With handmade love notes, a tiny sweet doll named Khalila, chocolate chip pancakes and giggles in bed, time to write or paint, and a fresh planting of seeds in our Rose Cottage garden, I could be describing this sweet, sunny Mother’s Day…and I could also be telling you about our recent Sundays these past few weeks. Once life becomes steady and settled, we have more time for regular simple pleasures such as these, but we’ve always aimed for daily respect, attention, and loving communication to fulfill each other’s needs and ideas.
*If the world celebrates Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Baby’s Day, Earth Day….every day…then everyone will be readily able to receive, accept, and give love and adoration without cause for surprise, or commercials to remind you to reach out. They’ll know how deal with being loved. We are all made of love, and we all can really feel this is true. Open your hearts today, and every day, so that when it comes time for your specially named day, it’s just an extra way for your beloveds to show that they care for you. You will already know it and have felt it all the years through.
If you haven’t achieved this healthy structure, even after years of fostering and encouraging it, and even if you have, then perhaps your non-day off is more a forced gratitude situation of sudden odd amounts of attention? And, maybe the offer may not even be repeated every year if you didn’t praise the belated grocery store bouquet enough? Then, what do they even expect for Father’s Day? What has your year built up to celebrate? From my childhood memory, the men somehow got to leave the house…sneaking off to golf, ignoring any offer of gifts, and making yet another day about them? Does that help a family to feel good to share their appreciation? Here, we reciprocate the same sweetnesses equally for both parent-centric days, and we love being together all of the time. What if you are sick, or perhaps tired (laughing), when the day rolls around? Do you miss your chance, or is it all bundled into one gesture? Is it lonely or sad? Why bring it up for everyone when it is different for everyone?
My husband is nice, but it still takes so much for two different people to understand…really anything. Please calendar-makers, let us decide our own times of celebration…ideally every day from: now to then. You are confusing the children. There are many dates on there which we do not celebrate, but somehow this one is hard to escape. The weather plays such a role in when we celebrate holidays, and so does our health. The false kindness directed toward mothers once a year, but not every day at the library, at the store, at the doctor’s office, is not on our menu. Be real. Choose what and when you celebrate. Respect us everywhere, always.
Be kind every day, and get to know what your beloved prefers. I don’t like dead flowers. They remind my senses of funerals. Shall we, then, on our holiday have a funeral for the poor flowers? My husband gifts me seeds. He’s outside now…planting them for us. This is a gift. Perennial flowers that we can enjoy every time the wind comes in warm with the spring months, some are even edible! We know when spring is here. No reminders needed. Take the pressure off your loved ones…enjoy every moment with them as you live it.
*A special note for the world: Women and children’s health is, and has always been, in desperate need of attention. Our rights, our illnesses, our safety, our state of being and treatment in/by this world need top priority. Remedy this lack of care and respect for us with real healthcare, real education for all to respect us, new laws to help us, and real equal rights and opportunities in effortlessly safe conditions as the new basic standard. We deserve to live as ourselves as we need to live. We are not creatures. We are people. We have our own lives, so leave us be. You will respect us. That’s it. It’s done. Now, we all live well and pleasantly, doing what we love and enjoy. This is a way to honour mothers. Let it be a perennial you plant in your mind, a daily affirmation, until it is engrained in your blood….the blood your mother gave you. Cheery? We’d like our lives to be so.
Also, being a healthy mother ties into all of this. Everyone can be a healthy parent, partner, child…and the cycle continues…so make it a good one. You can restart at any time. Love is sincerity and truth. Care about all mothers, everywhere, not only the ones around you or none at all. *Motherhood is not only the most difficult and risky experience to survive and to keep doing, but it is a wondrous one to know, and through it, you know more of yourself. Bravely invite this honesty and grow from it.
Sending loving supportive energy to all of the mothers. I know.
Respect for women and children is necessary every day to truly celebrate motherhood, not to mention the existence of our world.
In between our homeschool lessons, an influx of doctor’s appointments, work, renovating, and gardening, we find it necessary to plan little pleasures to calm, rejuvenate, and excite our greening up spirits. The trees and plants unfurl and awaken this week, as we unwind our senses with:
If an appointment is quick, but we have to drive far for it, we’ll plan a visit to a nearby nursery, or an art store like we did yesterday. Wandering around, finding beads and ribbons for our Fine Arts class is a fun way to lessen the previously serious mood and get excited about tomorrow’s crafts. On occasion, I will find something for my atelier… but just seeing all the hues all lined up relaxes me. New oil paintings list soon! (Listening to a favourite audiobook also somehow shortens the drive and distracts me from wishing that Maine would clean up more. It does sadden me that with so much natural beauty here, people choose to pollute their yards…where gardens and even wildflowers could sing. We focus on our garden…planting as much green air as we can each year. Perennials are my thing. I like building up a family of plants. We take care of them, and they take care of us.)
Sewing up doll clothes is a baby favourite here, and this week I’m joining in to stitch up some creamy soft organic cotton shorts for summer. They are a little bigger than doll size, but not much… This is where ironed lace and new shining beads come into the sitting room and library to play with us.
Reading rainy day May poems and Spring Stories with a cup of tea is cosy and embraces the season. I wrote about forty such tales this week… We keep a 365 day poetry book on the rug. It’s massive, but turning the page to read each morning’s poem gives us insight into another’s senses of this day and a different place. We write our own observations of THIS moment. Let go of yesterday, and feel today.
Meditating, and a gentle massage of the head, neck, feet, and hands using light pressure on certain points, releases strifes and struggles, leaving space for movement and growth. Guided mystical musical tracks are very helpful for setting a short, yet effective, time and space for this daily practice. Stress stores itself in the body…let it go.
When life feels externally unsatisfying, one can control the little things like the week’s flavours. Yesterday, I baked up some clove-spiced chocolate walnut pastries, our weekly bread, and a spring greens teatime tart with asparagus, green beans, and darling mushrooms. I love photographing everything from tulips to dishes around our table for my upcoming cookbook (vegan, organic, sugar-free). Today, we’re planting up some seeds in the garden for more fresh plant foods to enjoy!
A tiny yellow cardigan waits on the back of a chair. An open sewing box invites nimble fingers to experiment. All of these little things smile up the mind. Release and fall into the poetry of the positives that live inside our day. Love, ~ Amor Milagre
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Soon, the apples will PINK with soft creamy blossoms…and bees…
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
The raindrops deepen and saturate all the colours…I love rainy and snowy days the most. Mermaids love healing waters.
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Tactile pleasures satisfy the senses. Smell the spices, roll out floury dough. Synesthesia can feel beautiful.
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Old tools of stone to crush up beautiful owl-like walnuts connects us to all times. This is quieter than machines. There is tact involved and little sounds, but the whirring -pound -trickle- put-put-put is a song I like.
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Dripping translucent petals soothe…instantly. Breathe in fresh oxygen.
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Soft sleepy pajamas…soon… Oversized for when little legs kick off quilts. Pleats are needed for now, but are then removed in a few years, and all the while there is a soft, flat, smooth waistline for comfort. Rest easily, and sleep well.
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
A carpet of petals.
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day PleasuresAmor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Inhabiting Mrs. Crustybread’s world for an afternoon…
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day PleasuresAmor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Teatime…mangiamo…
Amor Milagre 5 Spring Rainy Day Pleasures
Puffs of air out in the garden fill up our world…
Music of the Moment: Chopin, Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 Raindrop
while you’re waiting…listen to the rain…
Also, new song by Fiona Apple-Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)
As our new flower bulb patches have doubled over winter, we delight in our lush cheerful daffodils. A return to the piano is just as refreshing. New songwriters explore their soul. It is always a season for learning. Unforgotten shapes of petals and notes fill the warming air. We plant seeds. I scribble away…tulips soon.
New books are growing. Happy May! Love, ~ Amor Milagre
Amor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic GardeningAmor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic GardeningAmor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic Gardening
New Flower Fine Art Photography Prints will be added to my shop this season.
Amor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic GardeningAmor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic Gardening
Our new evergreen additions add more structure and texture to the bulbs beds.
Amor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic GardeningAmor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic GardeningAmor Milagre Spring Organic Gardening, Tulips soon…Amor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic GardeningAmor Milagre Spring Daffodils Organic GardeningAmor Milagre Custom Kitchen Pantry, Coming soon…
Music of the Moment:
Little Players Practicing their Own Songs to Birds Singing in the Garden
This May at Atelier Amor Milagre, Sandy Playtime at the Beach
This May, I will begin my new collection of oil paintings featuring our garden blooms, local Maine beach water/landscapes, and my darling book illustrations. I plan to type up my latest volume of novelettes whilst the freshly illustrated 2025 edition of Leona’s Homecoming: The Love Letter Diaries #1-4 will be sustainably printed. This book of timeless love will probably release around midsummer. Each book is signed, dated, and a beautifully hand-embossed original Amor Milagre logo sticker is tucked inside…a treasure for book collectors to find. Get ready to order your first editions as new books will be available to shop this year! For now, we are trying to unwind and destress to refocus on many exciting projects and healthy outdoor routines for summer.
Behold…air!
Always do your best not to pollute everywhere the wind blows. We each can be a true blue to Nature. Happy Spring-Summer, however your weather is treating you today…