Author: Barbara Ery

Slow down

~ Barbara Ery ~ Leave a comment

Where ever you are be fully there!

I’m sure some one has said that before, does not change the sentiment. 
It’s in the slowing down that we realize what time we waste by being in a hurry.
Life is not emergency it is feast!
The flowers are really that purple!

Things On grateful list today

Getting a splinter out of my foot.
A shower
Beans
Birds chirping in the trees
The sound of a lawn mower.

Driving A Tractor!!

~ Barbara Ery ~ Leave a comment

Going to a farm near by to work.

Not sure what have gotten into.
Excited to see it and to work.
Tired and a bit hungry, but can sleep when I am old filled with a life well lived. 
I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.
The excitement I feel is enormous, driving a tractor. Working in the fields from 2:30 – 9:00

In the cab across the field in France I see a village in the distance and my mind drifts. I am suspended in this place. Six men are walking beside as the tractor slowly goes by they pick up the bales and put on the trailer.
The blue skies with white clouds over head, the sun on my body and a cool breeze on my face. The smell of the men ranging in ages from 20′, 30′, 40, and 50’s drags me in. They speak French it makes me smile I’ll take this over shopping any day. 
The sound of the engine and the ache in my back connect me to this moment.
Making memories of my life.
We drive through the village and behind a church is a large building we back in and unload. Once climbing upon the trailer and throw bales down to the men fall into the trailer.  Shoes, boots, hair and nostrils are now filled with the dust from the hay instead flour from the bakery. 
We stop at 6:40 and are offered a glass of beer, cider, water or apple juice. 
My feet hurt and my stomach is growling at me. I love to listen to my body tell me I am alive.
Thank you Lord for the experience of heaven on earth!
I wish for others that they two will find such joy in living!

Waiting

~ Barbara Ery ~ Leave a comment

Look who is waiting?
So very tired waiting at St Lazard train station. I have now been traveling 24 hours. You do not notice how tired when in motion,but the moments you stop and wait the weariness catches up with you.  Life changes when we receive life with thanks and ask nothing in return. We can see with eyes of the spirit and open hearts. We have the answer to the question how does one hope without expectations? In WWOOFing and in life I find I have everything I need.
My faithful dog Roxie is waiting at home and life has provided me a faithful dog to tend to here in France. You can’t help but find joy, fun and comfort in this fact.

Normandy France

~ Barbara Ery ~ Leave a comment

When you don’t know how it will free you this journey of thanks. I know from my past trips that it will be a step of growth and healing of old wounds. It’s that first step even of the planning that leads you through the door to craving of a new soul in an old skin. When I’m tired then I start to feel weak and sad lonely and alone whether I’m alone or in a group of others. It’s a wonder and a process of emptying and filling your vessel.

Patience and stillness and then periods of great movement and stimulation. Embrace it all!
Is it really so simple to access joy you must always be in a state of gratitude?
The greatest act is to give thanks for everything. She who has practiced and learned this knows what it means to truly live. She has discovered the secret of life. Give thanks for everything!
Salvation is saying yes to what we have?
Gratitude
I am talking on the train from Charles de Gaulle airport to the center of the city with a young couple. They are from North Carloina black and celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary by traveling to Paris. We Are both unsure of our way. I check map and decide on an exit and when I do a young French man who has been listening as I get off the trains says may I help you. I say oui and I precede to follow him through the mirrored of exits and people. He leads me up stairs and even ask if he can carry my bag. I decline and follow him up a lot of steps. When he finally sends me in the right direction I say merci and he touches his chest where you think his heart is and bows his head. What a beautiful tender universal gesture. I am so touched and grateful for this very special man and moment in my Paris. Already gone a memory. As I sit in Lisieux I still feel as though I am moving on the train. I have not slept now in 34 hours. Feeling a little dizzy and ready for my woofing family to pick me up.
Woofing is always such an adventure in the unknown. As a man parks his car. I notice he has a beautiful white dog sitting up right in the front seat. I hope he is here for me, but it’s too early. He leaves his car and walks across the waiting platform looking for someone as he walks back I try to catch his eye instead he lifts both his arms and sighs deeply. It is nice and cool here as I eat a sandwich I bought at the St Lazare train station and buy an expresso. No wonder I am feeling s little wired now. 
I am almost free from the need to look over each shoulder the unease as I move about a city I don’t know. With grand and grateful hopes of a group of people waiting wanting me to join in with them here in Normandy. 
So I am going to take pictures drawing pictures and make list and visual describe the most beautiful things along my way. 
1. A steaming hot cup of expresso
2. A cool breeze in the air
3. A pillow on the plane for my head
4.A strangers kindness
5. A young man showing me the way and gesturing his hand on his heart and bowing his head
6. A moving train
7. Two successful airline flights
8. Texting my daughter 
9. My friend Diane taking me to the airport with a kiss good bye
10. French bread
11. Blue long sleeve shirt 
12. A free coke on ice 
13 hearing people speak French 
A life lesson from a woman who was never satisfied!
It’s Paul’s writing that rings in my ears.
I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little . Philippians 4:11-12
And I learned long ago that I have plenty. Why did I forget, and become greedy? This is what I hope to find out and long to never forget.
Grateful in divorce, debt, and being alone, in it all.
Saying your grateful and living it out are two different things and how all important is it to practice practice as you are never too old to learn new things. I have been grinding my teeth and I thought I had a cracked tooth or needed s root canal when in fact in preparation for my woofing adventure I have been grinding my teeth. So I took the advice of a friend and bought a teeth mouth guard used by football players . It is also going to take practice to use it as I try to sleep and get comfortable. I put must put plastic thing foreign in my mouth. Practice practice as I practice to be grateful in every moment not just in words or the over arching experience but the actual moment the seconds of it.