Continue to be amazed on how amazed how energetic one can be on a long weekend and how zapped one can be that first day back at work!

But if I look comparatively last year at this time I was just getting out of subacute rehab in Ottawa and painfully touring the tulip festival on crutches ( and making friends with ADLs of walkers, wheelchairs, bathroom rails ). The only prop left at this point is a trusty cane or two or ski pole for those slippery dog walks!

Updating the blog is not always done as frequently these days but hope you enjoy some of my photos.

So some highlights of last weekend…saw my first robin, cleaned house and yard, walked an outdoor labyrinth, dinner with a friend on her way north, walked in the inner city stations of the Cross with dogs and shared a family Easter dinner.

...all in all some very good days off!

Seven stations through the inner city with hymns, prayer and reflections on healing, homelessness, poverty, school lunches and social justice.

I especially like this photo as this couple both in scooters shared dog biscuits with my two.

Inukshuk in downtown Edmonton over looking river valley

A labyrinth is not a maze but a simple outdoor circular pattern of paths that one walks slowly to the center and out.

This mallard drake and mate landed just as I was leaving.

From the family Easter dinner.

My sister Maureen put it all together

Wonderful bunny angel food cakeDelightful and decadant!

The daughter and her boyfriend or as she candidly refers to him as"the boy I like" have a long distance relationship and she made a surprise visit to Edmonton. 

Here they are just back from weekend in Jasper.

92 years young "Grandma Tootoo" 

the new day, the new sunrise and an old hymn, “New every morning is new, the love of God for me is wonderfully new!”

Not my words but good food for thought....

·      Laugh when you can...

·      Apologize when you should...

·      Let go what you can't change...

·      Love deeply and forgive quickly...

·      Take chances and give your everything...

·      Life is too short to be anything but happy...

·      Take the good with the bad...

·      Love what you have...

·      Always remember what you had...

·      Forgive...but don't forget..

·      But always remember.. that life goes on

Prompts…Song…Why do we hunger for beauty..Steve Bell

Beauty is God’s handwriting…God’s shadow on the earth

My Piece

So where do we find beauty, why do we hunger for it, why do I have thousands of photographs, digital ones on this lap top.

I find beauty the rich afternoon colors,

I find beauty in small moments and in small encounters,

I find beauty in purple saxifrax flowers, minute purple springing in a mound to conserve the heat and capture the arctic light from every angle.

I find beauty in advancing frost patterns on my office window, snaking like spidery fingers

I find beauty in an elderly patient, who with crippled over bent hunched back walking on his cane, tells me stories of his mother who was teacher and post mistress in a small northern Alberta town, one of the first ones where the province granted plots of land to be farmed and homesteaded,

I find beauty in my dogs digging furiously with snow and grass flying tails in the airand digging furiously to capture the escaping mouse.

I find beauty in the moments of silence when I pause in my day to stop in at the hospital chapel and consider the Lenten readings,

I find beauty in the pink spouting blooms of my Christmas cactus, multi-strands and beads that have emerged in time for Easter and the newly formed red bracket on the poinsettia plant. so out of sync with the season but signs of life and beauty,

I find beauty in a friend’s call when I am tired and worn down to suggest we get out on the bikes and encouragement despite my fears of slipping again on the ice,

I find beauty in this group of women writers, who faithfully meet and greet and share their foibles, jokes remembered and forgotten, love of the body’s movement in dance, nourishing each other with food and words,

I struggle to find beauty in an off-handed critical remark from a co-worker or family member that hits me in the wrong way,

I struggle to find beauty or compassion in some of the political diatribes of the current election dialogues.

But beauty in small moments and kind acts are the sustenance and fodder for the larger world journey.

And the new day and new sunrise and as the words of an old hymn cite, “New every morning is new, the love of God for me is wonderfully new!”

 Breathing spaces or putting some margins into our weekly schedule as I grow older I am finding more and more important. Perspective .... Our bodies will often give us some signals at which at our peril we ignore.

Working in CCU often one may see differences in attitudes towards signs of heart attacks or or ther cardiac symptoms. This may include one who does a self discharge because of a job waiting across the province and restrictions in coffee and smoking. The was in contrast to another, who upon discovery of the need for a cardiac bi-pass went into a depression thinking life was over,  but quickly bounced back when discovered what the options were after surgery and re-adjustments in life style but more years with  family.

 My current reminders have been forgetfulness…and misplacing items and the ensuing panic to find them again….perhaps minor in comparison. However as I approach the year anniversary of my left hip break and following surgery, I do become abit more reflective.

So the following shots are a few ways in the last week I have been looking for signs of spring and stopping to “ smell the flowers “ or enjoy the small moments.

Cylamen...One of the flowering plants picked up at Home Depot Changing light triggered my Christmas cactus to bloom

Full perspective from patio above an inside pool looking out snowy outdoor playground and a runner passing by in first shot.

A touch of spring in fresh cut flowers for a coffee shop stop as I ventured out for my first time this season on the bike at a friend's suggestion Sunday afternoon.    The paths were relatively clear and river is breaking up. 

Dogs enjoying a run at Laurier Park.

Late in day, melting temps made everything pretty soggy! But not an impediment for going after scurrying sounds underneath!

Still basking in the energy of 8 PM concert at Winspear, Salif Keita, African folk artist from Mali...had a seat in the 4th row and by the third song we were all clapping and dancing, amazing different drums and stringed instruments....

My daughter Amelia http://dreamingovertheocean.blogspot.com/ has been to Africa 4 or 5 times, drums and does West Africa dance and will be travelling to Malawi this fall with her nursing program.