Winter

Rain rain… for three consecutive days, we have been gifted with precious rain.  This is the time when our high desert gets the highest amounts of rainwater, then, during our hot summer days, Nature can go without it for months.  So, I am thankful for whatever amount of moisture we can get these days. 

Which also means, I’m spending most of my days cozying up in my jungle house! 

Watering my ‘plant children’ and making sure they get plenty of humidity from whatever source they can get it.

A few weeks ago, I decided to rescue my potted Norfolk Pine—the same one I had discarded after the Christmas holidays were over and took it outside to let die, because I knew it couldn’t be planted outside and survive our winters, not to mention that it’s not even close to being a native plant…

It happened that the other day when we were at a local gourmet café we like to visit, I noticed a potted Norfolk Pine sitting by the large windows, and it was huge, and beautiful, and looking at its size, I figured the plant must had been several years old.  Which meant they could survive in a pot! So, I run back home and save it. Was it worth it? I can't tell yet, but I like to see it in in this corner of my house…

My new white flowering Kalanchoe is doing great thus far. The Kalanchoe flowers can last for weeks and weeks. I got my first Kalanchoe last summer, and its beautiful pink flowers bloomed throughout the entire summer and fall. And now this white one is doing the same… these flowers last and last…

After my pink flowering Kalanchoe was done flowering, I repotted it, so we’ll see what happens now.  The small flowers look like tiny roses... I love them!

In my gypsy room days are spent decorating, and going through dozens of home and garden books and magazines.

Adding fairy lights everywhere!

I covered the closet door with that same versatile tablecloth I use for everything.  A few weeks ago, it was a bedcover, now is doing the function of some wallpaper.

I love it so much!

Some of the geraniums have started blooming. This have to be one of my greatest joys during our long winters for sure!

And here is that closet door again!

The other day, a huge flock of robins came by again, so many birds, that not a single tree in the garden was devoid of them.  Me too, I’m also looking forward to spring!  Dreaming with it, dreaming with flowers and vines and a strong sunshine to crown my head and warm my shoulders…

I can’t forget, though, that winter has its own beauty to share, and I’m learning to love the natural stillness and effortlessness that come with it, the beauty of snow in the early morning, the melancholy of nights.  Winter is the time for home.  And I’m gathering each of its precious jewels in my soul.  Learning to love what it has to offer me on a day to day.  And how beautiful, and glorious it was this morning as I was coming home from a date with my Fisherman at Starbucks, to see the new day dawning behind snow-covered peaks; winter light, merciful and opaque, reposing over frozen fields. Coming down a steep hill I could see the entire valley below as far as my eyes could reach covered in a nimble haze; smoke from fireplaces slowly and ceremoniously rising up the heavens as horses and sheep received the new day under the great openness of fields covered in winter delight.

OK my friends, I hope I haven’t bored you!  I hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day today, and may you always find peace and joy during your days and nights. 

I will be absent from this place for a few days, but if you miss me you can always find me on Instagram!  https://www.instagram.com/gypsycielo/

See you then!

The snows of life

Tuesday, Feb. 5—how marvelous and astonishing to have been welcomed by the brilliance and freshness of new snow this morning... and what a surprise, too, to discover it had snowed as I pulled up the blinds to let light into our room.

Snow that had silently fallen during the hours of night to remind us that each moment of the year has its own beauty, and winter is not the least.

And how blessed and thankful I felt for another good night rest.  And how uplifting and wonderful it is to witness God’s mercy in a personal level when you place yourself in His hands in total surrender.  You see, sometimes, I find it hard to fall asleep, my anxious heart won't let me rest and I have to go my Heavenly Father in total dependence for rest and peace. My faith is then renewed, my body healed and my mind put at rest.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord,

“My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

When I was a little girl, I was awfully frightened by ghastly darkness and the sounds of night. The fear of sleeping alone, or sleeping at all, was so intense that I remember my heart racing crazily, my body trembled and sweated profusely. Most nights I felt ill, and I could not sleep at all. Miraculously, one day when I was around nine, I discovered I had an all-powerful Almighty Savior and my life was deeply transformed. 

Even so, we still live in a sinful world, and sometimes the anxiety and phobias of childhood, when not treated, can prolong till adulthood, and there are times when, still today, things are not so great.  This is the beauty of how life is designed for us. 

One thing is clear to me: the wound is where the light enters. And light did enter into my wounds, and into my life, and it filled my soul with peace and confidence. And perhaps this wound, this pain, was allowed so that I could have a deepened awareness of life?

One day I realized that my sufferings were not a punishment. They were a tool to deepen my perception of life and the receptiveness to the world that surrounded me.  It expanded my consciousness, and it made me more sensitive of the divine.  It made me more present, and more capable of feeling the joy and light and gift of present moments. My fears were the contrast through which I could finally understand and feel lightness. It is a privilege to feel discomfort, it is a gift to be gutted.

The rainbow

Monday, Feb. 4—the winter warm spell of the other day is gone and, in the far distance, mountains are covered in a new cloak of cotton-white snow.  Snowy peaks rise up to the heavens swathed in a dark gloominess shaped by clouds that are too low and heavy with precipitation. 

Then around five we were finally blessed by rain.  It was dark and gloomy while it rained, and as I looked outside to this gloominess under rainy clouds, I praised God and glorified His name through prayer and songs, all the while longing for His presence and a view of his goodness and glory… in Nature, in a bird?  Little did I know what He had in store for me…

Heavy rain lasted for about an hour before it left us; then giving way to one of the most extraordinary rainbows I have ever seen in my life...

Have you ever asked God to show you His glory? When you need to know He is with you, that you can count on Him to lead you through your desert wanderings? Moses asked God to show him His glory. He wanted the certain assurance of God’s presence. And so did I.   

The neighbors climbed to the roof to see it better 

and the neighborhood was bathed in a mysterious, glorious light.

“I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—before you. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Exodus 33:19)

The gypsy caravan

On Friday, we did something really crazy...

We went some place, and sold our gypsy caravan..

I’m not going to lie to you, selling our dear gypsy caravan wasn’t easy. Having to say goodbye to a lifetime of memories was heartbreaking. We have traveled far and wide in our gypsy caravan, we have made so many memories from its cozy rooms, planned so much, made so many connections, dreamed so much in it...

From the warmth of its colorful interiors we have laughed, hugged, daydreamed, and even cried. We moved from one side of the country to the other taking with us our gypsy caravan, she was our family, our home and our place to shed our tears at night during that difficult time.

From the coziness of our colorful and magical gypsy caravan we have listened to the enigmatic voices of the night under thick warm blankets, we have woken up to glorious mornings, listened to the rain falling on the canvas roof, and tasted the real taste and smell of daybreak.

Our souls have been filled with spiritual satisfaction here, the glories only revealed at midnight have been made ours from inside our gypsy caravan, as we became one with Nature in so many ways. We were the rivers we bathed in, and the trees we rested under, my hair had held the scent of the wildflowers, and my skin the color of the sarsaparilla in summertime. So much so much…

But alas, nothing stays the same it all gets crushed. It all gets broken. It all passes with time. Only the moment you're in has any meaning. Even magic fades too fast! And thus, we decided to sell the gypsy caravan... Oh, but of course, we could never never say goodbye to this, or this, or this!...

So what we did? We bought a new trailer! A real gypsy caravan this time, where you don't have to fold your blankets and pillows and put them away any more and where you can leave your bed and tables up all the time and nothing would have to be folded up or put away and folded down into a box!

The beds would not have to be folded down and pulled in or out either when it’s time to make camp or dismantle.  The top won’t have to be cranked up manually and no more poles to hold the tent up over the bunks or beds.  I’m so excited!

We have bought a few necessities to organize things in the trailer, and I can't hardly wait to start decorating it.  I have so many ideas of what I want to do there and how I want to decorate it!  But I need to be patient and wait a little longer, because as we will be parking it on one side of our house, a new gate will need to be installed first and part of the yard will have to be expanded too to make it fit.  We have already hired someone to do the job, but it won't happen until next week.  So exciting!