How is your day today?

LaurieLovesLearning
LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
edited November 2020 in Encouragement

Getting personal...and real. Mine was off, and ending crappy. I was not kind to my kids. Frustration with them playing but not listening or doing more than morning chores just gets to me. No school happened again today. I am also frustrated with my oldest, away from home, oblivious to the poor decisions she is making. I feel so distant from her and not just because of the virus.

I am sore & tired. My house is a mess with stuff that needs to go out. Did I say I was sore & tired? So tired. And now I am frustrated with myself because I was hard on the kids. It seems like a never ending circle.

I hope for tomorrow to be better. I always do. Sometimes it is, sometimes not. I wish it could always be.

Yesterday, my husband and I got to go get a pair of new chickens (from a wonderful new friend) that I have desired for well over a year. I was so happy to get out & away from home. I needed to get out. I needed to feel the wheels turn under my feet. To go see. To explore. We had a good evening.

We went through the most beautiful countryside & discovered the most beautiful rural hillside cemetery as we found a trail off our chosen country path. I loved reading the names & dates. There were some babies too. So I felt sad for those around them when they died. I wondered about each story. There was one, a baby a few days old, with only a first name, Norbert. That is all we know. What a special baby.

We talked about oh, this is when the Spanish flu was (a few dates) and how it related to things now. We joked about how we were certainly social distancing there from the residents.

I want that cemetary to be my resting place. It was so peaceful. Ring the large old bell at the valley church below for me, then go celebrate, sing beautiful harmonious hymns & fun old gospel songs, & eat. Don't feel bad for me. Look forward to the good.

I want to show you some pictures, although to be there was even better. If you are having a bad day (and I do know that I am not the only one), hopefully this calm & simple beauty will help pick you up. I wish you could have slowly strolled through there with me.

Above the cemetary was a steeper hill, one still sheltering a large amount of gleaming white snow. We could hear the spring melt stream close by. So serene.

I loved this little tree, new out of old. It will be strong & majestic one day, just like its predecessor. The picture didn't do it justice. Such beauty in the stillness of nature.

Thank you for taking the time to walk with me. May your day be blessed with good things.

Comments

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    Beautiful. Cemeteries are always relaxing for me. I've been known to wander around in them for hours, looking, reading, thinking, reflecting, and just being at peace with nature. Human death is natural, just like plant death.

    I'm glad you got to get out for a bit. Cabin fever is getting so many people down. It's nice to see that nature is still trudging along, oblivious to our human struggles with this terrible situation. I wonder if this is how a plant feels when we try to contain it to a given location, kinda hemmed in with nowhere to grow?

  • seeker.nancy - Central Texas
    seeker.nancy - Central Texas Posts: 795 ✭✭✭✭

    It's good that you had a better end to the day. Thank you for sharing, I love the pictures. There is a Nixon family cemetery on a hill top in the community Dad was raised in. He and my mom are both buried there. It is so peaceful, looking over the valley below and seeing whatever wildlife and birds come to visit. When my mom died it was especially hard on my youngest daughter (she was in college at the time but home on Winter break). One day about a week after the funeral she went up there by herself. She sat on the ground and just talked to Mom and cried her heart out. A deer and a blue jay came up and she said that she really felt Mom's presence then. She made peace with Mom's death. She still grieved but felt at peace in spite of that. There is truly something about cemeteries, especially those that have been there for hundreds of years, that inspires peace. Life can give us a good beating at times but I think the cemetery gives clarity. May today be a much better day for you Laurie, and may the peace you felt there carry you through the coming days.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @LaurieLovesLearning Everyone has those days when the joy of children is interrupted by the frustration they can create without even trying. It is harder with the older ones who are making their own path. From experience, we can see that they are going to make mistakes and want to prevent them from pain or heart break or just bad choices.

    I'm glad you were able to get away and bring some peace into your life. It is a lovely looking cemetery from the pictures. I had a similar experience in a community we drive through regularly. They have a "Historic" cemetery but it had never crossed my mind about where they bury the "newer" residents. On a recent trip through the community, we pulled off on a side road to get beverages out of the cooler and discovered the "new" cemetery. It was such a quiet, peaceful spot.

    It is good to have this forum to vent a bit.

    I certainly hope today is a better day for you and your family.

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    Thank you for sharing💕 Cemeteries have also held so much peace for me. My mom used to take me to pioneer cemeteries for picnics when I was young. I always look for the old or unique cemeteries when I go on vacations.

    In awe and amazement 3 weeks ago I was hired as a pioneer cemetery manager. It’s such a great honor to serve this sacred land that has held the history of my community for 141 years.

    The dark blue line beyond the cemetery trees is the Pacific Ocean. This is the Original section of the cemetery. I hope one day to lay my bones down here.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning I haven't watched Gone With The Wind since 1970 but I remember something like "Tomorrow is another day" I hope and pray your day today brings Light, Love and Blessings. -------

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    Thank you. Today is somewhat better. I hope it improves as the day progresses. We plan on taking another day trip with the kids tomorrow to go see other beautiful spaces. Maybe we will stop & reflect in other cemeteries too.

    What beautiful stories & cemeteries you ladies have shared with me/us. I am actually looking forward to more. Cemeteries remind us where "we" have been, that we are only here for a time, that we are all special, and they can give us so much. It can certainly help calm.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I'm generally pretty stoic, and I've been tolerating this pandemic time fairly well. I do still have a job, for which I'm grateful. And, since the kids are all learning from home, cleaning the elementary school is SO much easier.

    The city is also doing a much needed replacement of the entire sewer system. My block has been torn up for 2 weeks now. The noise and the dust and inconvenience of having to park down the street have been wearing on me, but I try to remember that the workers are doing the best they can. So I don't get ugly with them over having to go through the gate to the lot behind my house and then out that side gate to get to and from work. At least I have a second way out.

    I've also been on a job hunt since February, so that I can move back to Missouri (from Idaho) to be near my sister and mother. My brother is in Oklahoma, so closer to him, too. Of course, I'm job hunting on the internet when everyone knows that I won't be able to actually move until interstate travel is OK again. So that's been difficult. I've held on to the idea that one of the first things that I wanted to do with my mom and sister was have a proper tea at a little tea shop that they like. The Facebook page for the business is delightful.

    On Tuesday, the tea shop announced that they will not be reopening. I sat at the computer and cried. It's such a silly thing, but apparently it was the last straw that day.It's a wonder to me that we are not all curled in tight little balls in our closets.

    Be gentle with yourselves, and with each other. Use the stress reduction methods that work for you, and the herbal allies that support your nervous system. I like rose, lemon balm, milky oats, skullcap, and chamomile. Teas are good, so are tinctures, if you have them. And get sufficient sleep!

    This little cemetery caught my eye. Council, Idaho.


  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @Mary Linda Bittle That is absolutely beautiful.

    I have had 2 "moments" so far that I attribute to the extra stress. I think it silently lurks and suddenly strikes even for the most calm & contented of us. It is just such an unnatural situation we find ourselves in.

    I think that I will revisit this thread next time. I love that this community is so welcoming.

    More cemetery pictures, please! Maybe some stories or interesting epitaphs?

  • Homestead Hubby
    Homestead Hubby Posts: 40 ✭✭✭

    Thank you for sharing. I feel your “off”ness I was hard on my toddler today. So hard trying to to find the balance of correcting him and remembering he is just a toddler and being a toddler. This time is so hard even in the country where we are not that effected by this pandemic. Thank you for the reminder we are not alone and to search for peaceful moments.

    I hope everyone finds peace this weekend.