Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Feeling the Call of Spring and Summer

If half the pleasure of an event is the anticipation, I've got to say Spring can't come soon enough!

I don't know why, but I never really feel like making a resolution for the New Year.  Rather I feel it in the Spring, and am often motivated by an image, or a song.

Normally in this blog, I try to share something about Gilden Tree that I think you might find interesting or inspiring. But recently, I came across an old family photograph of a picnic at a park or someone's farm that made me catch my breath and I decided to share it with you.


I believe that's my grandmother Clara on the far left and my great aunt Evelyn right beside her looking at the camera, when all of them were impossibly young.

I love all the women in their print dresses, and the man in his white shirt and hat, no doubt at the men's end of the table.

The lunch was all home-cooked and probably delicious, since they were all wonderful cooks.

The silverware and dishes - all real -  would be gathered up in a wooden picnic basket, taken home and washed. The tablecloths would be washed, ironed and kept away for next time.  (I even see a little mason jar of something on the table there, too.)

There is something permanent and real in this photo that calls to me, and I have a sense that it's all coming back again.  We've gone from using real to relying on disposable. Could we finally be coming back round to real again?

Let us strive to savor the simple pleasures of a picnic with real food, and people we love. I am going to air out the old picnic baskets from my grandmother and my mother, and fill them again.

Whatever it is that signifies Spring and happiness for you - I hope you find it and follow it. Let's celebrate the real and create these amazing moments together.