Thankful Me

Some weeks, I have plenty of free time.  I blog regularly, I stay on top of the housework, and I have time to think.  This was not one of those kind of weeks. I did think, "Well, at least I can get a Wordless Wednesday post up," but when I sat down to do that, I realized it was Thursday.  Despite being a day behind, I did steal a moment here and there to take some photos of things that brought a smile to my face throughout the week.  

Compassion  has been on my mind lately.  I participated in 1000 Voices for Compassion .  I read some of the other posts about compassion.  My facebook feed has been exploding with links about compassion, and my twitter account has been notifying me almost non-stop about compassion.  And that is just my virtual life. 

Link to the link-up When Lizzi first invited me to join in the 1000 Voices of Compassion event, I did not jump in with enthusiasm.  I doubted, wondering if "compassion" was code for political policies or social agendas that I did not support.  Fortunately, I came to my senses and realized that, yes, I most definitely did want to join with other bloggers in writing about compassion.  Compassion is an admirable character trait, and one I hope to develop more fully.  My mom was my first teacher of compassion.   I've  written about her teaching methods in a previous post .   

Christine recently posted "20 Lessons in 20 Years" as part of a blog hop called, "Learning Love: A Lesson a Year in Marriage."  I admired her post, loved the idea of celebrating marriage, but thought, "If I want to participate, I have to come up with 27 things (and I'm grateful our anniversary is later this year, so I don't have to come up with 28!)."   I eventually came to the conclusion that my whining was ridiculous, and I should just sit down and start writing. I decided to copy Christine's format, and relate an incident from each year of our marriage. Obviously, I have left out many events, including some major changes, but to expect to thoroughly cover 27 years of marriage in one blog post is unrealistic. 

Despite what the groundhog predicted, here in my neck of the woods we have been enjoying balmy weather.  I think the nation needs a west coast groundhog to provide the local forecast.  I've spent time in my backyard this week, pruning palms and roses, pulling weeds, and planting raspberries and lilacs.  For those of you still buried in snow, I offer a hopeful glimpse of weather to come:

Last month, I mentioned that I was joining in 1000 Voices for Compassion , and I said I'd tell you why on February 20th.  Well, as I've considered the topic, I've realized that I have too many thoughts on the subject to write only one post about compassion.  

Thanks for balance and harmony.