SongLyricsSunday-Gratitude

https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-112016/#respond

Well, I think this is a great theme for this Thanksgiving week (and not at all “cheesy” Helen)!

I knew my song immediately…well, my first song anyway.

You know when that question shows up “If you could have ONE album to play while stranded on a desert island, which one would it be?” This comes from my choice. Don Henley’s Inside Job. His opus. His Therapy album. His masterpiece.

This song gave me great comfort when a 25 year long business (and friendship) partnership ended. I had to fight hard to not focus just on the loss, and move into gratitude.

I hope the video works. It is the only one I could find of Don Henley actually singing

My Thanksgiving

http://v.yinyuetai.com/video/117860   (copy and paste and wait just a second…it will start)

 

My Thanksgiving
Lyrics by Google Play

A lot of things have happened
Since the last time we spoke
Some of them are funny
Some of ’em ain’t no joke
And I trust you will forgive me
If I lay it on the line
I always thought you were a friend of mine

Sometimes I think about you
I wonder how you’re doing now
And what you’re going through

The last time I saw you
We were playing with fire
We were loaded with passion
And a burning desire
For every breath, for every day of living
And this is my Thanksgiving

Now the trouble with you and me, my friend
Is the trouble with this nation
Too many blessings, too little appreciation
And I know that kind of notion¡ªwell, it just ain’t cool
So send me back to Sunday school
Because I’m tired of waiting for reason to arrive
It’s too long we’ve been living
These unexamined lives

I’ve got great expectations
I’ve got family and friends
I’ve got satisfying work
I’ve got a back that bends
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

Have you noticed that an angry man
Can only get so far
Until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be
With the way things are

Here in this fragmented world, I still believe
In learning how to give love, and how to receive it
And I would not be among those who abuse this privilege
Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge

And I don’t mind saying that I still love it all
I wallowed in the springtime
Now I’m welcoming the fall
For every moment of joy
Every hour of fear
For every winding road that brought me here
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

For everyone who helped me start
And for everything that broke my heart
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving

Written by Don Henley, Jai L. Winding, Stanley Lynch • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group

 

IMG_1345

Forlorn

I grew up in San Diego. My bones, my very cells are trained to live in a perfect climate, with very little temperature change, and where seasons are nearly undetectable.

I have lived in Washington state for more than 40 years now and as much as I adore the natural beauty of the Northwest in all its weather phases, I still grieve, deeply, as we move into Winter. I know there is beauty and purpose in the dark months, but I will never like the cold.

Is there anything more pitiful than the very last one of the year!!

20161111_15300020161104_135026img_7930img_7919

20161021_145711

These were all taken in the last week or so…depressing to see all the final blossoms on each plant…

But here are the ones that really get to me.

img_7887img_7750

sigh………….the very last apples on 30 trees! I can feel the S.A.D. creeping in…

Oh wait. This morning I spotted THIS!!

img_7897

You gotta love an undefeatable Primrose!!!

OK, tomorrow, something more uplifting, I promise!

ChosenPerspectives on Chaos for WPC

Chaos

img_7859

Up close sometimes, I can’t see anything but Chaos

 

img_7857

But given a little distance, I can see some order

img_7860

And from the new perspective, even beauty…

img_7861img_7863

This complicated magnificance was not visible when covered by Spring and Summer foliage.

I had to wait it out to see the full picture…

Transformation by ChosenPerspectives

NTransmogrify
Transmogrify

This is my second post for this challenge. Pauses and Clicks reminded me this morning of the whole challenge.  Before I had focused mainly on the “strange and grotesque” part.

Life’s Autumn Changes

This series of photos I’ve been taking of Hydrangeas best captures the week’s theme for me but it wasn’t until reading the above post that I got how truly beautiful this amazing plant and it’s blossoms are….until their very end.

How in the world does THIS…

img_6624

…Become THIS???

20160620_105902

The “Transformation” is both invisibly slow, as well as lightning fast. I took these pictures from April to June!

Here is a Transformation slideshow.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

But for me, the lesson didn’t stop there. I had planned on showing the photos of Hydrangeas at the end of their life to demonstrate how something so lovely can transform into “ugly”…but I read her post this morning and it completely changed my perspective.

NOW, I can see how the Hydrangea becomes MORE beautiful as it ages, stunning even…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And, since I’m always looking at life through the lens of Generations, look what else I found!

20160721_132306img_760520161022_121703img_7802

Multi-Generational Living at it’s finest!!!

Thanks Pauses and Clicks!

(Now if I can just apply this lesson the next time I look in a mirror!)

 

PS Today is November 4th, 2016 and when I walked outside, here’s what greeted me!

20161101_140835

Obscure Opposites from ChosenPerspectives 7-1-16

These are sort of examples of the Opposite of what you might expect………..

IMG_3649This Junco, who forgot to migrate, is singing like it’s Spring….

IMG_3683The bright green of this grass seems to be opposing the snow

IMG_3687Very late apple!

IMG_8580View from cabin on Hood Canal

Opposites