Nurturing Peace

I spent much time today in my studio, enjoying the quiet.

 

This fine fellow appeared at my bird feeder in early evening. I have several pairs of cardinals who frequent our back yard. 

I shared this apple blossom before. God's handiwork is perfect.

I didn't intend to duplicate His art, but to involve myself in its beauty -- to paint it is to participate in it, to study its beauty more closely than just to observe it.
I left the flower white and began with the background.

I liked it at this stage, but like most of my watercoloring, it seemed pale an insipid.

So I outlined it using colored pencils. I think I did not improve it at all, rather the reverse.

Our church is having a Seder Supper this week (Thursday, 6:00, all are invited), and today Adam made the matzos -- the unleavened bread served with this special meal. I did a video of the cooking.

I had a couple of them with my dinner of pasta and red sauce -- made from my canned tomatoes from last summer, and with herbs snipped from the garden this evening.

When I returned from a friend's house, Trixie was so excited to see me that she gave me a little scratch. It reddened and swelled up. Scratches from pets' claws often itch and feel irritated.

Immediately I applied some of my Healing Herb Ointment. I like to experiment on myself, haha :) 

the scratch at 4:15,
immediately after scratched

the scratch at 5:15, an hour later

Below, the scratch at 7:00. The swelling is gone, and the redness nearly gone. 

I'm very pleased with it. I gave a tub of it to an elderly friend with a bad skin rash that the doctors have been unable to treat. He enthusiastically told me that it has relieved the itch and improved his skin. That makes me happy too. I'm betting by tomorrow morning my scratch will have disappeared.
(Update, the next morning:

I also made a Youtube video today while I combed and dizzed some alpaca fiber, just combing and chatting. I'm not sure if these videos are appealing or not, but if they're only good so that Adam can listen to my voice after I'm dead and gone, it's okay. I enjoy listening to a lady Youtuber who combs fleece, so maybe others will enjoy this video too: "Combing Fleece, Talking Peace"

I stay in my studio some days because it's peaceful. Peace of the body, peace of the mind, peace of the spirit -- I think they are intertwined in complex ways. Combing fleece doesn't give a peaceful spirit, but it's a little step. It gives me time --  to think, to pray, to consider others and their needs, to consider God and His plans, to remember my own life, my choices, the successes and mistakes. When I'm busy with activities that stress and deplete me, the thinking doesn't happen and the peace doesn't come.

Peace to you, dear friends.