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Cherries have to be one of God’s sweetest creations.

 If you don’t believe me, ask the birds!

They  can strip a full grown cherry tree of its only-turned-ripe-this-very-moment cherries in one sitting.  

Without apology! 

Now I don’t mind sharing–that is what makes life sweet. 

Therefore, I take my role as teacher very seriously when it comes to teaching the birds to share.  Since I love brother and sister birds as much as St. Francis did, but am lacking his bird-sermon skills, I resort to Cherry Yoga.  That’s right, Cherry Yoga.  It may appear at first glance that Mike and I are merely stretching bird netting over the trees.  Hardly! 

See that right-arm stretch? And how about that neck stretch for the ‘ole jowls?

And tree pose has a whole new look:

Of course, the birds aren’t too pleased at being netted out.  But it’s not like we don’t honor them.

Besides, we leave cherries on the trees for them when we finally de-net and pick. 

That’s when we stretch our compassion muscles.

But the tastiest work-out comes from perfecting our hand-to-mouth moves.  We’ve become masters at this. 

.

.

For it requires that we spit out the pits.   And if it’s one thing I have learned during the past year, it is:

you cannot let life’s pits stop you from eating the fruit! 

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All downhill from here!

Riding my bicycle to the small community of Big Bend would be 17 miles of

free-wheeling,

heart-thumping,

Yee-hawing downhill.

Or so I thought!

The first uphill wasn’t too bad.  Neither was the second, third, fourth and however many more hills I climbed.  Somewhere along the way I lost count.

Joy!

Isn’t that just like life?  We’re on a glorious ride, thinking everything is free-wheeling, heart-thumping, Yee-hawing, and we pedal smack dab into a hill.  We can’t turn around and go back to easy again, because now there’s another hill.  We either go up or give up!

I’ve come to discover that it doesn’t matter how we make it up that hill.  We can attack it with all our might, pedal slowly, walk our bikes or hitch a ride.  What does matter is that we keep climbing.

Gayle!

My advice to achieve that goal is to surround yourself with fellow riders who support you, even when you snivel, whine or complain that your legs are burning.  Because when they are happy to ride with you anyway, you seem to rise to the occasion.  That’s when uphill becomes a

free-wheeling,

heart-thumping,

Yee-hawing downhill adventure.

Besides, you never know what rewards you will find at the end of the trail.

Mike & Joy!

Reward at the end of the trail

How does sitting in a natural hot springs cooled by river water sound?  If you like the idea, maybe next time you will join us.

The Sweet Life

Just remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re going up or down, as long as you’re going!

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Some boys never grow up!   

Thank God I’m married to one.            

Thank God my friend Pamela is too,

for these two boys provided more of a show last Sunday than did the Annular Solar Eclipse. 

Well, almost.

Lil’ Michael                    Lil’ Ron

It started at 5:30 p.m. when Ron got out of his car lugging a long, rectangular box made of the gridded cardboard that a seamstress uses to mark and cut patterns. 

“What is that?” I asked.                           

“It’s my viewing box,” he said with glee, rushing to find an unobstructed view of the sun.

“Looks to me like Pamela’s former pattern cutting board,” I pointed out with a wink at Pamela.

About that time, Mike came around the corner, beaming.  He, too, carried a cardboard box, only this one had a long tube taped to it.

“What is that?” I stupidly asked again.

“It’s my viewing box,” he said with glee, rushing to find an unobstructed view of the sun.          

Pamela and I looked at each other and grinned.

It was about then that Gary, our good friend from Sacramento, joined us.  He had driven to Redding to watch the moon eclipsing the sun, as it could only be seen “spot on” within a 50-mile wide swath, and our place was right in the middle.

Gary is no stranger to playing hard.  He once enticed us to build an igloo while snowshoeing to Chaos Crags in Mt. Lassen National Park. So, when he saw Mike and Ron comparing who had the bigger box, :-), he joined right in.

After inspecting, admiring, comparing, boasting, discussing and reveling, the boys declared both view boxes to be red-hot.

That’s when Gary, who is at the techo-savvy-comes-easily stage, pulled out his viewing tool:

                                                       Sun shades.

                                                          Touche!

For the next hour, the five of us watched the moon dance with the sun,

Celestial bodies waltzing across the sky.

After the heavenly show was over, we waltzed to the dining room singing the words, “I fell into a burning ring of fire….”  (These were the only words we remembered!)

But we did remember to play, however, toasting the sun, the moon, each other–and you.  For I love having you drop in for a visit and joining us in a sip of the The Sweet Life!

Here’s to You! La Dolce Vita

Is there a sip of The Sweet Life that you would like to share?  If so, and you’re not too shy, click on the “comment” section and have fun.  (Comments are encouraged, not graded!)