JenWReeve

I spent last week in the garden. It’s not something I normally do, but I’ve been in Texas helping my elderly mother. This morning as I was admiring the neat rows of bright yellow and pink flowers I’d planted and visualizing how lush they would look when I next visited, the neighbor brought over some gorgeous purple sage from her garden, perfect to fill an empty spot.  She noted that once transplanted, the sage would be droopy for a few days and then begin to perk up. By afternoon, it looked a lot worse than droopy—it appeared near death. And […]

Happy Mothering Day While I am so grateful to have been treated like a queen yesterday, I have to admit, I have never been a big fan of Mother’s Day. It just doesn’t seem inclusive enough. The act of mothering is something we are all called to do, whether we have birthed a human or not. It’s a disbursement of feminine energy, although I don’t believe it is particular to women. To me, mothering—and what should be celebrated—is the creation and nurturing of relationships of all kinds. The tenderness, the giving, the care, the sacrifice…the unconditional love. It’s expressed in so many ways, […]

I’ve often wondered how it feels to be an astronaut returning to earth after a long space mission. I’m sure it takes them a while to adjust to gravity and get their land legs.  But aside from that, do the sounds of everyday life seem loud and grating? Do they have any trouble relating to family and friends? Do they have a weird sensation of their home feeling extra spacious compared to a space capsule, but at the same time the world seeming tiny compared to the cosmos they have been floating around in? I’m betting whatever it feels like, […]

My family is generally amused by my taste in movies. I abhor violence, and I fall asleep if a car chase is too long or things start blowing up. But, if a film has romance, animals or cute kids in it, I’m in! Last weekend, we found one called Dreamer that contained the latter two items, so I watched. The movie was loosely based on a true story about a horse that horse that ran The Breeders’ Cup race against all odds. It was a typical story line, the horse gets injured, slowly recovers, then a variety of hardships happen on the […]

“Away, away, from men and towns,To the wild wood and the downs, —To the silent wilderness,Where the soul need not repress its music.”—Percy Bysshe Shelley Last week I felt heavy, isolated, lonely. And then I felt bad for feeling bad. Not helpful I know, but that’s what happened. But today I came to my senses and connected my heavy heart with the heart of Mother Earth. With Sabre, my trusty Golden Retriever and all-around yes man, I took a wander in the forest. Not a hike or a power walk or anything goal oriented. A true wander. As we weaved […]

A couple of weeks ago, my husband came home from the feed store with six baby ducks. This happens every year around Easter time—he brings home either chicks or ducks or both–and we raise them for their eggs. The yellow-brown fluff balls, so tiny that you could nestle one in the palm of your hand, seem so fragile. And this year their vulnerability was proven. A skunk broke into their coop one night and killed all but one. Tragic. But let me tell you about the one! After the incident (and she was no longer super-tiny) we put her in […]