Sunday, April 5, 2009

Quilting Bee of Women... Week 3


Beautiful Quilt by Joanne Cranfield


I think someone mentioned cranberry nut bread last week – yuuuuummmy!! Someone who is ignoring my need to loose a few pounds off my backside – brought chocolate chip cookies & a bowl of peanut M&M’s. The coffee is brewing – oh I love that smell and the tea is set out with honey this week. I have racked a nice piece this week – full of beauty, stars, moon, oceans & mountains , tell me what beauty your spot contains – what picture of bliss is before you? Hmmmm blisss – what is bliss to you?

Do you ever have the experience that someone is trying to tell you something ? Not your normal someone – SOMEONE! I have noticed something since I started writing here – certain subjects demand my attention. If I don’t pay attention – they keep coming up over and over in conversations and blogs, etc. etc. .. So…. This week the things I keep seeing are… what touches your soul, what is your bliss, what is your true North. Do you know?

Something I have noticed about things that touch my soul, that delightful feeling that fills you with liquid pleasure. When you see, touch, hear or feel something that touches you in that amazing way. I’ve noticed that as I have gotten older those things have changed. I find new things that overtake me this way of coarse. I guess it troubled me that somewhere along the line, some things that had given me that instant bliss, no longer did. For a while I wondered if I was just depressed. That I kept looking to those things that gave me joy and they didn’t anymore. I found it disturbing.

When I was young I was a huge John Denver fan. Don’t groan!!! I still am. I used to ride my horse to the top of our property in Tennessee (not very high) where I could see the mountains. Granted they were small – but I loved them. I deeply related to Mr. Denver’s love for the mountains. I felt it every time I saw them. When I was 16 we moved from Tennessee to Los Angeles! We drove through the Rockies on the way there. Honestly – it was better than bliss, I wanted to cry!

Well, I live in the most beautiful place – Coeur d Alene, Idaho. It is stunning here! Mountains can be seen whenever I walk. So when they failed to bring the accustomed thrill – I wondered if I had lost my deep need for them. Turned out, I had grown up. Well… at least I had matured. Not that I had had my fill of the mountains, just my bliss factor had changed. I found that I was not depressed but had reached a different stage of my life. I had to reevaluate. Who was this new me and what did she find to be blissful, what would touch my soul now? It’s not that my true North had changed, just that my compass needed to be readjusted.

So I sat down and wrote an honest list – was very serious with myself. What was I ready to let go of – my horseback riding – I still adore horses , just don’t fancy falling off them anymore. I still adore the wood and mountains, but have discovered a deep love for the seashore. Where singing was one of my biggest bliss fixes, it now my art. I used to adore dancing, now it’s yoga. I guess what I’m saying is at each junction of our lives, maybe we need to reevaluate what is our bliss, what gives our souls joy, what is our true North? That if your honest with yourself, sometimes those things change. That change isn’t always easy or lacking in pain. I had a very hard time letting go of my singing. To be ok just singing at home. I cried through the creation of this new list of bliss. But, it allowed me to follow my new passion fully, my art. That sometimes for the new things to come into our lives we have to make room for them to bloom into bliss, to feed our souls, to readjust our compass. Do you need to readjust your compass?

Ok, I’m gonna find some chocolate cookie and coffee bliss, anyone for cranberry nut bread?

16 comments:

Michelle said...

Food for thought indeed.

I will ponder on this.

I TOTALLY relate to SOMEONE bossing me around :)

xx

Snap said...

The cranberry nut bread is mine! :)
I understand the changing of *bliss*. When we first moved to Tx ... 20+ years now ... I used to tell people that my soul lived in New Mexico .. the mountains, the natives, the laid back culture ... all of it. Not so anymore. I love the water, the birds, the constant green that I've found here. I never thought of myself as a city girl, but here I am. Learning and growing everyday. The best part is getting up every morning (YeeeHawww), hearing the birds sing, watching our garden grow. The simple things. Oh yeah. BLISS!

Hugs---

Kathleen Coy said...

I love and related to John Denver like that. And I love your writing, Sarah. It's so inspiring!
Hugs!

Anonymous said...

One of my Bliss items is music, so I do love John Denver as well. Like snap before I moved to Texas I thought New Orleans gave me everything I needed, but here in Texas I see hills and nature in a way I've never seen before.

I also find my list changes as I get older as well.

I enjoyed this post Sarah.

Anonymous said...

You're right Sarah. I always thought that it would be fun to never grow up, and in some ways it is sad to grow up. (and hard to) But, what oh,we would miss out on if we didn't!
Cindy

Anonymous said...

Sarah this is a really thought provoking post. I would agree with you - as we mature, our bliss, or some of it, changes. You have inspired me to do more thinking in this regard. Hmmm...I will get back to you with my list. I really do need to ponder this one! Brilliant post!
xoxoxo

Christine said...

You are so right. With maturity are joys or "Bliss" change. I'm going to be thinking about this for a few days.

I have to tell you though, if you lived away from the mountains for a few years, I think mountains would once again become your bliss. I have been away a couple of times for several years. While I, like you, love the the ocean. I take my vacations on the Oregon Coast!!! I do love the ocean, but the mountains are still my bliss. Almost everyday, I look up at the foothills and it makes me feel so good. When I need my batteries recharged, I go for a drive in the mountains.

However, I would loooove to live on the Oregon coast because they have both!!!!

Next week I'll bring chocolate cupcakes and a carrot cake shaped like a bunny. I'm making them for our Easter Dinner so I'll just make extra. The cupcakes will be on my blog for Pink Saturday and the cake will be on my blog on Sunday to celebrate Easter. This is the BEST carrot cake I have ever had!!!!

Wow, that was a long comment!

Blessings,
Christine

Dianie said...

Sarah,
Your post is bliss!
My bliss items have changed as I have grown older as well.
One of my biss items that has never changed is the love for the mountains. I live at the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains and everyday I am taken by thier majestic beauty.

Tomorrow is the day I will send you your First Five suprise. I do need your mailing address to get the suprise on it's way to you. You can email me at; amacnaughtan@comcast.net

Have a great day :)

~Diane

Renee said...

No cranberry nut for me. I will have the cookies and tea.

Excellent post Sarah. You are going further and further into the lands of discovery.

Love Renee xoxo

Unknown said...

My bliss items have definitely changed. My body is older and will not let me do some of the things I used to do, my needs are different. I went through many changes through out my 40's and now that I am (hmmmm) 50 something(LOL) it is the small things that give me bliss. Flowers in my yard, clean sheets, good friends to talk to and art. Art is my constant companion, whether I am painting on canvas or designing flower beds, I live and breath design! The hills still give me bliss and nature itself. The greatest work of art ever is nature itself. Good topic Sarah!! I love your blog!

Unknown said...

Sarah,

My gosh, what a thought provoking post...I have so been thinking about how as we get older our thoughts, appreciations, inspirations, and our compass change. How if we looked at life back then as we do now...our perspective would be different.

When my father died a year and half ago(in my home mind you)...I had the biggest wake up call..I looked at all the things over the years that HAD mattered to me, and stood back and grappled with what really mattered. Sometime our words dont always or cant reflect what is felt with change. If you had asked me some goals back then it would have been go to disney world by 40...now its just to see the world with new eyes, and look around where I am already at...Instead of regrets and foolish behavior it is thinking and proceeding with new eyes and discussing with oneself the realistic options. The compass moves as life gives us new experiences, history, and maturity. Once we had looked at our elders and thought "oh your old, set in your way"...well it was their life experiences that moved their compass..not that revelry and change is to be kept in the closet...Just we follow the compass now...not get ahead of it...The mountains will come back...the ocean is somewhere different...

mailing present by Friday...want it perfect for ya...Loved this post Girl.....Renee will tell ya..."Inside every older(not moldy)person is a younger person wondering; What Happened?" Jennifer Yane, artist.

I believe notes of fate and destiny pop sticky notes to us...as we get older we can see them cuz we slow a lil...not skooter slow...but enough to take notice...

Smiles,

Sonia ;)

Unknown said...

and I love zucchini bread...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm lots of poundage from that....

smiles,

Sonia ;)

nonizamboni said...

Oh my, I have been thinking about this very subject of waning bliss for awhile now. Thanks for your heartfelt take--and suggestions--on this. I wholeheartedly agree that some deep and urgent things just seem to stop 'being.' I've been sad about not caring about certain people, places & things but I'm going to pursue the list and gently demand some honesty since, from what you've found, its o.k. to change.
And I'd like 2 pieces of cranberry bread (1 for the road) :O)
p.s. My husband grew up in Cd'A.
p.p.s. Sunshine On My Shoulders still raises the hair on my arms.
Happy Monday!

Tabitha the KnittingJourneyman said...

The past couple years have been--interesting for me--to say the least--I have gone up and down and upside round too often--and as I am beginning to find my center again-maybe for the first time ever in my life-I am amazed by the things that remain steadfast (like Yoga) and the things I have let go of along the way...and my dad was born and raised in WV--John Denver will ALWAYS have a warm spot at our hearth no matter what. :-)
Thank you for your post-there is still much to ponder there.

Danielle Barlow said...

Hmmm, that's a really interesting post. I don't stop to ponder deeply very often, and it hadn't really occurred to me that it's ok to re-evaluate the 'markers' that define us, and where we are headed. I've been clinging to them because, surely, the things I have always been passionate about, are what make me, well, me? I had that slight butterfly feeling in my stomach as I got half way through your post and thought, of course, I'm being ridiculous! I can reallign myself without it changing who I am! I'm going to have to go away and ponder very deeply now!

Gail H. Ragsdale said...

I still love John Denver! There are mountains in LA, just need to look for them :-)

Love your writing, I am so poor with words.