Back to Work -- And Missing Slipper Moon!

I'm filling in temporarily for a former co-worker who's on maternity leave. So just for a little while, it's out of retirement and back to work for me.

I almost said, "It's back to real life for me," but that's not true.

Retirement is such a gift. Real life for me now is made of gentle moments:


having lunch with Neely on our front porch, listening to the garden fountain gurgle and the wind whisper through the pine trees. If we're lucky, the local deer join us, browsing on grass in my neighbor's field across the road.


creating jewelry, or quilts, or knitted things, or just day-dreaming in my quiet little second-floor studio, where I can watch my dogs playing in the yard below.


cooking and trying new recipes, planning our meals and shunning take-out. I'm no Paula Deen, but I love putting good, nourishing food on our table instead of packaged convenience stuff containing who-knows-what!


caring for our home, seeing the gleam of freshly waxed furniture and smelling the scents of a well-loved house. I don't even mind polishing pine floors (well, not much, anyway). Clean corners and tucked-in edges are enormously gratifying to me now.


photographing my tiny miracles to share -- like this wren's nest in one of my hanging plants. Is that egotistical? Probably. Why would anyone else care about my day? But I so love life and the world's beauty that I want to share it with anyone who happens on my blog.

Ah well -- back to that alternate universe for a few months. After all, it's a blessing in its own right, to be given an opportunity to earn money, especially in our shaky economy. God has smiled on me (may I remember that when deadlines start to loom!). And at the end of my temporary employment, I'll return to REAL life with renewed appreciation for its daily blessings. Slipper Moon will be here waiting for me, peaceful as ever.