ponderings

 When you hit the wall you need to find the door to go outside. I feel like I’m suffering from a split personality lately and that all of those personalities are working overtime.

I’m a little overwhelmed by working the sales floor, doing the HOW events, leading corporate and community demo’s, selling plants for Shady Sisters, planning the winter calendar (Women’s Expo at Buck Hill, Breckenridge Ski Trip), organizing  for Tent Sale and the upcoming equipment season, training new employees, taking care of the farm and gardens,  and of course managing family and home. It’s the never ending cycle of feeling like there’s just not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  When I found myself wandering in the yard wondering why I went out (I think I was going to fill bird feeders) I knew it was time to just stop, slow down and go play. 

Saturday, with a little help from my husband and friends I did just that.  After an early morning meeting at Hoigaard’s we packed it up and rode the new Dakota Trail from Wayzata to St Boni.  It was a perfect day to be on our bikes, it’s a beautiful trail, and there’s a bistro with ice tea and breakfast in St Boni. I felt like I was playing hookey and it felt great!  We simply enjoyed the ride and our time together, leaving chores and responsibilities at home for the day.  When we finished, 28.5 miles later, we came back to the pool for cold drinks and snacks which led into dinner with my brother in the gazebo watching the rain fall on the gardens.

I successfully didn’t do anything constructive all day, after the meeting of course.

I slept so good!  and woke up Sunday morning ready to pick up where I had left off, refreshed and re-energized by the fresh air, the exercise and the time with friends. It was a reminder that I need to do what I’m always telling you all to do, go outside and play! and do it on a regular basis, not just when I hit the wall.

Reality check, it’s much easier to open the door to go outside than it is to hit the wall anyway!

I’ve just returned from a quick camping trip to Montana.  My youngest son, Sam, lives and works in Bozeman so we loaded up all our camping gear and headed west last week.  A good audio book put us safely in Bozeman and ready for adventure.

 Sam had spent the weekend before up at South Meadow Lake above Ennis.  It’s about 1 1/2 hours from Bozeman including the long 4 wheel drive up the canyon road.  Arriving at the lake we found ourselves all alone in the campgrounds with trout jumping all over the place and eagles playing on the winds.  It was so beautiful!  We set up camp and proceeded to explore and pick up wood for our fire.  Sam has 2 dogs, Marley and Sky, who came along to protect us from bears and provide the free entertainment for the weekend.

 Sitting by the lake with a glass of wine while our dinner cooked on the open fire was perfection! We had nothing better to do than watch the lake, marvel at the full moon rising through the forest and enjoy getting caught up with Sam.  There’s something magical about sitting around the fire, being mesmerized by the flames, and letting go of everyday life stresses. 

 We spent Saturday hiking around the bay to get to the other side of the lake.  It’s basically a “C” shape wrapped around a tall rocky penisula so the back bay is hidden from view.  The wild flowers were in full bloom, almost as if all of them for the whole season were blooming together.  Early spring bluebells along with Indian Paintbrush and many more, some I had never seen before.  There were some serious snow fields still on the upper peaks and a beautiful waterfall all the way across the lake.  Sam spent time casting his line out but never caught any fish. It didn’t seem to matter, the pace of the day was all about having nothing better to do than follow the trail up and around to see what there was on the other side of the mountain.

We only had 2 days to enjoy the lake but I know Sam will be back.  And I’ll be there with him in my mind, maybe I’ll find the same peace thinking of him there that I knew when I sat by the lake.

It was a simple article in the paper, but it seems to have reached out to so many people.  I am humbled and very touched by the response to the “How I got this body” article from last week.  I have talked with so many individuals and couples, coming into Hoigaard’s to look at nordic walking poles.  And their stories all have one thing in common, reading about the early morning walking gave them hope, inspiration, confidence, and motivation to try something new that just might make a difference in their life.  Again, I am humbled by the response.  Thank you.

We celebrated the first day of summer with a wedding in my gardens!  A dear friend from work married her sole mate here on the family property this evening.  It was quite the event complete with a beautiful bride, perfect weather, manicured gardens and yards, delicious food, sweet wine, and lots of wonderful friends to here to celebrate their union and new life together.  Michael Monroe played for the wedding and reception, amazing, he was here on my deck playing all my favorite songs. Wow.  We had a few moments of rain that graced us with a double rainbow to bless the wedding. It was truly magical!

And I now know that having 200 people to party here is not such a scary thing…

Some mornings make it worth your while to get up and get going. This morning on our 3 ½ mile Nordic walk we saw (bear with me while we use a well known theme)

8 great blue herons

7 Canadian Geese watching

6 brand new ducklings

5 snapping turtle eggs being layed

4 goslings playing

3 swallows spinning

2 orange koi jumping

And one egret with a green heron fishing

It was a glorious morning!  And it was a Friday, doesn’t get much better.  Happy Solstice

As we approach the solstice I am struck by how unbalanced it is to have all this extra daylight.  Having traveled to the tropics I have learned to appreciate the balanced life that can be experienced when the day is 12 hours of sunlight followed by 12 hours of night.

There is a constant rhythm of life that doesn’t suddenly get turned upside down by longer days or never ending nights.  You don’t feel compelled to get one more thing done, to work just a little longer, to extend your energy over a few more hours as the day and night shift for the summer.  Sometimes summer exhausts me with the expectation, real or otherwise, that with the additional hours of daylight I should somehow be more productive. I can be constantly disappointing myself as I reach the end of the day and collapse knowing there was more to be done. 

Somehow I need to go into these long days with their late sunsets and early sunrises and not burn out. Instead maybe this year I can let myself use these extra hours of daylight to sit a little longer by my pool or walk a little longer on a trail or talk a bit with an old friend.  Time is relative, there really isn’t any more just because it’s summer. But maybe I can use it a little more wisely.