is a quick and delightful, daily shower. Learn more. This Week’s Special Offer Each week, a featured item is offered at 25% off [plus any discounts offered by my Galleries]. This week, my ethereal photograph “Baby Grapes” is selected. Shop here. Thank you for your purchases. They help support Succeed and Soar. NOTE The original image was shot with a Nikon Coolpix camera. The jpg was “developed” in Adobe Photoshop Elements 14. Along with enriching color and enhancing the lighting, a primary adjustment was use of the Accented Edges filter.
Making Hot Sauce
Each of us, as we journey through life, has the opportunity to find and to give his or her unique gift. Whether this gift is quiet or small in the eyes of the world does not matter at all-not at all; it is through the finding and the giving that we may come to know the joy that lies at the center of both the dark times and the light. — Helen Luke A Meditation This week, I learned that making hot sauce is easy and amazing. Beyond vinegar, salt, sweeteners and dozens of peppers [from sweet Bells to Carolina Reapers and Ghosts], fruits, vegetables and herbs can be added to create a vast variety of flavors and heats. Tuesday evening, Trina Goggins, a member of Phipps Conservatory’s Urban Gardening group, shared her fascination with growing peppers and making hot sauce. And I learned a lot more as my medium-hot group rough-chopped one quarter of a red onion, a few garlic cloves [not whole bulbs!], sweet green and red and a jalapeno pepper, a peach and some parsley. Then we pureed those chunks in a food processor with brown sugar, salt and a cup of apple cider vinegar. After simmering a few minutes, we funneled our hot sauce into glass jars. Our second concoction contained ginger and lots of fresh, sweet pineapple. Wow! Write for recipes from: succeedandsoar@aol.com Another, Wow! A second Helen Luke [what a lady] quote that keeps me thanking Trina for how her ordinary chopping and cooking created flavors to savor and an extra-ordinary experience: To do the ordinary thing in an ordinary way is easy. To do the extraordinary thing in an extraordinary way is easy – both these kinds of activity are very common indeed. But to do the ordinary thing in an extraordinary way and the extraordinary thing in an ordinary way is quite staggeringly difficult and very rare indeed. It is the way of saints. Yum! BTW, The day after this cooking class, I watched Kardea Brown, a southern cook of Gullah/Geechee descent, teach Farmhouse Rules’ Nancy Fuller how to make Okra Soup with Shrimp. Most important to me was learning how to keep cooked okra crunchy instead of dissolving down to most disgusting slime imaginable [add fresh lemon]. Here’s the 3-minute video that demos how to cook ordinary okra and shrimp in an extra-ordinary way. Wanderings & Wonders Collection The inspiring and beautiful work in my Fine Art America collections is available as prints, framed and on canvas as well as on journals, greeting cards, weekender bags, shower curtains, puzzles and much more. Shop Here Thanks for your support! Sandra Gould Ford NOTE: size and placement of the art and words]can be changed as well as background colors.
Autumn Treasures
“Memories are the treasures locked deep within the storehouse of our souls; to keep our hearts warm.” — Becky Aligata A Meditation Once upon a summer, I played tag and softball and ran races with Madeira Street’s other ten-year-olds. Lunch was chipped ham and sweet pickles on Miracle Whip-slathered bread chased with Tropical Punch or Pink Lemonade or Cherry Kool-Aid. We played Tic-tac-toe, hangman and checkers on porches and watched television cartoons until dinner. At sundown, the ice cream truck’s jingle promised sparkling shaved ice drenched with pineapple or watermelon, strawberry or grape syrups. Now sometimes as leaves fall at eventide, I think of playmates running under streetlights, calling through the twilight. “There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place, where colors are brighter, the air is softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.” Elizabeth Lawrence The Wisdoms Collection Shop Enriching and Beautiful Posters Click Here
You Deserve Delight
“Dedicate yourself to the good you deserve and desire for yourself. Give yourself peace of mind. You deserve to be happy. You deserve delight.” — Mark Victor Hansen Hansen’s words remind me of those who plant crocus, hyacinth, daffodil, tulip and iris bulbs as the harvest season ends. When days cool and nights lengthen, some gardeners create spaces where withered roots can later send up shoots that bloom despite the ice and snow. Flower beds can be joy bank accounts for dark and dreary times. We do deserve joy. Delight can be planted. Onward and upward, The Wisdoms Collection Shop Enriching and Beautiful Posters Click Here