Feb 21 2026

Using Card Kit to Get Me Going

Card kits are long past their prime. They appeared as scrapbooking was falling out of favor and people were trying to find new ways to use old supplies. Crafting businesses were trying to survive and many invented monthly card kits. I was never a big buyer of kits, because I wanted to control the supplies I got and the dollars I spent. I also already had more supplies than I needed. Recently that changed for me.

I needed to jump start my creative mojo. I wanted someone to dump on my doorstep creative supplies that I had spent too much money on to let sit around. I needed an excuse to be creative because I was in mental slump. I needed a refresher that would allow me to use some of the supplies I already owned but also inspire me with a little something new. So I signed up for monthly card kits from one of the well known paper craft small businesses. This kit came monthly with creative supplies that changed each month all directed at card making. If I bought 10 cards from Hallmark then I would have spent more than I paid for the kit. Since I love sending snail mail it seemed a way to feed my habit and give some creative inspiration.

Th kit came with a great assortment of supplies to make cards. They had a sheet with six inspiration cards. They had a blog where makers could post what they made with the kit. Ideas were out there to copy or use as a jumping off spot for ideas of my own. I used kit supplies, but also used lots of what I already owned. For 13 days in a row, I made a card. Now I have a supply to send people birthday notes and just a message of “Hi” for March.

Here are some of the cards that I made from my kit. I have already got two in envelopes ready to go out in the mail today.

I still have supplies left from the kit, so I did not really help myself in a net reduction of supplies. I did jump start my mojo. I do have cards ready to be sent. Next month’s kit looks completely different and taps into different techniques so I did not cancel my subscription. Guess we will see how a second month of letting someone else pick what goes into my shopping cart goes.

Jan 29 2026

Peaceful Monents

RangerSir and I make the trip to Liberty, NC to see the monks on their “Walk for Peace.” I am glad we did.

I went with no preconceived notions of what this experience would hold. The walk of the monks for me was not the experience I was expecting. Instead it was the crowd of people and the speech one of the monks gave is what I will remember about the day.

The monks came into Liberty at the earliest expected time. I learned that the monks had to finish their meal before noon. This resulted in a long wait to hear them speak. So during that time the crowd gathered and stood around in a city park next to the fire hall waiting for nearly an hour. There was talking and moving around, but it was this almost the kind of hush you find in a church before the service begins.

A person came out and explained some basics of protocol of interaction with Buddhist monks. The local news stations had also been covering this as well. North Caroline is largely a Christian practicing population and so many may not have been aware of the best way to interact with these leaders of Buddhist faith. That said the monks were very kind and generous in their interaction even when it may not of been as they preferred but with understanding that it was with the best intention.

The speaker was the monk who had the idea of this walk as his mission. He shared with us how long he had been in the monastery his role working in the gardens. He spent considerable time talking about peace as he saw it. He shared his thoughts that peace was a universal goal regardless of your religion, age, color and other elements of diversity. He did not proselytize instead focused on how peace could be present for us in everyday life. How peace could be chosen over and over in our daily lives in little ways. Peace is so much more than the absence of war or conflict. It reminded me in so many ways of the peace testimony found in the Quaker faith.

I left with a sense of calm and peace and lots of thoughts about how I might hold on to this. My faith has always prioritized peace and this encounter reminded me to continue to work to practice in my daily life.

Jan 16 2026

I Go In Peace

There is a group of Buddhist monks traveling from Dallas Fort-Worth on a Peace walk. They have developed quite a following and are currently traveling through North Carolina. Everyday we see something on the news about this peace walk. The crowds are getting larger and more demonstrative. RangerSir and I found ourselves thinking about becoming one of the many who line up to greet them. Before we did that we asked ourselves what do we know about the walk and the Buddhist religion and this walk. It was enlightening.

Source: Walk for Peace Facebook Page.

I quickly discovered that there are five Buddhist temples within 15 miles of me and several more within 25 miles including a Zen retreat center. All of them are open daily, but are not necessarily staffed. They are open for meditation and prayers. I learned like many religions there are a multitude of nuances in the faith practice. And to no one’s surprise there is a multitude of factual and very wrong data on the internet. Like any other organization, without time and commitment I cannot do justice to understanding Buddhism before I make my decision about attending.

I think the most valuable piece of information came from the monk’s blog. Here is the quote I wish to share. In a blog post titled “Why we walk,” the monks wrote: “Our walking itself cannot create peace. But when someone encounters us — whether by the roadside, online or through a friend — when our message touches something deep within them, when it awakens the peace that has always lived quietly in their own heart — something sacred begins to unfold.”

I wanted to go and this blog post gave me to permission attend. I had been afraid that attending it would result in misappropriation of the event on my part. I am going to look at the map and do some planning about where I might attend. I go in peace.

Jan 1 2026

It Is Not Like Telling Your Story To Stranger in an Elevator

I have started and stopped writing over the last several years. Part of it I was not in the right personal space to do so. Second, I discovered trolls or rather they discovered me. Mostly though I was influenced by a podcast where they equated blog writers to someone getting in an elevator and insisting on telling a story you did not care about. That last thought hung with me and I could not shake it. Well this is return number ??

Why am I returning? Because I miss writing and challenging myself to think critically and write some thoughtful prose. I have watched the social medias algorithms change so much that even in a search I cannot find what I am looking for or want to see. They repeatedly pump the same things at me over and over. Lastly I don’t let “they” tell me what to do or how to think, why would I let them beat me down and not do something I enjoy.

So I am back. I am not sure what kind of posts you can expect. I no longer live in a rural environment and am retired so that will influence what I post. Hopefully you will find something here interesting, maybe inspire you, and most of all make you reflect and smile.

Jun 30 2025

Senior Baking: Why Sharing Makes It Sweeter

Sharing seems like a simple concept we all learn in kindergarten. At that point in life it was simple. Somehow in today’s world sharing by adults seems to be a very misunderstood concept, but I am not going there today. I am going to look at how sharing allows Ranger Sir and I to experience things that we might otherwise not be able to do.

Ranger Sir has always loved baking. Since retiring he has baked even more so. His ingredients have become a little bolder. His decorating has gone outside the normal limits. His recipe repertoire has become broader. More importantly he loves doing it.

One of the downfalls of a senior who bakes is quantity. No recipe can be smaller than one egg. One egg and make a lot of stuff. With cookies it can be a whole lot of stuff. We don’t need a lot of stuff.

This is where sharing comes into play. We live in a community of smaller homes, designed to attract seniors downsizing and wishing to age in place. This means most of our neighbors are just one or two people. Most of them only bake when the family comes to visit. It does not mean their sweet tooth is gone, it just means it is underfed.

This is where sharing comes into play. RangerSir decides how many cookies we want and if we want to put a few in the freezer for a future craving. The rest get put into grocery deli meat containers and head to the neighbors. This sharing has allowed us to get to know our neighbors, in an unexpected intimate way about how they eat and possibly their health. There are a few who have said thank you but I can’t. We also have a couple who said, “Yes, but only give me one, because any more than one would be out of bounds for my diet.” We now also know who is gluten free, and the times we use a GF recipe we include them in our share. But for many of our neighbors this tasty treat is a delight they look forward to.

Cookies in containers to share.

I did not get my camera out until most of them were gone. This was an exceptionally big batch of cookies and all the neighbors on both sides of the street got a few. We were able to, in a eco-friendly way, purge our grocery store plastic. Gosh dang is it fun to take to your neighbors little sweet treats. Just enough to go with a glass of milk before you go to bed and have one with your morning coffee. Sharing is fun.

Jun 24 2025

Saying Goodbye

This last week I sent out four sympathy cards and attended a family open house for a neighbor who passed away. It made me think about the culture of death and how we honor it. How it has changed for me and how it has stayed the same.

When I was a kid in the rural Midwest, my mom would always drive down Main Street anytime we went to town to see the names posted in the newspaper office window of who had passed away. This was done because the newspaper only came out twice a week, and this was the only instant notification at the time. The obituaries was one of the first things she read when the newspaper came out. I find myself checking the online obituaries in towns where I have lived and still have friends.

One of those ways my family would help out is to call the funeral home and offer to drive. It sounds very foreign now. In those days the funeral home would transport the immediate family, but volunteer drivers would drive the extended family in their personal car. I am not old enough to remember a time when everyone did not have a car, but I think that this is why this tradition started. My folks always had a big Buick LaSabre. Anytime my parents would volunteer to be a funeral driver the kids in our family were assigned the job of detailing and waxing that big boat. In those days people understood what a funeral procession looked like and honored it as the mourners moved from the funeral parlor to the cemetery. Lights on making their way through town running stop signs and stop lights while the local police help guide the way. Services today seem smaller as families get smaller and scatter the the four corners of the world.

Food was another big part of the support our family provided to help out. My mother had whole set of rules that dictated what level of food support you provided. Closest friends and neighbors you would make a whole meal, that you coordinated with others so the family would not have to cook until after the funeral. Families would pull together to make a ham , roast, or friend chicken dinner with all the fixings. It would all be brought to one person’s house who would take it all to the bereaved family. It was coordinated so the family would have a hot meal for several days while family came in from out of town. The thought process was no one should have to cook, but everyone had to eat. Families had funeral dishes and pans with masking tape and their name on the bottom that made the rounds that could easily be returned. Recipes were developed to feed lots of people, but easy to serve, hence the proverbial “Funeral Potatoes.” I am not sure if this tradition of making meals for the families still happens.

If you were not in the close family and friends circle there was the lunch option. After the service while the family went to bury their loved one, the church ladies put together a lunch for all funeral goers. It was an opportunity for the family to get relax a bit and chat with friends and family who had attended the funeral. I think today this lunch is likely to be catered and I doubt there are as many church ladies groups to host this. In my childhood days, from the time the notice appeared in the newspaper window until the funeral, members of the community brought things to the church basement for this lunch. If you did not cook, you bought snowflake rolls from the local bakery, paper products which were exotic at the time or made a donation to the ladies social for purchasing the coffee. Families brought all sorts of things from Jell-O salads, brownies, cakes, pies, sliced meats, savory or sweet salads, and home-canned pickles. It was like the county fair of food, excepted you got to taste it not just look at it. Afterwards the leftovers were packaged up and delivered to the family to feed them and the extended family staying with them.

Funerals today are more about celebrating the life of the individual. It is an public opportunity for the family to say good-bye. It is about letting your friends know you care about their loss. I have not recently attended an after service lunch, so I am not sure where that tradition of food is currently. I am sure it varies by region and community. Today is different. Not bad, just different.

Jun 10 2025

What You Can Learn in 100 Days

As I move into the last ten days of the 100 day project, I started to think about life on day 101. I wasn’t sure when I started that I make it to the end. Thinking you can and doing something are two different things. As I approach the end to this project, it seemed like a good time for reflection. So here goes…

If you do something everyday, it will become easier. When I first started the project, the thought of what would I do for ten minutes seemed daunting. I wanted a plan. I felt the need to know what I was going to do. I needed to have a clear end game. I have learned you do not need to plan or control all your waking minutes. Some minutes are just fleeting time. It is ok to not have a purpose or accomplishment when you start something every single time.

It is okay to make work inspired by another, but always give credit. I am not suggesting you trace another person’s work and do it exactly like they did. But I did discover the merits of being inspired by the work of others and acting on it. On days where I had no idea of what to do I would find myself looking at the work of others online. If I found something I liked, wanted to try, or just wanted to use as their work a jumping off point I did. They painted three yellow flowers and I painted 3 in the same colors and style. I did not trace it. I did not photocopy it. I looked at their work and let my brain and hand make an image. Maybe someone looking at the two side by side would see a similarity or maybe they would not.

Looking at other’s work can force you to grow. You can grow in skill, knowledge, or permission to explore. Looking at the work of others can help you to see details you had not seen before. Seeing these details allows you to add knowledge or skill into your work. The work of others can encourage you to try things you have never tried. Examining the work of others can allow you to see flaws. This knowledge allows you to be imperfect in your art journey.

Practice. Practice. Practice. I don’t think practice makes perfect, but it does allow you to by repetition become a better artist. When you practice repeatedly, you are allowed to see what you wish you had changed and do it. The act of doing it adds it to your brains memory and becomes parent of your talents.

Sharing is good for you. Even when you share work you hate, it is good. Sharing puts your work out there and that simple act takes the power of the self critic away. Sharing in a classroom setting allows you to get feedback from your peers, who give their thoughts hoping to help you grow. Sharing on a social media or a blog allow folks to do things as simple as a like. That “like” on your least favorite work, reminds you that you are not the art police, but art speaks to different people in different ways. Maybe you don’t know what good looks like or they have no taste, but that simple act of clicking on that heart was good for your harshest self-critic.

I have lots things I want to go back and try again. I want to work on some talents uncovered. I want to explore more of certain styles. On the other hand I have clearly learned that some things don’t really interest me. I am glad I tried them, but I am not seeking to repeat the experience again.

I am glad I did this project. I am so thankful for everyone who stopped by my Instagram to see what I was doing. I am blessed that folks took the time to click on the heart or make a comment. It was a growth experience in many ways. As I finish this project one IG follower asked what next. I wasn’t sure but there will be something else to come.