Tag: Lorie Sheffer

Guest blogger Lorie Sheffer: Soul exercise

Blurry but cool Sanibel Island sunset photo

 

(photo: due to technical issues, Lorie is allowing MLC to pick photos for her Guest posts. This one is from Sanibel Island, a few days ago)

Try this: For every negative thought or comment you have about a person, place or thing, think of two positive thoughts or comments.

If you can’t think of anything positive, consider that your judgment may be clouded or your assessments too harsh.

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Guest blogger Lorie Sheffer: Our parents

Nature path in Summer

 

As teenagers we did everything we could to break free of our parents. Now we do what we can to hang on for as long as we can.

Most of us who still have our parents are dealing with the emotions of seeing declining health and the frailties that come with old age.

Just this week, I came home from visiting with a friend whose father is now a dialysis patient, while her mother is battling Parkinson’s. When I sat down to catch up on some social media, I discovered an old friend’s father had passed. Yesterday, I spent the day transporting my parents to a medical facility. In middle age, hospitals, nursing homes and funerals become all too familiar to us.

Somewhere in our crammed schedules and busy lives, we need to find the time. Some things really can’t wait until another day.

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Guest blogger Lorie Sheffer: Worms

Black Swallowtail caterpillar
Black Swallowtail Caterpillar (photo: Lorie Sheffer)

 

It was a logical question. Why do I always plant fennel in a few of the pots on my deck? I’ve made some wonderful salads with thinly sliced fennel bulbs and blood orange, but for the most part I’m not a fan of the flavor. And yet every year without fail, I have pots of fennel, and by early July they have been gnawed back down to the ground.

The first year I planted fennel I noticed the plants were being eaten at an alarming rate. They were covered in what appeared to be dried bird droppings, but on closer inspection turned out to be tiny bugs of some sort. Could have sprayed them, but chose to leave them. The bugs rapidly grew, in direct correlation to the shrinking of the gnawed fennel, into amazing looking neon green, bright yellow and black worms. Intrigued, I took a photo and then headed in to the computer for a little research. In a short time I had my answer to what these creatures were, and several weeks later I was treated to the beautiful finale of their life cycle, the black swallowtail butterfly. They were everywhere!

Lessons learned: If you want beauty in your life, then you have to provide an incentive. At first glance something may look like a mar on what you are trying to achieve, but if you just wait it out the results can be way better than your original vision. Today’s pest may be tomorrow’s treasure.

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