{"id":1310,"date":"2017-06-07T17:42:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T21:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/?p=1310"},"modified":"2017-06-07T18:30:47","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T22:30:47","slug":"to-the-wisdom-of-toads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/?p=1310","title":{"rendered":"to the wisdom of toads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is a true story in which sunshine, my lovely husband and a little James Taylor manage to save me once again.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I can feel myself<br \/>\nthinning<br \/>\nnot so much as to say<br \/>\nI may be losing weight<br \/>\nbut rather, it\u2019s my skin<br \/>\nthat is feeling<br \/>\nthin<br \/>\nand I find myself easily annoyed<br \/>\nby<br \/>\nlittle things<br \/>\nI can recognize this old familiar<br \/>\nstate of me<br \/>\n(by now, probably so can you)<br \/>\nI am<br \/>\nsagging,<br \/>\nslightly<br \/>\nI have been too busy of late<br \/>\ndays off, and weekends taken up<br \/>\nwith (not so unwelcome) bits of life<br \/>\njust not enough, nothingness to it<br \/>\nfor my<br \/>\nwell being<br \/>\nand I feel<br \/>\ntired, very, very tired<\/p>\n<p>last night, I come home from a long day at work<br \/>\nand suggest a walk in the rain<br \/>\nto my husband, who very quickly says yes<br \/>\nwhich proves to be rather blissful<br \/>\nlater, I walk down to the composter<br \/>\nand pass by a toad, who serenades me with<br \/>\nsongs of love<br \/>\nwhile I am there, I meet a little fledgling starling<br \/>\nsheltering in among the flowers<br \/>\nI assure him, he is safe with me, I mean no harm<br \/>\nI tell him, he is lovely<br \/>\nwalking back the toad is still chirping<br \/>\nand a cardinal joins in<br \/>\nafter greeting them all, I head in to finish the dishes<br \/>\nwith a smile of delight<br \/>\nthis morning coffee and then some errands with my Love<br \/>\nbefore he is off to work<br \/>\npick up a few things for the kids,<br \/>\nand a couple of new books for me (no trip out would be complete otherwise)<br \/>\nand then<br \/>\na whole lot of sunshine, and a little time<br \/>\nfor<br \/>\nmyself<br \/>\nto the pond to visit the fish<br \/>\nfill the bird feeders,<br \/>\nwander the gardens<br \/>\nsmile up at the sky<br \/>\nand<br \/>\nbreathe &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I can feel the sun warming my shoulders and back<br \/>\nas I watch a jet paint a streak across the sky<br \/>\nand follow it&#8217;s white feathery line, straight through the sun<br \/>\nand as far as I can see<br \/>\nI listen to the birds<br \/>\nand let the breeze dance through my hair<br \/>\nI make it a point to invite in<br \/>\nthe Love, Light and Peace<br \/>\nthat I know<br \/>\nI am<br \/>\nneeding<br \/>\nI watch a little toad, back his way into some fresh dirt<br \/>\nuntil he is almost covered<br \/>\nand very much like the Cheshire cat<br \/>\nleaving only his eyes, and his smile<br \/>\nand here<br \/>\nI am reminded of patience, gentleness<br \/>\nand<br \/>\nto be<br \/>\nkind<br \/>\nbecause these too are things<br \/>\nI know, right now<br \/>\nI<br \/>\nneed<br \/>\nthe dog scratches at the door<br \/>\ncatching my attention<br \/>\nand my brain sets into gear<br \/>\nUgh, there are things I am supposed to be accomplishing<br \/>\ntoday!<br \/>\nJust as I turn to go<br \/>\ndown in the far corner, I spot a perfectly lovely<br \/>\nplump fellow<br \/>\nsitting in the sun<br \/>\namong the leaves<br \/>\nI stop to say hello<br \/>\nbut just quick, I must get on<br \/>\nand with just a smile<br \/>\nsomehow in this sunshine<br \/>\nhe convinces me<br \/>\nto stay<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis \u2018accomplishing&#8217; he says,<br \/>\nthat\u2019s for<br \/>\nanother day \u2026 \u201c \u00a0\u2665<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>\u266a \u266a Whenever I see your smiling face, I have to smile myself because I love you, yes I do \u266a \u266a<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a true story in which sunshine, my lovely husband and a little James Taylor manage to save me once again. I can feel myself thinning not so much as to say I may be losing weight but rather,&hellip; <br \/><a class=\"read-more-button\" href=\"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/?p=1310\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1310"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions\/1318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamara.tedzplace.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}