Chicago Blues

Blue washes over Chicago, leaving patches of sepia only where the sky couldn't reach. Almost like a dream, the boats and buildings blend together. Though strong and edgy, there is room for the heart in the flow of one to the other, here in this city.

Night Ride

Parked on the Magnificent Mile, the bicycles wait for their riders. It is a beautiful night in the city. Excitement reflects off the street's surface in cobalt and magenta. This is the first stop. There will be more. The evening is just beginning and there is a whole city to explore.

Autumn's Court

The temperature is summer's but the court is autumn's. The crunch beneath my feet says it is so. The deserted beach echos this back to me. I don't feel ready, not yet. I'm not ready to let go of summer's heat, the walk out the door without the added weight of a coat and boots, the extended daylight hours...not yet. It has been an exceptional summer: many sunny days, high temps and no mosquitoes.

But autumn comes...and with it, cozy sweaters, steaming cups of coffee, slippers waiting at the side of my bed and a beautiful wash of colours over the sun-scorched trees and grasses. Maybe it isn't so bad. Maybe it is more about being thankful for the exceptional summer we've had and at the end of the day, when autumn comes, it too will have its charm.

Summer Sets

Pattern Two

My husband and I went out to the countryside yesterday evening. Evidently, I am still searching out pattern and balance based on the pictures I uploaded to my computer when we returned. This image is particularly soothing to me. Though their lines go in different directions, the tracks and the towers share both numbers and form and give balance to the picture.

Pattern

Life can be unpredictable, unfamiliar, filled with change, and ever in transition. This can make me long for pattern, a familiar pattern where things repeat...not for all time but for a time. It is the quest for balance, to equalize the chaos with calm.

There are important physical actions I can take to this end and do (getting proper rest, exercise, healthy eating) but the spiritual ones reach further. Taking time to be...with God...listening for Him...learning about Him...waiting with Him...these go deep and bring calm into the chaos.

Because chaos doesn't often go away quickly and will never avoid us entirely, I need to find my way through it (each of us - we all do). What is the alternative? Getting stuck.

On we go.

Story's Inspiration

Sometimes it just takes one scene, real life or photo of real life, to trigger my imagination to conjure up some of the most interesting stories and circumstances. Take this scene for instance. I saw this and couldn't look away...11 pillows hanging in a row on the line to be dried...spotted...with tears perhaps...and an empty lawnchair...who sat there and why? My mind can wander many different directions on this. What about you?

A Pop of Happy

Downtown can be serious and sometimes scary but if you look closely, you might just see a pop of happy mixed in there as well. This week I've spent a fair bit of time in the downtown area. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it.

I loved watching the businessman walk quickly with a coffee on one side of the street while the elderly man slowly peddled his basket-laden bicycle down the other, the rusty cars parked in the alley-ways and the UPS trucks huddled together in the parking lot, the semi-trucks rumbling down the road as the pair of horses slowly walked the other way carrying police officers on their beat. I loved the older buildings and hydro lines with a pop of happy strung over the wires. This seemed normal. The juxtaposition was normal. I liked that a lot.

Blue Moon Pumpkin

Autumn is around the corner. The time is coming for sweaters then coats, rakes then shovels, and turkey followed by pumpkin pie.

You can use a regular pumpkin to create your pumpkin pies or you can use something a little more unique. The Blue Moon pumpkin is quite an interesting pumpkin. The outside is blue and the flesh is cantaloupe's orange. In fact, when I cut it open, it smelled like the cantaloupe as well. I used a Blue Moon pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie and it turned out quite nice. When at the market this fall, pick up a Blue Moon pumpkin. You won't be disappointed.

Scents of the Past

Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.

~Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses

As I stood on the pier and looked out over the water, the smell of the lake and the scent of the donuts and corn dogs on the fair grounds behind me brought me back to sweet memories. How true it is that smells can be a powerful trigger to our past.