Slowing Down

Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet."

-Thich Nhat Hanh

How did life become so overwhelmingly busy?  With the start of the school year, time seems to have sped up and now, moving through October, it feels as if I am caught in an unseen whirlwind that has no allowance for a moment's rest.  I think everyone is feeling it.  So many people are under pressure, the same rush and push. However resistance is not futile, and I refuse to succumb to the grind.  Life is too beautiful and in slowing down, even just for a moment, we can see and appreciate the Gift of it all.  

Autumn is here, my favorite month, time to begin turning inward for reflection.  It is in the small things (like preserving a basket of apples from our tree) that I am forced to inhale, exhale, ponder, give thanks. Here and there in between the hustle bustle, we are like little squirrels, adding to our winter stores, one jar at a time.  
  

After a summer of canning, I have rediscovered the dehydrator with all of it's ease and now we are drying fruit and vegis in small batches when we have time, or when we think of it.  (There is one munchkin in the house who is devouring apple chips before they make it off the sheet.)

And in the spirit of not wasting, we started some vinegar today.  Good old apple peels and cores, filtered water, a few spoons of organic sugar, and a spoonful of yeast.  We'll wait a month or two and see what it becomes.  

My words to myself this week are to "reclaim my life".  It goes by too fast to not enjoy every precious minute.  Many blessings.-