The road ends, but the journey continues...

Category: Agrodolce Vita (Page 7 of 8)

yes, life is bittersweet

Yep, today's the day: 37 years…

T L
&
L B
6/17/78

Yep, today’s the day: 37 years since saying our vows atop Flagstaff Mountain…and a life together as varied as those Rocky Mountains themselves –

Paths of uphill scree, steep descent, craggy gorges, magnificent vistas, timberline breath-taking peaks, peaceful breezes through the ‘Quakies’, violent storms, just as quickly turn into meadowlands for mellow musings –

Hard trails, easy climbs, high flying hopes matching mile high views, seriously focused hiking through outcroppings of tortuous beauty, learning the landscape –

Getting our mountain legs together as One.

Our engagement photo, Fall 1977

Our engagement photo, Fall 1977

Poverty and Beauty, Ugliness and Truth

a tree grows in brooklyn coverA short while ago, I reread this classic novel.  It’s one of the greats.  What surprised me this time around was that amidst the storyline and lyrical prose, its message speaks to the heart of what I’ve been presenting within my blog series, Giving Voice.
Very timely as the quotes I’ve pulled from within its pages read better than anything I could attempt to pen.
Meant to be read as a single ‘blog post’ the following quotes are from “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” by Betty Smith.

Quote symbolSince her father’s death, Francie had stopped writing about birds and trees and My Impressions.  Because she missed him so, she had taken to writing little stories about him.  She tried to show that, in spite of his shortcomings, he had been a good father and a kindly man.  She had written three such stories which were marked ‘C’ instead of the usual ‘A.’  The fourth came back with a line telling her to remain after school… Continue reading

All is not as it seems …

Observe the fine crumb of this loaf.  The inviting chew of its crust.  Such a gorgeously perfect specimen of my ‘true sourdough’ … or is it?

All is not as it seems ... my 'true sourdough' bread

All is not as it seems … my ‘true sourdough’ bread

The aroma emitted during its time of baking signal salivary glands to sweat in anticipation of a heavenly tasting loaf … or is it?
Finally ready for slicing, the crunch of the knife sounds divine. The slithering of slathered butter slides into warm nooks and crannies of perfectly baked bread … or is it?

Raising the staff-of-life slice to consume, first bite is a bit salty.

Could it be a ‘salt pocket’ … some vestige of incomplete integration of all dry ingredients before adding to wet ingredients? Continue reading

Ecco là – Coffee Beans – è Finito!

Thought I’d spice this up a bit with some of my good ole Italian…besides, a picture is worth a thousand words, so if there’s any question of what that title means, just take a gander at this:

Coffee Beans Means Love to Me, back & quilt label

Partial view of quilt back with label signed and dated


Yep, Coffee Beans Means Love to Me is no longer a WIP, but a completed project.
Last seen on the table ready to be basted a few posts ago, I experimented with using large quilter safety pins.  In general, I liked the way they held the 3-layered sandwich together while I machine quilted.  However, the holes they left in the fabric after being removed left me wondering why I didn’t just do it the way I’ve always done it.
Basting together pieces of (he)art

Basting together pieces of (he)art*


Live and learn.
Perfectionist that I am, I feared I’d wrecked the whole thing.  Then I remembered: part of our between homes experience was embracing the ‘strange life path’ He had for us.  So what’s a few microscopic pin pricks?
Still living.  Still learning.
 
Finishing Coffee Beans has been freeing.  A sort-of final transition stage where our between homes past has been pieced together into something beautiful to be seen in the ‘now’ as a reminder while we proceed into the ‘next’…
GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERA

The road between homes has ended for now, but the creative journey has not.


*creative confluence: Coffee Beans Means Love to Me (2014), my NaNo Novel, ‘The Woman Who Didn’t Belong’ (2013), my hand scored original arrangement of ‘Mo Giolla Mear’ written while I was ‘Swimming with Swans’ in IN (2010), favorite guitar strings and an old photo of me with an anonymous horse in Montana during Spring Break (circa 1977).
 

Bacterial Necrosis

 from- Swimming with Swans: vignettes of our three year journey between homes
November 2011 (Fountain Hills, AZ)

Saguaro Cactus Fountain Hills, AZDuring my daily walks along local paths in town and in the surrounding desert area, I’ve noticed Saguaro Cacti with large dark brown “bite” patches along their base up to and including places way high above my head.  At first I thought perhaps they were indeed, bites from local fauna that somehow didn’t get hurt eating the spiky spines along with the juicy flesh.  Think: deer bites on Aspen tree trunks.  But it didn’t seem to fit with the height limit of most animals.  So, I got to thinking maybe it was some sort of naturally occurring disease that helps to maintain eco-balance such as the Pine Beetles in the Colorado forests.
I did a bit of Google research and discovered Continue reading

You Are My Only One (these 36 years) And I Still Believe In We

James Taylor with attitude

My hubby Terry’s twin (?)


Those baby blues.  That attitude.
My future husband, my lover, my BE-ONE…and oh yes, he looks just like James Taylor.
What’s not to like?
Most of our family and friends know the story of how we met.  Truncated version: Terry as best friend of my then fiancé convinces said fiancé to dump me and the rest is history.  While it certainly was God’s plan for us to be married, it might not have been exactly His way of getting us together.
Over these past years we have celebrated June 17th in various ways.  Our first anniversary we did the ‘eat the frozen wedding cake top’ thing in our little square cinder block married student housing house.  Living on love in the midst of typical newlywed poverty those first years proved to produce a firm foundation to our new union; along with three children!
Our tenth anniversary we threw a huge backyard party celebrating the fact that we had made it together that long.  Sadly, many we knew who married the same year as we did, were no longer together.  This was also the year in which we followed the dream and took a leap of faith in starting our own business. Continue reading

Peace Post – Passion Scars

Peace, love and happiness don’t just happen.Passion Scars by Peter Steele

These qualities arise from a life of intent, purpose and passion.
Passion leaves scars.  Scars are not bad.  Scars are proof.

Imagine the scars of love on the risen Christ while walking the road beside Thomas.

“Reach here your finger, and see My hands; reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.”*

Proof that it is He.
Passion leaves a legacy.
Consider the statues of Easter Island.  horses on Easter IslandLong thought to be created using slave labor, researchers now believe the Moai were fashioned as part of a community ‘Passion Project.’  Many generations hauling and carving stone, raising the giant heads all to honor those who had gone on before them.  Passion to make those they loved ‘known’ beyond their short time on earth.
Peace, love and happiness don’t just happen.
Passion is not without its costs. 
Passion leaves scars.  Scars are not bad.  Scars are proof.
*John 20:27

Credits: Photographer Peter Steele’s latest body of work, Passion Scars Peace, Love and Happiness documents the carving in aspen trees from Steamboat Springs to Telluride, Colorado. Steele has identified four groups of people who carve in the aspen trees: sheep herders, elk hunters, the casual car camper, and homesteaders.Steele’s image of the oldest carving in the collection, dated 1922, was taken in an old growth aspen grove outside Telluride, CO. While Steele does not condone the act of aspen graffiti, and does not carve in trees, he enjoys searching and documenting these sacred messages that people have passionately expressed on the smooth canvas of the bark of the aspen tree. Peter Steele’s collection consists of 2000 tattooed aspen photographs recorded while hiking hundreds of miles of trails throughout Colorado.

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