Hooker Line Proves Profound; Pretty Woman Pretty Smart After All

Summer is finally here and the longer days are consuming more of my time outdoors and in the garden. I don’t want to waste a second when there is so much living to do…and for maybe the first time in my life, writing has taken a backseat to the actual insights of living being served up every day. I’ve used pictures instead for fear I might miss out on something if I took the time to write it down.

I’ve been on a bit of a bender lately (minus the booze…well okay, a little bourbon goes well with most things) and have learned that it really isn’t about what challenges you face in life. It has everything to do with what you consider a challenge. And finding my way had more to do with realizing I was already exactly where I needed to be and not in need of a roadmap as to which direction to take.

There is a little bit of Dorothy (by way of the Good Witch Glenda’s observation), a dash of Mary Poppins, and yes…even the character portrayed by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

I reached a resting point recently after waking up one day to find I had a completely different view of the world I’ve lived in for most of my adult life. I wish I could tell you what changed, but it was so subtle. I wasn’t holding my mouth right (old fishing saying for when the fish aren’t biting and one that a friend has coined often). It used to bug me to hear it. Never made sense. It was too simplistic in explaining how an activity or event did not net the expected results. And it pissed me off to boil it down to something that had no substance or tangible explanation I could sink my teeth into. Because really…I’ve been a gal that needs to find deep meaning and reason in every single thing. And stuff that doesn’t make sense has been quite the Achilles heel for me. To keep order in my life, I needed to be able to rationalize the “why” behind every aspect of my life. WTF was my past response. I now must concede that it is indeed that simple and complex all at once. Living life with this ecosystem proved exhausting for me. Another phrase I used to detest was “it is what it is.” I have also come to appreciate this as sound guidance for various points in my life where my sheer will to make something happen would have been so much better served to accept and keep going. And as I sit and write this now, I can see that I’m making up for lost time and likely going too long and too deep to keep anyone entertained and interested to the end.

I’ve been on a road trip for a while now. What most don’t realize, though, is my particular journey was unique in that it required me to take the journey standing still. Instead of searching outwardly through experiences and living, I became an observer of pretty much everything I encountered. I also had to have a willingness to put up a white board and erase all past foundational belief systems (including societal norms and expectations).

Having come full circle in deconstructing the life I once lived, I am at the crossroads where I must choose where I take it from here. It’s a little bit of “You’ve had the answer all along” from Glenda, and a twist of “It was here all along in my own backyard” from Dorothy. Throw Mary Poppins in the mix with an innate ability to spin anything negative into a positive and you can pretty much sum up who I am and where I’ve been.

Life didn’t change me nearly as much as I thought it had. In fact, I think life is the constant we all work with. We are the lens that reacts and reflects what we see (sometimes through filters we don’t even know exist). Life doesn’t discriminate. We are all equals in what we start with at the very beginning…that is to say we get this life, we are born, and we find our way.

I’ve learned that working with life and following a natural flow is far better than swimming against the current and denying whatever current reality I am in the middle of.

The final observation comes from admitting that there are people in my life, who simply don’t “get” me any longer. And that’s okay. It’s also proven far easier to simply let go than to try to rationalize my chosen path. That brings me to the final comparison, which is the hooker, who Julia Roberts played in Pretty Woman. Richard Gere stops and asks her for directions and she tells him it will cost him. Indignant, he says she can’t charge him for directions. And in true form of someone who is comfortable in her own skin, she simply says, “I can do anything I want. I ain’t lost.” Kudos to Roberts for delivering that line and ‘nuff said for where I am in my own life. I might be in the middle of a journey, but I ain’t lost. And yes, I can do anything I want!

Pressure Cooker of Life and Recipe for Success!

Sometimes I think life is a little like a pressure cooker.  We turn up the heat, throw a bunch of stuff inside, and stand…hand on hip…waiting for it to finish way faster than it should.

You can’t actually see what’s inside a pressure cooker when it’s cooking or test it to see when it’s ready.  You have to pace it, time it, and even then…you still wonder if you let the whistle simmer long enough.

And with life, it’s kind of the same thing.  You’re watching and waiting all the time…anticipating when it will be ready…complete. But you can’t check on it mid-way to see if it’s coming along or close to being the way you expect it to be.  You don’t always know when there’s too much pressure inside and sometimes impatience releases the steam too fast and with too much force, leaving you ill prepared for dealing with the outcome of any given situation.

So in life as with cooking, my advice is to always watch the burner so it doesn’t get too hot. Let out the steam at a slow and steady pace, being mindful not to burn yourself or anyone else nearby. Acknowledge that you won’t get it right every time and you will learn as you go. And most importantly, don’t worry about what anyone else is cooking! 

A Window to My Soul…21st Century Scrapbooking

In a world where we are bombarded by technology and “always on” with social media, I find myself appreciating a new way of sharing and preserving an old fashioned way of life.

A Monarch in the making.

I am a romantic at heart.  That is to say I like to take the simple and routine and embellish it with what I’ll call “life trimmings” to make it more memorable.  Take gardening for example.  I love to garden and can vegetables and jam.  But if you ask me what I liked best about these little pleasures, it would be easier for me to show you than tell you.  Because I trim my life in ways that make me happy.  Let me explain…

A day in my garden rarely begins and ends in a single visit.  Life is busy and I work and have teenagers in high school.  That’s why I planted my garden in the front yard next to my driveway.  I am always on the go and in and out several times a day.  And every time I’m leaving or coming back home, I find it almost irresistible not to walk over and pull a stray weed or take a peek at my tomatoes or squash.

Southern Pumpkins

My favorite moments are in the evenings or weekends, when I can kick off my shoes and walk barefoot in the middle of the garden.  The straw mulch gives me a soft bed for my feet and I can more gingerly walk around the cushaw vines trailing around in every direction.  I have a woven hat, with a lime green band.  It’s mandatory attire for sunny days and makes me smile when I see it in my kitchen hanging on a chair.  I feel happy when I grab it on my way out the door with basket and nippers in hand.

Another mainstay I keep in the kitchen are aprons.  I have a few really pretty vintage ones from the 1950’s and a few more functional ones for messier work.  I pull up my unruly hair in a ponytail and am instantly reminded of my Granny shoo-ing me out of the kitchen as a kid to put my hair up before entering her kitchen.  In my kitchen, I survey the assortment of pots and pans, canning jars, and supplies.  Like me, it’s a work in progress.  It's roomy and has potential to store all my kitchen staples for baking and canning in some organized way.  For now, I make it work with a banquet table and Rubbermaid tubs underneath.  And I’m always on the lookout for an oversized buffet or cabinet that could be re-purposed into a work center that can accommodate more storage.

I see potential in most things in life and enjoy the journey in seeing a dream or vision coming to fruition.  It’s like looking at a blank canvas and instinctively knowing what needs to be added or something that would complete the picture.  Sometimes it will be days or even weeks before I figure out what’s missing from a shelf or a mantle in my home.  But it eventually comes to me…often at a yard sale where I find a small vintage treasure.  You can be sure it will be cheap enough not to break the bank and easy enough to swap out without any sentimental value.  I used to be a huge collector of things.  I still appreciate and have a fondness for antiques, but have also learned to appreciate a more minimalistic environment…from surroundings to thoughts to everything in between.  I enjoy “props” that enhance my setting and help to set the stage for my romanticized way of life.   I recently picked up a scarecrow at a yard sale and added it to the garden.  I have included him in every picture I take while measuring my growing produce and enjoying the view.

Which brings me to my last “must have” accessory…something I take with me wherever I go.  It’s not old fashioned and lacks the beauty and character of an old Mason jar with a zinc lid.  It hasn’t been hand sewn or trimmed in lace.  In fact, it is the opposite of antiquated items I typically gravitate towards.  But this gem is what fuels and powers my creativity and passion for every day living.  As incongruous as it may sound, my i-Phone has become a mobile scrapbook of sorts.  I used to cut pictures from magazines and glue them into journals.  I’d write and mail letters to family and friends to share things happening in my life.  And while I will admit there is a tradeoff in leaving behind a good stock of paper or stationery, the benefits and ease of sharing far outweigh the downside for me.

My kids get aggravated when I want to take a picture.  They can’t understand why I don’t just enjoy the moment.  But for me, it’s all about capturing the moment and remembering why it was special.  And I get that not everyone will understand the importance of a photo shot in portrait mode taken from an i-Phone camera, depicting a basket of freshly picked tomatoes...or why I'll position the leaves of my squash, so that the plump and rapidly growing cushaw can be shown surrounded by a frame of straw.  It’s my way of scrapbooking in the 21^st century, utilizing all the tools of a different sort of revolution than that of the industrial age.

 

But please don’t try to pin me down to a generation or type.  I’m just tech savvy enough to be dangerous.  I can’t master Snapchat, however, Facebook is my friend for sharing the moments I capture.  Instagram and Twitter are close seconds.  I think like the industrial revolution, the mediums and channels for making and doing will always change.  What remains a constant for me is a love and passion for living in the moment and appreciating the natural beauty that abounds if you take the time to see it.  And if I embraced a tech-free existence, I’d miss out on a lot of moments I want to look back on and remember.  It may sound funny, but it’s true.  My i-Phone is the window to my soul…see for yourself…

M