A Smile Doesn't Always Tell the Whole story....

Treasures In The Garden

Don't be fooled by that happy smile.

The smile on my face does not mean my life is perfect.

It means that I appreciate what I have been blessed with.

I choose to be happy.

We can appreciate life even if it's 

not perfect.  Happiness is

not fulfillment of what

we wish for, but an

an appreciation of what we have.

Once we start appreciating our life,

that is when we realise

how much we truly have to be thankful for.

My word for today is "APPRECIATION!"

I choose to live each day with love and joy in my heart.

Times We Remember

Treasures In The Garden

 

Happy Memories.....

We do not always remember specific days and times. 

However, we do tend to remember special moments.

 

 

To Know when You Have Succeded

Treasures In The Garden

How will you know you have succeed in life?

 

To laugh often and much;
to be respected by your peers;
when you have received the affection of children;
when you earn and are appreciated by honest critics;
when you can endure betrayal by false friends;
when you can appreciate the beauty that surrounds you;
when are able to find good in other people;
when you can leave the world a better place than when you entered it,
whether it be by a healthy child, 
a garden patch,,
a changed social condition;
to know that even one life has been made easier
because you have lived and trod upon this earth.

  This is to have succeeded in life.

The Ageing to Wisdom

Treasures In The Garden

 

With age comes wisdom. How good it feels to think first and not jump into a decision feet first. How much heartache and many good jobs could be saved with informed thinking.

Honesty is the first chapter
of the Book of Wisdom.

Patience can be bitter
but the fruits of patience 
are oh so sweet!

The sweetness of friendship

Treasures In The Garden

 

Turn the grey skies into blue

In the closeness of friendship

let there be laughter 

and the sharing of pleasure.

People, especially lonely ones,

appreciate a warm hug

and just a quiet friendly pat on the back.

 

 

 

 

 

Count your blessings



The winds chimes jangling their beautiful
music as they moved to a gentle breeze



From My Garden

Every experience I have benefits me.

I am in the process of positive change

Today is the beginning of the rest of my life.

 I am beginning to participate in the 100% of my life that I have left to live.

This morning I have been watching the opening ceremony for the Paralympics.

 I am really looking forward to watching these games, more so than the abled bodied Olympics. I realise how hard our able bodied olympians have to do what they do. I can only imagine and admire how hard the para- olympians had to work to get to where they are. These games, for me, are a reminder, just how lucky I have been to be born whole and have had reasonably good health for most of my life.

Give up feeling sorry for myself.

Get on to participate in life.

Count my blessings instead of sorrows.

Love life.

Get inspired.

 Be motivated.

Be positive.

If these beautiful people can do it, so can I- so can YOU!

The world can be such a beautiful place if we all participate in the game of life. C. 

Pass It On



A piece of driftwood with depth of character 
 that graces my garden 



 

 

   From My Garden

When I give to others from my heart,
I know that God gives me a refill
from His heart.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
 I have 100% of the rest of my life to live.







 Yesterday did  turn out to be a really great day. After My first 2 phonecalls of the day , then a visit from my brother- in -law, I received mail from my sister, whose husband is struggling with his health, to say that his surgery for a stomach aneurysm is happening soon. They have been waiting for such a long time. And another letter from my friend's (who has dementia) husband to say that things have been progressing well and my friend has had no more falls and no more injuries in quite a while and she is talking to him more.

And.... then later in the afternoon, a phonecall from my brother... That too in itself was a reward. He has been struggling with mental illness. I hadn't heard from him in ever so long.  Some wonderful people have come into his life and things are progressing well. I can't believe how well he sounded, even joking. I am hoping and praying that these trends will continue for all of our friends and relatives who I pray for every day. Every small step is another reward for them and for me.

I finished my day  in the garden again. Seems the best way to spend the end of the day. Each little bit I do now, of course, improves my garden, but it also improves my inner self.

So on to today . I am facing this in anticipation of another positive outcome.

I hope you too with be rewarded with extra love in your heart from God for all the good things you do, get, and pass on to others. C

 If I am going to participate in the game of life, I must continue to appreciate every special moment of it.

Setting realistic goals

Here is our gorgeous visitor again tucking into some bird seed
We are getting a visit most days.

From My Garden

I  am trying to avoid self imposed stresses by not loading myself with unrealistic deadlines, and goals, that are beyond my personal capability.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
I have 100% of my life left to live.









Today is another crisp day- sunny, cold, exhilerating,  even inspiring, and motivating. 
I am hoping that the day will  be as rewarding as yesterday. It has started well.  I had a phone call from our nephew Craig. We haven't spoken to him in such a long time. It was so good have a conversation. Eventhough things are not going as well for him as we hoped, we are looking positively to the future, and hoping that very soon there will be a turn around for him. And now my brother- in law has arrived. So two nice things happening within a short while spells good for the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I managed to complete all my projects for the day. That was a really good feeling. I ended my project day in the garden, which is how I wanted things to go, so my soull was singing for the rest of yesterday.  So obviosly I chose wisely and did not try to do more than was attainable. I am gaining wisdom in my "living longer" years.

And I arose from my slumber on this beautiful morning, in anticipation of another great day - positive, peaceful and enthusiastic.

 I wish you peace and happiness and someone to share your joy of living with. C.

If I am to participate in the game of life I need to grab hold of and cherish every precious moment.

Sharing a word



My Love with a rose



            From My Garden

 If I listen with my heart, as well as with my ears,
I will hear so much more and respond differently.





Today is the the first day of the rest of my life.
I have 100% of the rest of my life to live.

I am a lover of words. Last night I attended a church meeting . We always start and end our meetings with  with a prayer.
 Last night Bill,s Prayer began with a word.
 The word Bill used was GUIDANCE.
 I would like to share that word with you. It is by an author unknown.... and very clever indeed.

Dancing With God.

When I meditated on the word Guidance, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God's Will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead in a dance, nothing feels right. The movement just does not want to flow with the music, and everything feels quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets their partner lead, both bodies begin to flow and move together with the music

One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one directtion or another.

It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidamce from the other.
Then my eyes drew back to the word Giudance. When I saw the "G" I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i". "God" "u" and "i" dance. God you and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to tust that I would get guidance  about my life. Once again I became willing to let God lead me.

My prayer for today is that God's blessings and mercies be upon you on this day and everyday.

May you abide in God as he abides in you.

Dance together with God , trusting God to lead and to guide you through each season of your life.

Thanks Bill for sharing this great find. It touched my heart deeply.

"you changed my mourning into dancing"
                           Ps. 30.12

 And so on this beautiful sunny day here in the  great land "downunder'" let us dance with God and trust that he will lead us in the right direction towards blessings and mercies and love and laughter. Life can be so much better with God helping us on our journey through the the seasons.
 And ... when you find your way to dance with God... share it -  pass it on. C

God is everywhere

A Rose for love

             From My Garden

Faith does not only believe that God can, but that God will.
And.... faith without works is dead.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
 I still have 100% of my life left to live.




I can't imagine life without God in it......
in the birth of a baby
in a child's smile
in the love of a Mother for her children
in the sincere love between husband and wife
in a beautiful sunrise or sunset
in the greeting from my dog/ cat when I come home from somewhere.
in a beautiful rose
in a sunshower
in the goodness and kindness within people.......
in the innocent eyes of my grandchildren
God is everywhere if I take the time to look.

Take time to look at all things beautiful and maybe you too will find God there. ..... and share your find. C.

Those precious Moments



An abundant crop of oranges. A reward
 like this makes gardening well worthwhile.



         From My Garden

Even if happiness forgets me sometimes I never give up .... I keep on keeping on.

I am responsible for making my own happiness.

Happiness is Not having things. It's inner peace, a spiritual glow, a reaching out to others, a love of self, and appreciation of the good things life has to offer.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
 I have 100% of the rest of my life to live.

To wake up to sunshine today was so uplifting. After a number of overcast, raining and gloomy days, and still suffering a little jet lag, was not very helpful to my spirits. But today is so much brighter. It was nice to get back to church and catch up.

Father John is in Vietnam for 5 weeks and we have been blessed with the prescence of Father Dan, who has such a sunny disposition. He makes any gloomy gospel reading seem bright and encouraging. Today he spoke about the disciples being sent out to preach wearing sandals and only having one tunic- to travel light. aand Father Dan said......" and when the washed their tunics they sat around in their underwear while their tunics dried"...... which made us all think about how difficult it must have been for the preachers to go out to spread God's word.

And afterwards a cuppa and scone and shared conversation with other parishioners we hadn't seen for 5 weeks. A bit of lightheartedness when, after about a half hour, Bob turned up looking a little flustered, saying that he and Father Dan had spent all that time trying to get out of the church. While he and Father Dan had been deep in conversation the church had been locked up with them still inside talking. Naturally everybody thought that was quite hilarious. But Bob wasn't impressed because he had to go back in and fix the door they had broken out of.
 Even going to church can be exciting as well as rewarding.

If I am going to continue to participate in the game of life I am going to need to continue to  appreciate each precious moment and most especially the lighthearted ones............. come join me in finding and appreciating those precious moments. C

Rewards in everyday living

Some mystical creatures who grace my indoor garden.
 A cute gift from my daughter-in-law

       From My Garden

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
 I have 100% of the rest of my life to live.

Some smart employers share both profits and credit with their employees.. This is not always because it is deserved, but because the employer knows it is a way to greater success for a business and for the benefit of encouraging the employee to participate and enjoy the fruits of that success. 

I love my job.

The benefits from working where I work is not only the monetary reward, but the reward of being part of a very successful enterprise. I hear that everywhere I go, when I tell people where I am employed. I am told constantly " that place has a very good reputation". That's so great to be part of something  like that and to know I make a small contribution to it's success in my own unique way.

The other rewards that I reap are:

 that I am much older than all the people who are employed at my place of work, and I am truly grateful that at my age I can still make a contribution to a thriving business;.

my children and grandchildren are a long way away so I am lucky that I work with younger people who are around my children's ages and give me stimulating company as I work; 

 

and of course the nature of my work is with children, so while I don't have my grandchildren in my daily life I can share the joy and excitement and company  of small children as they journey through their lives unaware of the contribution they make to my life;

and the fact that I have other things to contribute to conversation at home other that my garden, housework, my pets, the weather.

So it makes life more exciting to go to a job that rewards me in more ways than with money.

I like the money too. It allows me to travel and get to see my family at least once a year.

So once again the mundane can be exciting if I look at the positives within the eveyday environment of where I live, how I live, why I do what I do, and how I make that all work.

I wish you the joy in finding excitement in the mundane of your everyday life. I know you will find it there if you just look. C.

    

The Ripple Effect

Welcome to my front door.

             From My Garden

Happenings in life are like a series of chain reactions

- just like when I throw a stone into the water and the

ripples circle out. Each event has an effect on the the

 next one down the line. I may remember the end result,

but not all the small choices I made each day that either

 got me closer to my goal or took me farther away.

Well, life is back to the mundane again - washing and ironing and cleaning and cooking dinner. I have done none of these in the last 5 weeks, not even making my bed.

And yet the mundane is important. This brings me back to earth and grounds me into who  I really am. Iam not the served but the server. There is no pleasure or achievement in being served and having no accomplishment other than having a good time. However, there is a accomplishment in having a clean house in making a pleasant, tasty meal, in being able to make someone happy, in being a human being with purpose a and worth.

And my memories are still there from my wonderful holiday, sharing my experience with my work colleagues and listening to their aspirations and dreams for their coming journeys or journeys they have already travelled on. Yes, I am back at work already. I didn't know haow much I missed the company of my younger work mates or the babble of small children asking me where I had been. Even they were interested in the story of being on the plane and the boat.

 I am glad to be back to the mundane. There's excitement and fun even in that. That is who I am.

Hoping all your dreams come true and I can be a part of your sharing of the fulfillment of your dreams as well . C.

Still living the dream



From My Travels

Putting others need before my own
 will be the surest way to personal happiness.

Our travel companions - on the last day of our trip in the Uk
We are at left. Our bus driver at front and tour director in red skirt
near us. This was taken at Bath in England. The next day we were in
Amsterdam. We took the rain with us to there as well.



Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
 I still have100% of  the rest of my life to live.
 The journey home was very long. We left the cruise ship at Budapest
 on Sunday at 10am. We had a 7hr wait till our plane flew out to Munich.
 We had a 5hr wait at Munich until we flew out to Dabai. Slept on the
 plane. Had another wait at Dubai and then an all night flight to Brisbane.
 We arrived in Brisbane at 6.25am on Monday morning. We lost 8hrs on the backward flight.

 We brought the rain home too.. We arrived home about midday, showered, ate lunch and slept
and slept, and washed. We are still washing and because of the rain we are drying
in the clothes dryer.
Well, the trip might be over, but the dream is still there.... and the memories,
people, places, the experiences. It is so incredible. I don't think I will ever come down
out of the clouds. Although I should.... washing dishes and washing and drying clothes, and
making the bed, and cleaning house should quickly bring me down to earth, don't you think!
I enjoyed sharing my dream and excitement with you. If I never get to do that again it won't
matter because that one was so big it will last for the rest of my life. Hope your dreams come
 true for you too.....
 And the sun has just decided to rise. C

Making Memories

From My travels

                             

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

 I have 100% of the rest of my life to live.

Every King was once a helpless baby.

Every mighty tree was once a seed

Every great ocean began with a ripple…

And every mighty structure started out as a drawing.

It’s not where I am today that that counts, but where

I am going in the future with what I learned today that matters.

Well, this exciting adventure is on the downhill run. We will be home in our little town of Nanango this time next week. Who would ever have thought what an exciting time we had ahead of us when we set out on this great experience .And who would have ever thought that at our age we could take this journey and embrace all the experiences and run with it. We’ve tried everything( except kissing the blarney stone- I had good intentions) and enjoyed our new experiences.

We have been to many different places:

 A walking tour of Miltenberg.

A walking tour through the Palace at Wurzberg. What a magnificent place.
 Another walking tour, this time through Bamberg- a very picturesque place.

Our next day we visited Nuremberg, where we visited the Palace of Justice where the Nazi war trials were held in 1945/ 46. We went to church at Frauenkircke ( a catholic church). The service was in German and they sang the gospel (and it was very long). And we turned the latch three times  at the fountain for good luck ,so we would return again to Nuremberg.

And then Regensberg:. We took a boat ride along  through the Danube gorge  to the Weltenberg Abbey, tasted salty pretzel and drank dark beer. In the afternoon we did another walking tour and ate German sausages and saurkraut. That night before dinner we had Bavarian beer tasting. We were pretty beered out by the end of all that. And that night the entertainment was Bavarian folk music with a pretty crazy Bavarian who could play many musical instruments and made us laugh till we cried.

Our most exciting experience was being inside the  river lock and watching the water level rise 25m, and our ship sail out  the other side on a different level.We have to pass through 68 of these locks before we get to Budapest. But this one was particularly interesting because of the height the water had to climb to get us to the next level of water.The eventual height we had to get to was 1183mt above sea level before we got down the other side and into the Danube River.

After that we sailed up the Rhine / Danube canal on our way to the Danube River, We crossed a viaduct which was a bridge affair that crossed a four lane highway and we could see cars passing below us. All that happened in the space of about an hour. All the passengers were out on deck with cameras ready watching and enjoying these exciting experiences.

3/7/12 Today  we visited Salzberg- where Mozart was born, where “The Sound of Music” movie was made.We visited Mondsee (a lake) where the church was where Maria and Gerhardt were married in the movie. We ate Austrian sausage and apple struedal.

The puppy dog made out of towels sitting on the bed

Our waiter Ciprian dressed in Bavarian Costume He is really Romanian

The Town hall at Bamberg that straddles the river and looks like a ship.

Moving into the river lock and the 25m wall the water had to climb

  

A sign about opa. couldn't find one for Oma .In German

The Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg Nazi trials were held

The mad Bavarian. See his moustache

The church at Mondsee where Maria and Gerhart married in the "Sound of Music"

           

Sailing out the other side of the lock after rising 25m

This marker showed when we got to the highest level above sea level -1183m

This will probably be the last blog I will send before we go home because the internet is so difficult to manouvre. Tonight we are going to a concert in Vienna, I am so excited. Today we did a tour of Vienna. It is very lovely. We visited ANOTHER church- St. Stephen's Cathedral. They are all so different, It was finished in 1400's.


 Soon our dream will be over, but these lovely places will always live in my heart, I wish you peace. I am so glad that we at least, got to touch places so different from home- the country where our grandchildren have connections, and the countries where our ancestors came from. Love C.