Travels in a Donkey Trap

I'm reading the sweetest little book called Travels in a Donkey Trap by Daisy Baker. At seventy-something years of age, she gets a donkey and cart to travel down to the sea and the nearby village. She lived in England at the early part of the twentieth century.

She would usually find herself daydreaming as 'Darkie' clopped along the path. Here's a small nugget where she talks about one of their outings: "When I am thinking over all this in the donkey cart along a quiet lane I may suddenly "wake up" and find that Darkie has stopped. Not to eat, not even to rest, for there is no reason to do so when we are not on a hill."

"Like me she seems to be just dreaming, her tall ears at slightly different angles, her large eyes looking at nothing, her body in repose between the shafts. A daydreaming donkey, and in the middle of a journey, too. But who am I to chide her? There are indeed a pair of us, drowsing in warm air, motionless, enclosed for the time being within ourselves, looking, no doubt, like last-century travellers carved on the road."

"I flick the reins with a gentle word for her, and as we move on again, I think what a pity it is that I cannot impart my thoughts to her, nor she to me. For I would love to know what she dreams about."

Isn't that sweet? I'd love to ride with her in the donkey cart down an English country lane with hedgerows on either side. I bet there'd be a hedgehog or two to see!

Note: I know this photo isn't a donkey, but it's the closest thing I could find. I don't know any donkeys!

Fripp Fun

Pom Pom, you asked what else we did on Fripp Island? We ride golf carts to random destinations or no destination. We do the same on bikes. We go to the beach. We go to the pools. We go to the playground. We cook, eat, read, and sleep. That's about it.

I experimented with taking photos at night at the pool. I do a lot of experimenting with my camera. Here are some of the results.

And here up top are some photos of the marshes on the island.

How to Have Depth

From the book In Search of Balance by Richard A. Swenson, M.D. "Depth is born out of such disciplines as stillness, patience, solitude, waiting, intimacy, suffering, quiet, contemplation, submission, discipline, prayer, and yes, margin and balance.

Modernity, on the other hand, is suffused with such "non-disciplines" as speed, interruptions, noise, multitasking, clutter, alarms, advertisements, distractions, Twitter, texting, television, viruses, entertainment, cell phones, activity obesity, information overload, and the Internet.

I've gotten into the habit of reading the Psalms every morning, and the last time I read Psalm 42, the phrase 'Deep calls unto deep' struck a chord which resonated deep within my heart. I kept rereading it trying to understand it better.

Have you ever felt on the verge of a great discovery and just couldn't quite grasp that one last thing that would throw complete light onto it? Well, that's how I feel reading Psalm 42. I'm still looking for enlightnment and full understanding. I'm reading all the commentaries I can find hoping for something to jump out at me. I'm waiting for that 'ah ha' moment to occur.

Abyssus, abyssum, invocat translates from the Latin into English as "Deep calls unto deep" found in Psalm 42:7. If I were ever to get a tattoo, it would be this phrase.

Making a Difference in the World

"Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity, can cause to be set in motion....Mend the part of the world that is within your reach." Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I want to take these words to heart. I need to quit looking for the bigger thing to do. I know in my own life that the things that have made the biggest impacts on my life have been the small things; a word said in passing that shook my world, a kind smile that eased my aching heart, a quick touch on the hand that said, "I care about you"....such small things can have a big effect on the heart for good.

Today I want to do small things for my loved ones and strangers alike. I want to live mindfully and deliberately, and by lightening someone else's load, I'll bring more joy into my own life.

Being Ordinary

This quote is from the book The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. "But as all the identities I worked so hard to construct over the years begin to slough away, I feel myself reconnecting with my own quiet center. It is as if I am, at last, catching a glimpse of myself not as I might wish to be, but as I am. I see a woman who is less ambitious than she once was. Someone less self-conscious, less invested in appearances, but also less "special" than the person I always thought I was meant to be. I see my own ordinariness. And I see that to be ordinary is okay after all."

This is what I'm becoming now in my mid-fifties. I'm not completely accepting the part about being ordinary though. I don't want to be ordinary, but I know that it's an okay place to be, I guess.

New Additions to my Library

These are the books that I bought last week at our local library's 'Friends of the Library' sale. I've been wanting to join this organization for a few years but haven't had the time for anything extra.

One of the perks of membership is being able to come to this sale first before the general public. I stayed about two hours and came home with these stacks. I spent $37.00 for 25+ books. Not a bad deal at all!

Where I'm going to put them I don't know. I think I'll go through my 600+ collection of fiction and weed out what I know I won't ever want to read again and replace those with the new books.

Pat Conroy Country

I'm chasing Pat Conroy again this week. We're on Fripp Island, SC where he lives. In all the times I've been here, I've yet to see him. I've just finished reading his book My Reading Life, and like all his other books, it's sublime. Here's a quote about how he feels when he finishes reading a book. It describes my own feelings perfectly.

"Few things linger longer or become more indwelling than that feeling of both completion and emptiness when a great book ends. That the book accompanies the reader forever from that day forward, is part of literature's profligate generosity."

I haven't read all his books...yet. My favorite, so far, has been Beach Music. I won't gush here. I've already done that plenty of times before.