Mandala Monday ~ Heart for the City

Some of you may know that I live in the city of Minneapolis, and you may have heard what has been going on here over the past week.  Some of it may now also be affecting your communities.

My heart has been so troubled… I can’t really even formulate the words to describe the range of emotions I’ve been experiencing, but grief, anger and fear have been at the forefront.

Grief over the death of George Floyd, grief and anger over the racism, hatred and injustice that exists in our world; and grief, anger and fear over all of the violence, chaos and devastation sweeping over my city right now.

I don’t have the answers or a solution of how to fix anything.  But I do believe that our thoughts and emotions have energy that expands outside of ourselves and affects the world around us.  So I want to take care with the type of energy and vibes I’m putting out.  I don’t want my grief, anger and fear to add any fuel to the literal flames going on around me – I want to radiate peace and love out into my community, and out into the world.

Even though I feel very small and powerless to change anything, I have to believe it makes a difference somehow.  I can shift my focus and take these actions…

“Lord make me an instrument of Your Peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow Love

Where there is injury, Pardon

Where there is doubt, Faith

Where there is despair, Hope

 Where there is darkness, Light

Where there is sadness, Joy

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console 

Not so much to be understood, as to understand

Not so much to be loved, as to love…”

That is what I was meditating on as I made this mandala ~ making it heart-shaped as my heart went out to my city.  And making it with Bleeding Hearts felt pretty perfect…

 

My deepest sympathy to the family and friends of George Floyd.  Peace and Love to all the people of my city, and in the world, who are hurting.

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Rollin’ on the River

 I got the new bike I was dreaming about that I shared with you in my post:  Let it Ride, and it’s like peddling on a cloud!  I can’t even tell you what a difference it makes on my knees, and it’s so unbelievably comfortable, I feel I could ride it across the entire country!  Well… as long as I didn’t have to go up any hills.  😉

I thought I loved riding a bicycle before, but this new bike has multiplied that love by ten thousand!  I’m so very thankful to my family for pulling the funds together as an early birthday gift and helping me get it!  ❤

I went online and printed up a few biking trail maps, in addition to reading tons of information on bicycling in Minneapolis.  Apparently, Minneapolis was ranked #2 as one of the best biking cities by Bicycling Magazine, and is 4th in the nation.  I’d say my odds are great for being able to get around in the city on my bicycle, and I’ve already been out exploring and having wonderful time!

I’m especially excited about finding a few paths along the Mississippi River where I don’t have to endure any significant hills or steep overpasses to go up to get to.  I mentioned before that I only live like 4 blocks from the  river, but that it’s a busy street that runs along on my side of it, well I found that with only spending just a short time riding on that busy street, I can get to some lovely trails along the river.

 

One area that is easy to get to is Boom Island Park, and on my very first day with my new bike I took a ride there with my daughter.  It was evening actually, when I snapped this photo of her with my cell phone as she was looking out at the river.  She loves the water as much as I do, and we have went to this same spot a number of times since that first day…

~

I also found another bike path along the river that’s a bit further away, which is nice when we want a longer ride.  I thought this train bridge was kinda cool looking, so I stopped one day while we were riding past and snapped a photo of it…

~

Much of the time it’s evening when we go out bike riding, it’s nice then because there’s less traffic and cooler temps.  Although this sunset isn’t anything extraordinary, it was a lovely ending to our ride before we headed home…

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Home…  a view across the river of downtown Minneapolis.  Not the best view of our city’s skyline, but it was fun to happen upon this little opening between the trees to sneak peek at the city, and I love the way the buildings reflect on the water…

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I also love the beauty of nature that is all around the city, especially along the river.  On the path that runs along that train bridge, I came across a little cluster of milkweed growing, it smelled amazing on the breeze as I rode by, and when I saw the monarchs fluttering around amidst it, I stopped and tried to take a photo, but it was too far away to get a decent shot.  Still pretty though.  🙂

~

 

I’m so enjoying these bike rides rollin’ on the river, but I’ve also been rollin’ other places on my bike too.  Like running short errands to the Post Office and to the Co-op.   On Sunday when my sister was here, we all rode our bikes to the Open Streets event in the neighborhood, and that was a fun experience.  I think I’ll make the next errand on my bike to the library.  On our rides back and forth to Boom Island, I noticed there is a library located in the old Grain Belt Brewery building, it looks pretty cool and I’m excited to check it out!  😀

 

I hope there are exciting things in store for you too!  Happy Monday and may this week be a wonderful one!

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Reflections of my Pops

Today would have been my Dad’s 83rd birthday…

We lost him to cancer this past June.  Hardest thing ever ~ watching him die.  Cancer is a horrible, evil and painful disease.  What my entire family went through during that time will be forever etched in our memories.

But rather than focus on his death and the terrible sense of loss that goes along with it, I want to focus on my Dad’s life, so here are a few reflections of my Pops…

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This is one of my all-time favorite photos of him.  It was a beautiful, perfect, summer day spent at my favorite place in Minnesota ~ Lake Superior.  Dad was skipping rocks.  The entire shoreline is littered with them, as you can see.  And that’s my daughter in the background wading in the water.  She’s 19 now so this photo is from quite a while ago, but I still remember the day.  It was a good day.  A happy time.  And my Dad looks handsome.  ♥~

Where as the above photo was of my Dad on a warm summer day…. here is one taken during the glory of winter.  It’s also one of my favorite photos of him.  One thing about living in Minnesnowta is it SNOWS.  Sometimes a lot!  And my Dad always took such good care of clearing his walkways whenever it snowed.  He was actually quite the “ants in his pants” about it!  His hair matches the snow.  ♥   He had such a gorgeous head of hair…~

Omygosh if there is one thing I’ll always remember the most about my Dad… it’s that he LOVED riding bicycle!  He would ride miles and miles a day, all around the city ~  through downtown Minneapolis along Nicollet Avenue.  He was a common fixture around town riding his bike and people even recognized him.  He was a friendly fellow with a bright, wonderful smile.  ♥~

He’s not exactly “smiling” here, but I adore this silly expression on his face!  This picture was taken on one of his birthdays some years ago.  Clearly he is being silly about the new hat and gloves he received.  And see how he’s in his pajamas?  That is another thing about my Dad ~ whenever he was at home and not planning on going out anywhere, he was always in his jammies.  As my Mom and I were going through some of his things a few months ago, I asked for a couple sets of his jammies that we came across.  I’m wearing them as I write this.  ♥~

Here is another precious photo.  This was taken at my daughter’s graduation in 2010.  My Dad was very involved in my daughter’s life.  He was such a good Papa.  Over the years as she was growing up, he rarely missed a program, concert or recital of hers.  ♥~

My adorable parents being cute and cozy on my brother’s couch.  They were married for 52 years.  ♥~

As this is our first year without him on his birthday, we were talking about what ~ if anything, we should do to remember him today.  I thought it’d be nice to have a ham dinner because my Dad loved ham.  Ew… ham = definitely not one of my faves, but I’d be willing to suffer through it in honor of him.  🙂  But after going over it with my Mom the other day, we decided on White Castles.  Yep, good ol’ gut bombs, as we call them.  As a young child, some of my earliest memories of times/activities spent being with my Dad are of going to White Castle and then to the park afterward to feed the squirrels.  So I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to go get some gut bombs in honor of my Dad’s birthday.  Haha!  I’ll probably regret it later!~

Thank you for joining me here during my reflections of my Pops today.  I have one more thing to share.  It may seem out of place among the warm and fuzzy above dialog, but trust me …it isn’t.  My Dad was a sci fi freak!  Growing up, we were inundated with all things sci fi and it has stuck with us.  Thanks Pops, for making us freaks too…  😀

 

Cherish every moment that you have with the ones you love ♥