Too much negativity lately… let me share something else.
I opened my front door this morning, just to check the clouds and breeze, and found something lit by the bright morning sunshine on my porch, moving from one potted flower to the next.
And I thought, what has the world done so right as to deserve the frivolous beauty of a butterfly?
The other day I was late getting to the bus stop in the morning. I would have been a half hour late for work but the bus was late too, I still caught it and I wasn’t late at all.
I have to train my self to notice this kind of thing as much as I notice when things go bad.
Wednesday night I took the kids out on an evening fishing trip on the Chesapeake Bay. The waves were big, rocking the boat pretty good. As we were trolling (dragging lures slowly behind the boat) we got out past the crab pots and headed into the wind.
I told the kids to avoid the pots and head into the wind. I took up position in the front of the boat and drifted off into a nap or two.
I never expected to catch any fish, and we didn’t. We motored until it got dark, then lifted the lines.
To the far west clouds lit up with lightning. The waves rolled by in the dark as I taught the kids the joy of night navigation and the beauty of the water at night. It was an experience I grew up with 40 years ago that I hadn’t had the opportunity to share with my children yet.
They loved it.
In a few minutes I will go out, prep the boat and we will head out to a sand bar that juts far out into a nearby river to play around in the water, again hopefully until dark.
The beauty and experience is great. Sharing it is even better.
My daughter got a new(ish) bike a couple of weeks back, and has finally learned to ride one. She’s 8, but hasn’t tried for a couple of years because of some bad falling-off experiences she had when she was that age, but this time around she basically just got on and cycled off.
A few weeks ago I was working in Houston and bought some postcards at the airport. They didn’t sell stamps, though, so the lady behind the counter said she’d post them for me (to Europe!). She didn’t want anything in return, just asked me to do something nice for someone else.
The cards arrived this week and I am still amazed by her kindness. (And yes, I’ve done something nice for someone else…)
Years ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Look for the Good and Praise It.” I’ve kept that in my heart ever since.
A few weeks ago Scrub Jay and I started hearing an odd sound for a few moments every day or so. It sounded something like a cat getting its tail stepped on but not quite. Weird. Then about a week ago, when I heard it, I hurried to the window. Saw four gull-like birds speeding off into the distance. The first thing I noticed was how pointy their wings were. Long and narrow too. I thought “tern” but didn’t think they got that big.
Several days of catching brief glimpses of them and listening to their cat-screaming voices and I was able to find out that they are terns. Caspians, at that. The largest tern in North America. Though I knew they summered in the Puget Sound area, I’d never seen any in flight before. A good portion of Tacoma is on a fair-sized peninsula. I suspect the terns like to feed in the bay near where the Puyallup River enters it, then they go to hang out with their buddies near the Narrows Bridges. We happen to be on the shortest route from Point A to Point B.
Anyway, I’m enjoying this new discovery, even if I feel that no bird should ever make a sound like that. 
I’m making friends with two stray cats that hang out in the back of the parking lot of my office building. When my day gets too long or too stressful, I just walk out back to say hello to them and bring them some fresh water. It totally chills me out.
I just celebrated our one-year anniversary, the new mutt & me. We rescued each other, and he brings great joy to my life, every single day.
By the way, I’m new here, after lurking for years. I couldn’t think of a better way to start posting than in a happy thread.
Two years ago I rescued two budgies. When they arrived, they were half starved, wild-eyed, shell shocked, missing feathers and would panic and try to flee in terror if I even came to look at them.
This morning one of them put a tentative foot on my finger and nibbled a cheerio. Now they’re fat, healthy, happy and just utterly spoiled rotten.
I lurves them I do. 
As a way of subscribing to the thread (my usual approach in fact) I’ll mention an old Andy Griffith yarn that may have been on a record or in the early days of the TV show. Andy was giving advice on how to make time with the ladies and told whoever it was that he needed to think of ways to pay her compliments and such positive things.
Whoever it was came back to Andy a few days later to report that he had told his date, “You know, for a fat girl you sure don’t sweat much.”
My niece is 2.5 and like all girls 2-15 these days, she is all in to Frozen. Two of the characters are “Sven” and “Olaf” and you should see this little girl spit out those names. She uses every muscle in her face to say “Sven!” It’s so cute
Welcome!
My early-morning dog walks in the woods or along the river make me feel that the world is really OK. Dipping birds, jumping fish, the occasional deer, watching the inexorable seasonal changes in the trees, sunlight or mist on the water…reminds me that my mundane day-to-day stresses are really not that meaningful in the grand scheme of things.
Thanks for the welcome; I tried to slip in unobtrusively, having heard for years about the squid and the goat. I am prepared to offer pie as an initiation bribe, if needed, to save me from the more outré parts!
^ Oh, you’re good! You’re gonna go far! RUN!! KEEP MOVING!!
BIP: I just got back from my first real vacation in decades; it was the first one where I didn’t want to leave, ever! I wish everyone a vac like that!
The best $20 I ever spent was on the butterfly bush outside my bedroom/office window. It blocks most of the view of the messy house across the street. From spring to fall it is full of activity from tiny (size of a dime) butterflies to small birds.
The lavender by the front porch gets it’s share of butterflies as well. One day I came home and there had to be at least 50 of the medium sized white butterflies in the lavender. It was like walking through a cloud.
Yesterday my husband and I sang as part of a choir that he put together to sing at the wedding of people that we know. The music was so lovely and we all really did a nice job with it, particularly when we sang ‘What a Wonderful World’ just before the blessing. The bride and groom stood and swayed together with their arms around one another, and when we sang ‘I love you,’ everyone there sang it with us. Then afterwards, we drove downtown to buy something and saw pink, white, and red heart-shaped balloons floating by and realized they must have just released them from their reception. Last night, we had friends over for dinner and sat in the garden, grilling and chatting. We saw a fire lantern floating high in the sky and figured that that must have been from them, too, though we haven’t yet confirmed it.
The whole thing just left a smile on my face that hasn’t left yet.
Ohh, you’re so naive. We likes the naive ones, we do! Heh heh heh!
I love living in an apartment above the ground floor again! I can have my windows open any time I want. There’s so much light coming in compared to my last place and we have been treated to so many gorgeous sunsets that I’m probably going to damage my retinas from watching.
There’s a park nearby that has been having a festival this weekend. We have been treated to music from all over the world yesterday and today. All of it sounds like happy music to me, whether I can understand the words or not.