Almost Autumn: This Change Of Season Suits Me

September 8, 2014November 19, 2015 / Ally Bean / 16 Comments

This past Sunday morning was the first day in months where the temperature was below 60ºF and the humidity was low.

Delightful. Refreshing. Clear.

I was able to drink my first mug of coffee while sitting on the deck all by myself. Experiencing the stillness of the early morning centered me in a way that makes me feel whole.

Hopeful. Capable. Calm.

It wasn’t until I looked up into the trees behind our house that I realized how soon it’ll be autumn. And that I wasn’t alone out there on the deck. Two birds, way up high, were keeping me company.

Cheerful. Balanced. Orange.

Autumn is about letting go of what used to work and enjoying what is. I’ve found over the years that I can embrace its message because I’m open to new ideas and seem to have an aptitude for adjusting to what is.

Creative. Grateful. Aware.

Meaning that in about another month this tree, next to where the birds were sitting, will be a showy mess of fall color. And when it is I plan to be engrossed in new projects and a healthier way of life. Hello Autumn!

Determined. Grounded. Focused.

Monet, Spiders And Thoughts Thereupon

July 22, 2014 / Ally Bean / 26 Comments

I took these photos while standing on our deck early yesterday morning. It was foggy outside and the world looked like something out of a Monet painting. Nature’s beauty charmed me, but also lured me into a much too contemplative frame of mind for a Monday morning.

Seeing my world in this hazy way left me feeling grounded + old. I realized that I’d seen it all this way before, but was now remembering that there’ll be a finite number of other times that I’ll see it this way again. Feeling introspective, I was.

But as if on cue, when I went back inside the house to refill my coffee mug, I saw this little spider climbing up the inside of the screen. Now here is a critter who’s living in the moment, I thought. Good for him.

He’s applying himself to the task at hand with all the enthusiasm + strength that he can muster. And perhaps he has the real message of this early morning: get out there, start climbing and do something. No need to get stuck in maudlin contemplation when there’s life to be lived now. Spider Wisdom 101.

And Then It Rained…

June 12, 2014 / Ally Bean / 16 Comments

• • •

All week it’s been raining here. I like one day of rain once in a while and I understand its importance, but rain every day makes me:

Anxious. Nervous. Unsettled.

There is noise all the time: water hitting the roof, water running down the gutters, water moving in the creek at the back of our property.

There is grayness everywhere: outside in the garden beds, outside when driving along the roads, inside during the day.

There is mold everywhere: making my eyes itch, making the deck slippery, making my allergies go into overdrive.

Given my druthers I’d rather have a gray winter day with snow than this endless wetness. Which, if the weather forecast is to be believed, is going to be with us until the weekend.

Annoyed, I am.

• • •

When Your Morning Starts With The Wrong Angel Singing

May 13, 2014May 13, 2014 / Ally Bean / 17 Comments

Talk about being disoriented. As if getting up pre-dawncrack isn’t difficult enough, I now have worm of the ear going on… and it’s the wrong worm.

Botheration.

# # #

Here’s the deal. Zen-Den sets our clock radio to wake us at 5:30 a.m. each morning. But last night he changed the wake-up time to 5:15 a.m. because he needed to get going earlier than usual.

He did not tell me about the change.

So this morning the alarm, which is set to a local radio station, went off earlier than normal. When the alarm/radio goes off at its usual time I’m already a little bit awake so it’s not too much of a shock to me. But this morning the alarm/radio startled me out of my deep sleep.

Obviously.

# # #

And in my sleepy mind it seemed like the radio was LOUDER than usual as it played an oldie: “Angel of the Morning.” Not a bad tune, but slowly as I began to wake up I realized that it wasn’t the right woman singing the song.

Who are you? And what are you doing in my morning?

So I laid there in bed trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I could confirm with a glance at the clock radio that it was the wrong wake-up time, but the singer/angel situation flummoxed me.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

# # #

So now, later in the morning after a few mugs of coffee, I have been able to make sense of what happened. Come to find out there are many versions of “Angel of the Morning.”

The first one, the right one, the best one, the one that my mind would have accepted without confusion, sung by Juice Newton, is:

The second one that I was familiar with but didn’t grow up listening to, sung by Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, is:

But the wrongest one, the one that was forced on me this morning and is still lurking in its worm-ear-y way within my brain, the one that apparently is the original version, sung by Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, is: