Do you ever have a week when you feel a need to be reminded of what matters? This is what I felt like I needed for this Nurturing Thursday:
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.
I haven’t spent much time online recently because my husband and I have been rowing more, now that we’re training to compete in actual on-the-water races instead of last year’s virtual races on rowing machines. The virtual races gave us something to do when there wasn’t much else going on; but of course, road trips to real races are a lot more fun.
And our daughter, who lives in the Cleveland area, has come home to visit after a year of not traveling anywhere. Life is starting to feel like we’re setting out on a great adventure again!
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.
I mentioned in the comments to my post last Thursday that at the rowing club, a pair of killdeer make their nest every year on the gravel path between the boathouse and the dock. Whoever is first to notice the nest puts a traffic cone beside it, to make sure nobody steps on the eggs. The boathouse is located on parkland that is full of wildlife, however, and some small predator always eats the eggs before they can hatch.
The eggs got eaten again in early June, but the birds are valiantly trying once more. Their new nest is much closer to the boathouse. Probably because the gravel is thicker there, I’m guessing, and not because the predators are fewer. I took a photo that shows how the eggs match the gravel and are almost invisible.
It looks like an uncomfortable place to sit—but to each their own, I suppose. Everyone is hoping the birds will have better luck with the eggs this time!
My husband is the coxswain for our rowing club. I don’t row the big team boats, so when he coxes on Tuesday and Thursday after work, I stay home and work a longer day.
When he came home this evening, he told me that the rowers rescued a small bird that had somehow fallen into the river. It was too waterlogged to fly and was flapping frantically, struggling to stay afloat. Maneuvering the boat next to the bird took a little time, what with being careful not to bump it or create a wake that would swamp it. Once the boat was in a good position, one of the rowers picked the bird up out of the water, and the crew brought it safely to shore.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.
We’ve had a lot of rain around here the past couple of days, so I wasn’t sure about the rowing plans that my husband and I had yesterday. The weather forecast said that there would be a break in the rain by late afternoon. When we got down to the boathouse, though, it was still chilly and a light rain was falling.
As it turned out, we didn’t mind the rain because we had comfortable rowing jackets and the water was fairly calm, even with the drizzle. It was good to be outdoors. Although our feet got wet, otherwise there was nothing at all to worry about. We felt glad that we went ahead with our plans.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I rowed in the Dogwood Masters regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. That’s our favorite place to row because it has perfectly straight, well-buoyed sprint lanes, and we like the Southern warmth after our chilly Ohio winters. Of course, we’re out of practice after not traveling for so long, but we much enjoyed getting back in the world again and seeing our friends (and competitors) from other rowing clubs.
I thought that I’d be much slower racing my single, but my time was only about ten seconds slower than in the 2019 regatta. My husband pointed out that there wasn’t as much current this year, which slowed everyone down by about ten seconds, so I hadn’t actually lost any speed.
The boat in the center of the photo is mine (yes, I know it looks tiny, but these boats are so long that it’s hard to get everything in the picture). I crossed the finish line second. Because there were two older women in the race (who are on the left of the photo, several boat lengths behind me), I didn’t get a medal after their age handicaps had been figured into the results. Still, it was a good day in the real world.
When I sat down to write a Nurturing Thursday post after a long and busy day, not much came to mind right away. Outside the window, birds were calling to each other as the daylight faded from the sky. I took a breath and just sat there quietly in the desk chair, without trying to force myself to be productive about writing a blog entry or doing anything else. The world seemed to slow down around me. I became aware of my heartbeat, the gentle breeze from the ceiling fan, and the texture of the carpet under my feet. Everything had gone still. For the moment, there was only the simple joy of being.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.
As mentioned on this blog in October 2018, I had gotten frustrated with an old coffee table that needed replacing. It was still functional, but the veneer was flaking off, and and its unusual dimensions (long and narrow) meant that I hadn’t been able to find a comparable table after many online searches.
I reminded myself that it was only a piece of furniture and there was no reason to let it bother me, but I still felt stuck whenever I looked at the table. Although it was obviously no big deal in the grand scheme of things, it triggered a “life shouldn’t be this hard” feeling anyway. When my husband and I first set up our household more than 30 years earlier, some friends gave us the table, which was old even then. We liked the dimensions and thought we’d get a new coffee table after a while, but it didn’t happen.
So, with hopes of turning my stuck thoughts in a more constructive direction, I wrote a blog post describing what I wanted in a new table. I saw it as an exercise in attracting good things by being more precise about what I wanted, and I titled the post “Placing an Order with the Universe.”
Despite my efforts, it didn’t seem like the Universe was much inclined to take such an order. One of my specifications for the new table was that it should be an affordable mass-market item easy to buy online. I spent many hours searching for oversized coffee tables on furniture store websites, with no success. Every time I washed the old table after we ate pizza or hamburgers on it, I had to be careful not to rip off more splinters of veneer. I tried to tell myself that I should be grateful for a comfortable life anyway; but in truth, I felt annoyed whenever I looked at the old table.
One night last winter, my husband still had work to do because a big project was behind schedule. I was waiting to cook dinner and was half asleep on the couch, feeling cranky about being deprived of sleep because he hadn’t been ready to eat at a reasonable hour. I looked at the worn-out old coffee table and got even more irritated. Then I finally thought, we have happy family dinners, and that’s what matters.
I could feel something shift in my subconscious mind just then. Somehow, it seemed almost like I had moved a physical object into a more comfortable position. Then another thought occurred to me—why had I been assuming that a custom-built table would be too expensive?
When I next looked online for coffee tables, I went to a marketplace site for custom items. Almost at once I found a reasonably priced solid oak table in a style I liked, which could be made in custom sizes and colors. Although the vendor had a bit of a backlog, that didn’t bother me after all the time I’d spent searching. I have been enjoying the table since it arrived last weekend.
Now, every time I sit on the couch and look at the coffee table, it lifts my mood and reminds me that I go through life surrounded by abundance. If a new table had been easier to find, I probably would have taken it for granted. So, I’m giving the Universe a five-star review for sending me both a lovely coffee table and a valuable life lesson.
The flowers I planted last weekend were flourishing when I went out to water them this afternoon. They have grown noticeably and look like they’re enjoying the sun and warmth. Like the flowers, I’m starting to feel newly planted in a better place, too. But I need to keep in mind that I am still putting down roots and sending up new growth, so I need to be gentle with myself.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.
I haven’t yet gotten around to planting annual flowers, mainly because the weather has been chilly and going outdoors just hasn’t seemed as inviting. But it was comfortable today, the sun was shining in a clear sky, and I’m definitely going to do my planting this weekend. Getting connected with the earth doesn’t just nurture the garden; it also takes care of the soul.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.
