Hello everybody! Welcome to Mindful Magpie, a blog dedicated to sharing and appreciating what strikes me as beautiful on any given day. What could be more pleasurable than admiring the glorious color on a purple sweet potato vine, inhaling the splendid tang of a sprig of curly parsley, or marveling at the sheen of a string of colored beads? I spend some part of each day involved in such important pursuits. I don’t know any other way to live, nor would I want to know any other way.

I am proud to say that I have been compared to a magpie, a species of fowl with  whom I share proclivities. For example. magpies are known to be attracted to shiny objects and take them back to their nests. Check! They are bold and gregarious and get along well with humans. Check! Their back feathers are iridescent. Check, in that I try to present myself to the world in as iridescent manner as is appropriate. And: magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror! Double check!! Admit it: isn’t a magpie just the type of guest you want to have at your dinner party?

May I bring a bottle of wine?

And now for the mindful part. The capacity to be aware of the beauty  that surrounds  us is both a gift and a skill, one that I believe is critical to living an authentic life. I have nothing novel to add to the considerable body of knowledge on this subject, as better minds than mine have  for centuries devoted themselves to helping people become more aware of their responses to the  world around them,  to in fact “show up” for their own lives. I am simply grateful to have arrived at a stage on my own life when I have sufficient access to myself to be able to wait, to notice, and to appreciate.

Thanks for stopping by!