Blogs of Note...

Every day on Blogspot they have this cool thing called , "Blogs of Note". It is where they spotlight a new blog, sometimes from this country and sometimes from other countries. They each hold a unique and interesting view from where the current author is sitting in life, and, I just love it! It's odd how I don't even know any of these folks, but I can find myself getting pulled into their lives so quickly. Not all, but many, have me even bookmarking their addresses and periodically I will check back to see how they are doing.

Today's blog of note is written by a woman named Jane. Her blog isn't extraodinary as some, but somehow it touched me. Jane has endometrial cancer, and she is an inspiration. It's remarkable how a sudden red light in life can bring the view alongside the road into instant perspective. I loved her "What I let go in 2008 and What I found in 2009" posting. She is fighting a battle, knitting, and growing flowers. Beautiful, beautiful flowers. In her graceful struggle to live, Jane has decided to focus on nurturing the growth of something else, her flowers.

As I was nearing the end of her recent postings, I scrolled down to the bottom and I found a lovely quote, "Our Truest Responsibility To The Irrationality Of The World Is To Paint Or Sing Or Write, For Only In Such Response Do We Find The Truth." This was written by Madeleine L'Engle. I loved the message and knew the authors name instantly. Read one of her books as a child, "A Wrinkle In Time" and my daughter is reading it right now! I can't wait to get home and show her this.

Lauren is my singer, my painter, my writer. I notice when her days are stressful, or filled with a lot of expectation, she will still find time to sit and write or draw, and then, before she knows it, the hectic stuff of the day falls away, and the centered calm comes back into focus. Sometimes it will be bedtime and she'll say, "Please mommy, can I just draw for a little while" or sometimes I will hear her in her room as I walk up to say, "Lights out" and I hear her singing the lovliest song. I step back away from the door and just leave her be. Lauren is only 10, and these creative ventures come easily to her, but I don't want her to dismiss them as childplay. They are wonderful exercises in maintaining balance during imbalanced times. She migrated to these on her own, and I really want her to continue with them throughout her life.

When life gets hard, and it always does, we need creative outlets. For me, writing my blog, is so cathartic. I do it for the pure pleasure of it, but still am delightfully suprised when I hear, "I love your blog!". Some day Lauren will hear those words too and I want her to know everything we do touches someone, even if sometimes it is simply ourselves. The important thing is the "doing" of it all. Jane's words of inspiration she wrote for herself, and by association, I found she wrote them for me as well. We must all just do something, for ourselves, and for each other.

If you'd like to check out Jane's blog she is at http://www.notplainjane.blogspot.com/