You Need Yoda

I recently visited the Oak Hollow Market, on the corner of Hwy. 68 and Hwy. 311 in High Point to pick up a St. Francis for my yard. I've known about this place for years, from my time when I worked at the college and would drive by every single day. Never did take the time to stop in, but I finally did this past week.

I'm glad I did. It's such a fabulous place that I now wonder why people don't have more cool statuary in their yards. They've got tiny stuff (little turtles and frogs) to fountains to religious icons to gargoyles to the standard lions to great big angels and forest nymphs.

Just a fabulous collection.

And everyone needs a Yoda.

Or a jolly buddha.

The Menagerie

Lo and behold: in my work email today, the Revolution Health enewsletter, which proclaims, "It's About Time for Yourself." Would have been more apropos before Saturday (and, in truth, I got it Thursday of last week, but didn't have a chance to look at it), but nonetheless, there are some good points included in this article. Try this one on for size:

When you leave yourself off the priority list, you actually cheat those you love out of the "whole" you. Instead, you bring to relationships "a diminished version of yourself," says psychologist Debra Moore, Ph.D., of Sacramento, CA.

And this one:

But if you take just 15 minutes each day to relax, your body will thank you in many ways, says McKee. You'll lower your blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen consumption.

Read more here.
**********************************

As was pointed out to me today, The Harbour (this blog that you're reading right this very second) is 3 years old today. Wanna know how it all began? Start here. Happy reading.

***********************************
Been thinking a lot about grief recently, for good reason, as those of you who have to deal with my rants about the unbelievable events that happen in my life are aware. (Bless you.) Thus, I've been doing a bit o' reading, as I'm wont to do, and I find this:

It is not healthy to avoid grief or to deny a major loss for a long period of time. Avoidance of grief may lead to serious physical or emotional problems later in life.

To which, I think, "Yikes. I'd better get cracking." I'd add more here (there's so much more I have to say on this subject), but it goes against The Rules for Blogging.

*************************************

Simply: Frozen Thin Mints rock. And I love that the rain smells so sweet right now. Just wish I had a front porch swing so that I could go drink my wine outside, opposed to inside by a window.

************************************
Reynolda Gardens this past Saturday:

Happiness is . . .

Really cheap, real-life garden porn. Yes, now I've got quite a few still healthy and

viable pansies to plant tomorrow.

The decorated giant chocolate chip Valentine's cookies that Mom & I made yesterday evening. Yes, it's silly. Yes, they're decorated badly (hey, we'd had more than a few glasses of wine by that point). Yes, the email she sent earlier in the week about planning an evening to make the cookies made me cry, because we haven't done this since I was, oh, maybe 6 years old and I LOVED IT. It was the one thing about Valentine's that made me question my intense hate for the "holiday."

Don't get me wrong. Valentine's can be beyond fabulous, I'm sure. But it's never been beyond fabulous for me. (Let me caveat that by saying that I had a wonderful Girls Night Out this past Valentine's and it takes the cake, so far, no contest.)

My hate for Valentine's probably has something to do with realizing I was one of, oh, maybe two kids in class of 25, that only got two or three stupid valentines from the other kids in the class. And this happened year after year. And it was worse when teachers made it mandatory that you bring valentines for EVERYONE and announced it to the class, because that's oh-so-good for your self-esteem: getting a bag of valentines from people who didn't want to give them to you in the first place.

And I'll spare you my thoughts about middle school and high school. Just take the above feeling and apply to adolescence. Yeah.