My most consistent relationship in my whole life thus far has been my relationship with my natural environment. Today as I was sweeping the outside deck a pair of Canada Geese honked up the valley and landed on the pond below us. When we took our movies back the black birds were singing in the trees near the store. I notice these things and they are what makes my world feel right.

Here is my favourite of yesterday's photo shoot of our mist-covered island...


View and purchase full resolution image here.

And thank you to so many of you that wished me well, sent along lemon drinks, and menthol roses and chicken soup. I am starting to feel better today and have been cleaning and clearing with determination.

Terrill:)

© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

Early mornings are where I find the most peace of mind. I like to rise and awake with the day, enjoying that time before my mind becomes cluttered with doing.

This is the tree I sleep beside each night - and wake beside each morning. There are no curtains on the big window. Just the window, the tree and me. In the summer there is just the mosquito net, the tree and me (as we move our bed to the side deck and sleep outdoors).

warm regards

Terrill

My daughter as I went to visit her last weekend.

We had an awesome time together which prompted two posts from our afternoon hike.

Fast Water part 1

and

Fast Water part 2

I tressure the ease of my relationship with both her and her brother.

warmly,

Terrill

Usually ten minutes early for most things when it involves others. 

You know how people say someone "will be late for their own funeral?" Well, I will there early making sure the fire for the cremation is stoked and prepared properly.

Having said that, I am very careful about what I take on. I am good at saying no. Still every once in awhile I mess up, miss an appointment or commitment. Not a good feeling. I quickly work to make it right.

Sometimes I can miss, change and cancel appointments with me though. I have this crazy habit of organizing my life around everyone else. Such as - David sleeps late so I will do my writing first thing before he is even out of bed.

Most times this works. However, the other day I drove the car down to by the ferries and walked back so that some of the kids would have it to get to the house when they got in. I began to wonder about my accommodating nature as I had to then later walk back down and pick it up when I returned.

 

I have also learned to tailor my personal routines to be simple and quick because I hate long drawn out getting-ready-to-do anything.

 

But today I want to lounge, be tardy and irresponsible for about the next hour... while the laundry is washing.

 

What can I say? I'm an oldest child?

 

warm hugs

 

Terrill

 

© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

 

I am an expert at avoiding topics that I am not ready to talk about related to me.

I have a lifetime friend that says "you Welch's just shrug and I know that is the end of that conversation." I remind him that before the shrug are a series of evasive answers and if he were to catch these clues he would never get to our famous shrug.

Let me give you an example, one time long ago I was angery with this same friend about something (which today I have no idea what it was). I had gone for a walk and to pick some blue berries hoping to gain some perspective and decide what wasn't working and what would work better.

When I returned my friend was looking rather sheepish and was wanting to chat.

He lightly says to me "where did you get the berries?"

Still occupied with what it was I wanted to say to our earlier disagreement I respond a little flatly "I picked them."

Well my friend became extremely animated "No sh*t Sherlock! I thought maybe the good fairy dropped them in your basket!"

That was it. I had been called out and rightly so on my avoidance. We ended up giggling - I made a big pot of tea and we sat down to have that discussion.

I am often thankful for the berrie-picking-experience when I feel my shoulder start to shrug. I am much more likely now to be direct and say "can we talk about ... (and name a specific time) instead of closing the conversation with a shrug.

warmly,

Terrill

My favourite way to travel is slow travel where I can see, smell, taste, touch and feel inside where I am. For example, I was able to examine this stack of firewood on a recent walk. I would have missed if I had been driving. To me that would have been a loss.



I would have missed the reflection of the trees in this oversized bulb hanging on a giant fir.




Or I would have missed this little boy hanging on his mother's pant leg watching me at the market in Lima Peru.



I like slow travel such as walking, ferries, cycling, hiking, bus, and kayak.

Terrill

© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

Oh my! I am living my ideal life and what can be better than that:) My life is more than I ever imagined it would or could be. For me it has been all about where preparedness meets opportunity.

View image in full resolution here.

© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

 

View image in full resolution here.

To reflect or “cast back from a surface” is a large part of my photography, writing and painting.

More on my Creative Potager blog post "Reflect".

warm regards

Terrill

 

© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

Do you feel richest in your relationships? Your family? Do you have a luxury of time? An abundance of beauty in your life?

The answer is all of the above are realized in my life with a serendipity that defies logic and can only be attributed to fate. I say this because I feel I have done little to earn, deserve or work for what has come to me. Yes, I care, nurture, love and work. Yes, I live with integrity and simplicity… but the advertisement of western culture that permeates our television, newspapers, radio and billboards has little to nothing to do with my pathway to richness.

How does one go from being a young dyslexic rural woman, surviving years of childhood sexual abuse from her extended family; having an illegitimate child at nineteen years old; getting married and divorced twice (the first on the grounds of mental and physical cruelty) before she has her thirtieth birthday now with two young children, end up so “rich?”

My husband today is my third marriage and the seventh person I have lived with in my fifty-one years. I did get better, much better, at choosing healthy relationships. We have been together over eight years now. My relationship is rich and blessed in so many ways that I am still discovering.

 

My family has always been a source of strength, balance and unconditional love… even when they were shaking their heads about a decision I made – like moving a days drive from home to the city with my young children to go to university. How was I going to manage when I didn’t know anyone? What would happen if the kids got sick or I got sick? Well they did and I did and we managed. One day, in a particularly challenging moment in my career, I had some tough decisions to make and I phoned home and told my dad: “these are the moments that leaders get fired – no questions asks - but morally and ethically, I need to lay it on the line.” His response was “well, you’re not so big yet that you can’t come home and eat some of the seed potatoes with us if you have to. Go do what you need to do.” I did. He was able to plant all the seed potatoes in the spring. In their love I am rich.

 

 

After years of working long hours, and often with little sleep, one day it was like coming out of the white-water of survival into a large serene lake of contentment. I was forty-three, my youngest child a year from finishing university, and I resigned my senior leadership position in the provincial government. There was down-sizing - a call for voluntary departure. I applied and with some reluctance they accepted. I feared I might end up under a bridge with nothing but a shopping cart full of treasures. Instead, against all odds, I have become debt free and my life is financially sustainable without another hour of paid labor needing to be served. Who knew such a thing was possible? I have the luxury of time and the security to enjoy it.

I’ve been told many, many times have been born and live in one of the most beautiful provinces in the world. Since I have traveled little beyond its borders, I will have to take their word for it. I know I am blessed to live in the beauty of the southern gulf islands. 

Where do you feel the most blessed?

It is not the parts but the sum of the whole that bring such lush abundance to me at this time. I know I am blessed. I dedicate a part each day seeing what I can do that will bring tangible blessings to others such as taking a box of dry goods to a neighbor who it was whispered was in need, or smiling at the person sitting alone in the bakery looking sadly out at the never-ending rain, or choosing three images to list as part of Art For Haiti. I feel most blessed by the wonder of receiving and receiving against such unlikely statistical odds.

© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

I have two new post and Sprout Questions on Creative Potager this morning...

High winds... wood stove cooking



and

My Art for Haiti



Enjoy!

All the best,

Terrill

© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.

Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.