On Making Life Extra-Ordinary

One of yesterday's comments...
"It might be fun to live in your head."


Well....put on your seatbelt...we're about to take a ride through my head!

Each day as I go about caring for the farm and its inhabitants,
(because I am usually alone)
I spend quite a bit of time thinking, planning, scheming, imagining, dreaming.


Lately I have been thinking about how important it is to keep magic to our lives.
Let's face it...
magic seems to be one of the things we leave behind when we become adults
as we add "can't" and "shouldn't" to our vocabularies.
For the most part we stop believing...
in fairies, and magic, and possibilities, and sometimes in ourselves.

We allow the limitations placed upon us by the world to occupy space in our heads
until we actually believe them.

Wouldn't the world be an amazing place if we retained some of the imagination of childhood!

I went to the woods yesterday to pick blackberries for jam.


It's been a wet summer here, so we have a lot of wild black raspberries (a rarity in past years)
lining the edge of the woods.


The challenge in picking black raspberries is to get to them before these fellows do.


Daddy Long-Legs love to suck the juice from the center of the blackberry...
leaving behind its desiccated carcass...dry and smooshy and not-at-all-good-for-jam!


And while we are on the subject...
are their wives "Mommy Long-Legs?"


As I high-stepped through the bracken and bramble,
(avoiding the jaggers that reached out to grab my legs)
I felt many tiny eyes on me.
The woods are full of deer and squirrels, raccoon and possums, fox and coyote,
and wee folk as well!
Walking along, searching for berries,
I caught an occasional glimpse of movement in my eyes' periphery.


I couldn't help but imagine fairies, gnomes, and elves peering out from behind tree stumps...
tiny elves with acorn hats who ride on the backs of flying squirrels in their tiny leaf saddle-
a piece of cobweb string as their reins...
and fairies who make colorful mushrooms grow from the forest floor.

I know these tiny folk exist.
I've known it all my life.

I searched for a sassafras plant...
proof enough of the presence of gnomes.
It was my mother who taught me that gnomes make their mittens from the leaves of the sassafras.


See?  Perfect mitten-shaped leaves!


And so, you see, I refuse to let the magic leave my life.
I try to exercise my imagination.
I believe in the unbelievable... I believe in myself...and I believe in YOU!
I choose to see my world as a beautiful place full of possibility!

Once home, I set about to clean and cook the berries


 and turn them into 


"BrambleBerry Jam".


I cleaned yesterday's gooseberries and made "Gooseberry Jam" as well.


I took a few minutes to make special labels.


It's doing these extra special little touches that makes me happy
 and brings another element of magic to my life.

How about you?  Do you take the time to see the magic in life?
If not... take a little time to consider the possibilities...


nurture your imagination,
and forget limitations.
Add a special touch to make the ordinary extraordinary!


We are only limited by our own minds!

Comments

colleen said…
I really admire your imagination!! What a good way to turn off some of the "yuk" of the world!
Lynne said…
So true . . .
Beautiful Bramble Berry Jammin' post . . .
This N That said…
Yes, I would love to live in your head. It's such a happy place, often childlike with a wonderful imagination.it's enviable. Enjoy the day in your own extraordinary Wonderland. So happy that you share it. Xoxo
Unknown said…
what a lovely post for the morning - to ponder and turn over and over in one's imagination. When we were young my mother and one of her friends would make elves 'hats' and leave them under the porch where we were sure that the elves and fairies lived. They were red felt and had a tiny feather. Magic. Time to return to that place.
Your brown lambie has the dearest face. I want to kiss it.
Anonymous said…
Awwwwwww, I temporarily left this world and walked into yours! Love it.....
Queen Marcy from Atlanta
Sally said…
Loved this post! Love seeing your adorable animals every day!
jaz@octoberfarm said…
btw...check out my post today. i was thinking about you when i put it up!
Laura Sudderth said…
Do you ever get scared while venturing around deep in vines? Have you been spooked? I think about what happened if that bear were to approach you. I would find solice picking berries. Everything looks lush and green. Have a wonderful quiet weekend!
Country Gal said…
YUMMY ! Bramble berry jam .looks delish ! I often wonder what little creatures lurk in the woods and are watching us when Miggs and I go for walks or I go with camera in hand , I like to think I am in a Walt Disney movie with little animals who can talk . I often talk to the trees and woods when I am in them , if some one was to see or hear me they would think I am nuts lol ! but I dont care I love imagining things like that keeps the child in us alive ! Wonderful post and photos as always . Thanks for sharing Have a good weekend !
daisy g said…
What a productive day! With time to let your imagination go wild as well. Perfect!
deodar said…
I, too, have a lively life inside my head! My brother & sister in law brought their five youngest grandchildren (they have 18!) to the farm for the day. Ages 2 (1 girl) 3 (2 Boys) 4 (twin boys). I have a fairy door at the base of a huge old maple tree that they now know you have to have 'magic' to open. They also know that those are not spider webs stretched across the tops of the marsh grass and sparkling with dew - those are the wings the pixies discarded when they got their new ones! They also think it's perfectly normal for a late middle age woman to carry on conversations with the dogs and horses and donkey and goats and pig and chickens! Life is way too short to take it too seriously.
littlemancat said…
Loved this post - well, I enjoy all of them - but this really resonated with me. I live in my head a lot too and your sassafras leaf mitten is just perfect. I just finished a book - a child's book, but for adults too - called The Little Grey Men by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, know as BB, and highly recommend it. It's about four gnomes, the last ones to live in England. It was published in 1942, I believe.
Thanks for all you wonderful posts -
Mary, a fellow Pennsylvania
jerilanders said…
I am awash in imagination, it is what keeps me going. A curious mind, a love for even the tiniest of details, the tiniest of lives (daddy long leggs!) and the desire to create and make the world beautiful are qualities that we all need. There are just some people that live their lives this way, your are one of them, I think I am one of them too.