39 years, 39 things

Well hello.  It's been a good long while since I've spent any time in this space.  I'm spending way less time with my (big) camera these days, less time on the computer.  And it shows here.  I've got over a thousand photos on my phone and a few hundred on my camera from our epic 7 week road trip this summer, and I hope to share some of that here, soon.  If nothing else, I know I want to continue using this space as a photo journal of our days, an easy and visual way to catalog and honor the highlights from our little world.

For right now, though, I'm here to compose and share my annual birthday gratitude list~ something I several years ago and always look forward to.  A way to mindfully notice the things (and people) in my life that I am most grateful for.  The things (and people) that I want more of in the world, that I say a resounding 'YES!' to.

So without further ado,  my 39 things:

*slow, easy mornings

*my morning tea

*plants (this is an understatement and a bit vague.... I've got my favorites of course- tulsi, calendula, maple, oak, ferns, mint, lemon verbena, larkspur and peony, and so on.)

*birdsong

*hearing the train whistle as it wraps around the valley, especially at night

*the neighborhood screech owls calling to one another at night as the weather cools

*that magic dancing liquid light of early morning and late afternoon

*the way she still, for now, fits so well in my lap and in my arms

*our incredible summer road trip- 50 days, 11,000 miles (!), the three of us in our van camping and exploring our way all across this big and beautiful country.  What an immense gift.

*the time and space and energy to farm our little yard as much as we can with flowers and vegetables and herbs and fruit, and the therapy and meditative satisfaction I get from doing so

*our sweet Ollie cat

*that we are able to homeschool, and for the freedom and time and space and flexibility that doing so affords us as a family

*composting

*books. particularly novels. particularly, (it would seem from my favorites) historical fiction and magical realism that isn't too fantastic.

*my slippers

*listening to her practice the piano, and music in general

*my job(s) that I love- teaching after school art, part-time seasonal farm work, a bit of writing...

*salty ocean air

*waterfalls (the best church there is, in my opinion)

*bubbly and tasty and fizzy homemade kombucha

*all the fermented foods

*the community of women that come together to make magic twice a year at my swaps

*the great good luck of having been born in a time and a place with clean water and good medicine and public sanitation, where I am safe, secure, and not in the midst of famine or civil war or immediate danger

*the amazing generation of young and ingenuitive climate activists fighting and stirring folks up in a great effort to address the very real and very clear and dire state of things on a global ecological scale

*and their peers who are fighting for common sense gun laws, teenagers who are tired of seeing their classmates murdered; trying to shout loudly enough over the lobbyists to have legislators and everyone acknowledge that the public at large have no need (or right) to possess weapons of war and that bulletproof backpacks is a pretty awful and ridiculous solution

*yoga

*the forest

*having been among the giant sequoias with my loves this summer

*the tidal pools behind the sea stacks along the shore at Olympic National Park

*all the southern Utah back roads

*the US National Forest Service's dispersed camping opportunities

*my main squeeze, for everything.

*my family~ that which I was born into, married into, and the friends who have become family

*The big and bittersweet honor of watching my girl as she very slowly crests her little-girlhood and starts to turn toward adolescence.  There is much little girl about her yet, but I can sense we are on the cusp of big things.  I've seen that for a long while now.

*the way I accept more about myself as each year passes

*that particular hike in North Cascades NP, the most beautiful hike of my life so far

*our woodstove

*home

*good food


Ah.  I enjoyed that.  I never peek at previous lists before making these, though obviously there's always sure to be a good bit of overlap from year to year.  Below I'll link the lists from previous years, in case you've got any interest in checking them out.

38

37 (so many good photos in this one- food, farm, camping, total solar eclipse, birthday campout, the sea, our trip up to the Adirondacks....)

36 (this one has links to all the previous years as well)

cheers from here~

to the sea

Living a solid 4.5-5 hours from the sea, we don't get there so often.  Once a year for sure, twice if we really work to make it happen.  I mean, I always want to be near the sea, but, well....... sometimes even 4.5-5 hours feels unrealistic in the scope of everything else life brings our way.  This was the third year in a row (here are photos from our first trip) we've gone camping to the beach with a group of friends in the spring.  This year we landed back at Edisto Beach State Park in SC.  So, so good.  5 days of zero driving and loads of biking, plenty of time exploring the beach and looking for treasures from the sea.  5 days of her running wild with friends and plenty of connecting between the adults, too.  Seafood and campfires, shenanigans and live oak climbing, trying out some of our new camping gear we've purchased for the big trip this summer..... Just so good, all of it.  I've said it many times before and I will again and again- that salty ocean air is one of my favorite medicines ever.

I'm still finding sand in my pockets and seashells tucked away here and there.

around here :: flying solo

My people recently went north without me for five days (!), and all I have to show for it is this photo that I took one morning of flowers and tea dappled in sunlight just as I was starting some yoga on the porch.  Reason being, I have finally succumbed to the siren song of the smartphone (took me a few minutes to climb on board) and I am both amazed at what good photos my iPhone takes and also, I now totally understand what folks have meant these last several years when lamenting that Instagram 'ate their blog'.  Now I see.  Instagram is indeed a pretty place to spend some time, and a most convenient place to share snippets with your people.  So, that's where I've been doing just that.  I do want to share a bit in this space as well though, as I love the idea of having this chronicle of our days and hope to someday come back to reread all the bits and pieces of our days as a young(ish) family of three.  Et cetera.

So.  Five days.  Solo.  Not something that happens often in my world.  This would make the third time I've had the house to myself for an extended period of time since entering the wild world of motherhood about 8 and three-quarters years ago.  So, how did I choose to fill my five days?


Well, there was no homeschooling, obviously.  So instead I filled the weekday mornings before teaching afterschool art class with time spent in the garden, doing yoga, reading, getting a massage.... those sorts of things.  One of my strengths is that I am good at self care.  Yes indeed.  I have a loner streak a mile wide and while I adore and love my people, I also know that I thrive when given ample time to myself to fill my cup in whatever way I need at the time.  There was a solo dinner out.  Sushi and sake and such.  A long walk to and around town.  On the equinox I cooked myself a special dinner made with all local ingredients and went ahead with our traditional beginning-of-a-new-season bonfire.  I watched a movie.  I cleaned.  I had girlfriends over for a little ladies' night.  And on the morning of the day that they were driving their long way home to me, I tackled a long hike that I've wanted to try for years.  I drove a few miles up the road to the trailhead and hiked up a mountain and along the ridge, down another mountain, and looped back to my car.  It was about 9.5 miles all together and it was great.  That was yesterday morning, and despite the yoga class I took shortly after the hike and the time spent in the sauna, I am most definitely feeling it.  In all the good, best ways.


So there's that.  That's what I've been up to.  And I know there is a way I can get the photos from my phone on here, and I know I can connect all the things to make it all sync and whatnot, but......well....... I'm slow to come around when it comes to these things.  All in due time.  In the meantime, feel free to come hang out with me on Instagram if you so desire.  My Instagram 'handle' is amanda.w.riley.

happy autumn, folks.

37 years, 37 things

 
This marks my ninth year making a list on my birthday of some (the # equal to my trips around the sun) of the many things I am ever grateful for.  These are things I want more of in my life, things I say 'yes' to whole-heartedly, things that nourish me and fill me up in all the best ways.  This year, there will be 37 of them.

Generally, they are in no particular order.  I simply type things out as they come to mind.  Some big, some small.  Certainly there are repeats from year to year, but I make a point not to look back on previous lists until after I create the new one.  It's a good practice, this list-making, and one I highly recommend.  I always, always come away feeling so full of gratitude and immensely aware of the many ways in which my life is full and rich and beautiful.  And, consequently, how very much I desire to daily be aware of that fullness and joy because I recognize it as the miracle and luck that it is.  I am humbled, because I am well aware that life is not this way for many.  That for many, the struggles and hardships tip the scales significantly more than the simple joys and reasons to smile.

I am reminded to pause and savor the small things, as they are where I tend to find so very much of the goodness around me.  And so, here goes~ some of the things I'm grateful for:

1) night sounds- crickets, train whistles, a neighborhood screech owl
2) my close friends- for their time, energy, and love
3) my kind-hearted, compassionate, amazing girl- my love for her is so intense, and it makes me feel more vulnerable than anything else
4) our woodstove- the crackling, the warmth, the way it brings us all together
5) papa for collecting, hauling, splitting, and stacking all that wood.  and for countless other reasons
6) my cozy bed
7) our Ollie cat- for filling the void left behind after Ziggy, for choosing us, for loving unconditionally, and even for being so darn talkative
8) two jobs that I truly love, working for people whom I respect and enjoy being around
9) my mother's tenacity, strength, and, ultimately, her stubbornness- which seems to be the thing that pulled her through an intense and life-threatening illness nearly four years ago.  I was terrified that I was losing her and that my daughter wouldn't remember her grandmother, and I didn't know how to approach the hole I thought that would leave in my heart.  I'm so grateful for that stubbornness.
10) sharp pencils.  as in fresh-from-the-box sharp.
11) the way photography helps me capture the little moments.  I am so reminiscent- and photos transport me so quickly, so viscerally, back in time to moments I'd like to hold onto.
12) tenderness and honesty
13) acorns, bones, feathers, pinecones, stones, shells........ if I am a collector of anything, it's of those amazing little bits of nature.
14) books.  real, hold-them-in-your-hands books that smell and look and feel like books.
15) bees
16) music! for instance, the Rising Appalachia album Wider Circles (also Van Morrison, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, Eddie Vedder, the Grateful Dead, Madeleine Peyroux, Gillian Welch, Natalie Merchant, Otis Redding, Ben Harper, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Rhiannon Giddens, Mumford & Sons, and so many more)
17) salty ocean air (the best medicine, I think), and that I got to revel in it twice this year
18) the lakes, streams, and rivers that help fill that void (and my soul) the rest of the year
19) our happy little backyard pseudo-suburban-homestead, for all the obvious reasons (the time, space, inclination, and skill set to raise a lot of our own produce, herbs, flowers, etc) and also for the good therapy it provides (getting my hands in the soil is a close second to that salty ocean air, medicine-wise
20) berries
21) strong black tea with coconut milk and honey~ my daily morning ritual
22) my slippers
23) avocados, sweet potatoes, sardines, greens, and all things coconut- for keeping me nourished through these many months of autoimmune diet experimentation
24) finding an amazing massage therapist (who also happens to be a good friend)
25) friends and neighbors generously sharing their apples, and the cider, sauce, and apple rings that are the product of the picking of many baskets full of the lovely red orbs
26) homeschooling our daughter
27) my strong, capable, healthy body
28) my family
29) this amazingly beautiful place I call home
30) the experience of watching the eclipse in the path of totality with my loves (wow!)
31) birds- we get such joy from them.  I adore their lilting morning songs.
32) the soft, golden autumn light dancing around the house in the early and late hours of the day
33) seasons- the subtle shift from one to the next as the torch is passed, the way I'm ready for the new one when it arrives, the gifts (sometimes obvious, sometimes not) that each brings
34) the gift of today- which began with yoga and tea, then breakfast made for me and a hike with friends to a beautiful waterfall.  there were messages from dear friends, a good day at work, and now the day is coming to an end with the Van Morrison Pandora station (which is currently reminding me how much I like Creedence), an amazing dinner cooked by my love, a game of memory with my girl (with wine), the witnessing of another chrysalis being formed by a monarch caterpillar, some garden time, a sweet visit with dear friends, and loads of love.
35) my little swap community- for the connection and the good times, the chances to learn from and with one another and to support and encourage one another, and for the opportunity to write about the swaps for my favorite magazine
36) hot water
37) horses- for the way they smell and the way they nuzzle and the charmingly vulnerable way their big fat lower lips droop when they are super relaxed, and mostly, for the way one in particular is working his way into my girl's heart and filling her with confidence and strength.




well, there we go.

and now (because of that reminiscing and all that I love to do), some photos from the last year:

birthday campout 2016~ good friends gathering for food and fun at the farm where I work

waking to the morning mist on another fall campout

cosmos beauty

the sweet boy who has my girl's heart

golden autumn light

Day of the Dead remembrance gathering

autumn

winter

spring

snuggles with books

kitchen window

Edisto Beach goodness

poppy beauty

late spring garden

boat time with friends

sweet backyard honey 

taproot fun

indigo, indigo!

in her happy place with her cat, her doll, and a huge pile of audiobooks

peony beauty

my loves, chatting at LEAF

our trip to Beaufort, SC~ just mama and papa

backyard bounty

at the farm

more backyard goodies

late summer trip to Adirondacks

solar eclipse!!!!

a fall collection

I'm the bridge between these two

this year's birthday campout~ dinner prep

and breakfast, too

farm-fresh decor

easy birthday morning start with yoga and tea. (with cat and slippers very nearby)

birthday hike

Catawba Falls

the monarchs are loving the tithonia!

memory, wine, and the paper while dinner cooks

what a year.
xo