From a Cabin in the Woods: New Life by Sally Paradysz
August 13, 2017 by Sally Paradysz in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group tagged as life, nature, Sally Paradysz, writing
The fawns are here!
On my wooded acreage here in Bucks County I have new life. The fawns are here! So far one of the does has a set of twins, and another doe of my same herd has a new fawn as well. They are not teeny tiny anymore as they grow up quickly, and seemingly right in front of my eyes. Fawns are amazing animals. Just minutes after they are born they are able to nurse, and soon after that, they are able to stand. As quickly as they can travel, sometimes in just hours, the mom leads them away from the birth area and somehow persuades her babies to hide. The fawn/fawns creep under a low growing plant or bush, curls into a ball that would fit onto a dinner plate, and stays there. If she has twins she will lead the other to a different place, she doesn’t want them together because of predators.
What a blessing it is to watch these new fawns grow.
But now they are large enough to follow their moms all around my woods. They drink out of my ground water bath, and nurse right in front of me while I sit on my porch. Never have I seen such gentleness in the eyes of the does. What a blessing it is to watch these new fawns grow. I do feel tension when I see fox or the occasional coyote walking around, but I feel confident that the does are well aware of any danger and will act accordingly and swiftly.
I’m not sure if I have enough wood drying in the field to get me through this coming winter, but these fawns seem to enjoy walking around the pile that is left to split. I still have a lot of work to do this summer, and I’m hopeful that I will get most of it completed while these fawns grow and play.
A sigh of contentment escapes as I continue to live on my “Winnie the Pooh” land, and I think I must be the richest woman in the world…..
Sally
Sally Paradysz writes from a book-lined cabin in the woods beside the home she built from scratch. She is an ordained minister of the Assembly of the Word, founded in 1975. For two decades, she has provided spiritual counseling and ministerial assistance. Sally has completed undergraduate and graduate courses in business and journalism. She took courses at NOVA, and served as a hotline, hospital, and police interview volunteer in Bucks County, PA. She is definitely owned by her two Maine Coon cats, Kiva and Kodi.
Read more about Sally’s life as she builds her home :
Spring’s Finest
May 13, 2017 by Sally Paradysz in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group, Writing tagged as kindness, life, Sally Paradysz, SpringThe Taste of Spring
When I was young, I lived in western Massachusetts. To earn money for a new bike, I picked blueberries at the large blueberry farm in our town. The owner, Blueberry Joe!, let me pick every day that I could get there as it was miles away, and it became something wonderful for me in those years before I turned sixteen and could get a real job. It took a very long time until I could make enough money for my bike, but the fault was mine as I ate more berries than I picked for sale.
I think the love of all berries, but especially blueberries, has stayed with me all these years. I have bushes of my own now in the field, and it is yet another one of the miracles of nature for me. We are having many bees pollinating this year, so the crop should be a good one. My uncle had bee hives in his back yard so I was able to watch the process of beekeeping and the honey that I still love.
As a child, I loved listening to the bees, and watching them fly free. At times, they were not even looking for a flower and it seemed to me that they were flying just for the feel of it. The wind on their body, the noise of the humming, the high-pitched zzzzzzzzz, all turning my heart into a love of mixed emotions much like the walls of honey-combs in my uncle’s white bee hives.
So now I move on from the taste of spring to the smell.
Lilacs are one of my favorite spring fragrances. I love to stop by a bush and inhale my deepest breath, wishing it would last all year round. Its time is short for flowers so one must do this as often as possible. My other favorite is viburnum. Mix these two together in a bouquet, and you almost cannot take the powerful aroma it gives. I then carry it forever in my mind, and I think the flowers know that.
Flowers are akin to kindness my heart says. If I didn’t have them now in my life a part of me would dissolve, I fear, and all I counted on for spring might be lost. For it is kindness that makes the most sense anymore, and it follows me like a shadow once I recognize that piece. It is tender and yet unbearable if you don’t receive it.
Like the sprout that is hidden within the seed, all of us struggle in our life to be seen and heard, and listened to. If we have this kindness in our life our sense of failure fades away, and we again trust ourselves to see things as we perceive them to be…and then rest.
Sally Paradysz
https://sites.google.com/site/sallywparadysz/
http://sallywparadysz.blogspot.com/
Sally Paradysz writes from a book-lined cabin in the woods beside the home she built from scratch. She is an ordained minister of the Assembly of the Word, founded in 1975. For two decades, she has provided spiritual counseling and ministerial assistance. Sally has completed undergraduate and graduate courses in business and journalism. She took courses at NOVA, and served as a hotline, hospital, and police interview volunteer in Bucks County, PA. She is definitely owned by her two Maine Coon cats, Kiva and Kodi.
Read more about Sally’s life in her memoir FROM SCRATCH; available in paperback and ebook.
A Slice of Nature
April 13, 2017 by Sally Paradysz in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group tagged as expectations, living, nature, Sally Paradysz
My first post for A Slice of Orange comes with A Slice of Nature. As I sit here in my writing cabin in the woods, I watch my favorite buck tip the flat bird feeder to his advantage. He is taking care of his own needs, much as we do in our own lives. Nature shows me each day how the trees, birds, and animals do not try to be anything else but who they are in any given moment. A deer is not trying to be turkey, a fox is not trying to be a bunny, nor is a songbird trying to be a hawk. They are who they are and that is the gift.
Often, in our own lives, we are concerned with trying to become someone or something we are not. It doesn’t work very well and we find in the end that we are just perfect as we are. 
We all have talents, but sometimes we must dig deep to find them. Finding our strengths and taking responsibility for own lives is key. Each of us has a path to walk, find yours and live the challenges and experiences that we are given.
I’ve learned not to have expectations, and that life is all about effort. Live in a space of letting go and work hard. Nature is my teacher and shows me that only we hold responsibility for the energy we give, along with the energy we bring to everywhere we go. If our intentions are good, our outcome is usually in sync as well. All of us have remarkable stories of finding ourselves in places we never expected, but that is an authentic and compelling life. Like nature, no two moments are the same.
Sally Paradysz
https://sites.google.com/site/sallywparadysz/
http://sallywparadysz.blogspot.com/
Sally Paradysz writes from a book-lined cabin in the woods beside the home she built from scratch. She is an ordained minister of the Assembly of the Word, founded in 1975. For two decades, she has provided spiritual counseling and ministerial assistance. Sally has completed undergraduate and graduate courses in business and journalism. She took courses at NOVA, and served as a hotline, hospital, and police interview volunteer in Bucks County, PA. She is definitely owned by her two Maine Coon cats, Kiva and Kodi.
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