347… not quite 350, but awfully close. That’s the number of posts I’ve written. Hard to imagine it’s been years since the 100th and looking back I’m not sure where the time went, or where all the inspiration and thoughts came from, but I guess that’s the point of staying present. Ideas come, and if we can catch on to them and we remain in the here, they materialize. Funny thing is I always post on a Thursday, and even on the craziest of weeks, I hold myself to that deadline. I figure you all depend on my nine cents (that’s humor). This week, if you’re reading this post in real time, I’m publishing on a Friday. And it’s even a repost! Planning you see, from time to time, flies out of our hands. Something else happens instead, and when it does, we stop. Look back. Assess. Step forward. An interesting dance. Reflecting forward. Bringing forth a forgotten moment into the now. With love.

Photos taken a February years ago, but easily could have been today with a foot of new snow covering our yard, and me, out there playing in it. Yes, it is a black and white world, in so many tight and restrictive ways during these cold and forbidding days, but I encourage you to remember the beating heart under it all. Give it your all.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry, for no other reason than it is January… so be smart about it! Enjoy my loves, xxoo

All work and no play is certainly not healthy, and most definitely not for this nine cent girl, but alas, it has been one of those crazy busy work weeks! As I glanced back through the archives, I discovered this playful post, shot on an autumn afternoon, years ago, showcasing me dressing up and flitting about. Just perusing it, I am reminded to make time this weekend for fun. Tis the season, my friends, to enjoy such moments. Be creative. Do what you love. At least for long enough to laugh out loud. xxoo

Every morning this week, the whole of my world was shrouded in mist, and not a lacy-like fairy mist, but a thick veil of velvet whiteness covering the road in front of me. I drove into it with only faith directing my course. And all the while, all around me, on the news, in my workplace, along my twitter feed, in private conversations and in large national debates, everywhere, people were lost in their own misty disasters. I didn’t want to write about all that though. So I took a walk and felt the heat of the sun with the suddenly cooler breeze, saw the dirt road stretching up ahead for miles, and thought, here, now, one must feel hope. This post, written a year ago, inspired by two fabulous and courageous and inspiring women, came to mind; came to save me from the despair facing our hurricane battered islands and coastlines, our country split by that divisive businessman turned president, and our personal distress as varied as all hell. This reblogged post could save me from writing about all of that. This post lifted me up, might lift us up. If that is the work of literature, of books, of words, then for now, let that be the work of Nine Cent Girl. Reposted with hope. Faith. Always, love.