Meet Me Monday

What can I share with you this Monday?

I love the silence of nature. I cherish my silence. When my quiet times area interrupted I get a little cranky. I try to behave but when this happens. I am just like my girls though when I spring a change in plans on them and expect them to react properly right now. That's the other thing...I keep noticing more and more of my quirks in them or would it recognizing their quirks in me. Gets frustrating some days.

These are some of my favorite quiet pictures. The top one is the Wisconsin River at sunset. The next is the path through the cemetery in town. The next is driving north from visiting my mom. The last is the walk out to the lighthouse in Port Washington. I took all the pictures but the last one; that was sent to me by a great friend to help me when I miss home.

If you haven't taken a walk through a cemetery lately, I would suggest that you do. There is something inspiring about it. I started taking such walks when I was a teenager. There was a very awesome cemetery at the end of our street. My sister and I would take our skates and cruise the hills through there while visiting some of our favorite stones and creating stories about their families and what life would have been like. If I was having some teen angst, I would walk there and just being in the silence of all of those memories...I would feel better and be able to go back home and be a normal child again.

I've taken my girls on walks through the cemetery and talked to them about this history of the stones. They take time to brush off the dirt from the stones and trace the letters and numbers. They "ooo and ahh" at etchings and sculptures. They smell the flowers (real and fake). When they get a little older we can start writing stories of the people we find there. This was one of my favorite projects. In school, we walked as a class to the local cemetery and found a stone that spoke to us. Our job was to research their time period and write a page out of their journal. I fell in love with the names and dates and the memories that were trapped in those stones. The lost stories, or at least the stories I may never get a chance to hear.

I may have to start doing that again. I had a tombstone notebook back then. I would write down the names and dates so that I would have the material for when I wanted to write. May need to do that with my Hazel. She's starting to write more and she might enjoy writing about someone else.

Where do you find your silence and solace? I think I may need to take jabberbox out for a walk before she drives me over the edge.

Meet Me Monday

What is your favorite thing to do? When you get time to yourself and you can do anything you like, what is it that you do?

I walk.

When looking for a picture to put with this post I found a thousand of us out walking together. I believe this one is my favorite though. Not quite sure how I got all three sleeping in two strollers. I must have had some help. If these strollers could talk, they would have some amazing stories. The single rider saw much of Colorado and almost every inch of Merrill many times. It has carried more than it probably should have to the point where I had to carry the baby because the stroller was too full. The double stroller has climbed many hills and traveled on the beach. It has carried no children and many things. It has all carried all three children.

I love to walk. By myself, with my kids, with my husband, with other grown ups. I would do this above most everything else. Of course, I would have to have a book to read and my journal to write in and my phone for emergencies and music.

What is your favorite thing to do? What do you enjoy doing with the time you get to choose to use?