A Contemplative Life

  SF Bay Area traffic last night. This weekend my hubby and I are back in the SF Bay Area to celebrate our youngest grandgirl's birthday, as well as partake of some early familial Christmastime shenanigans. It's nice to reconnect with beloveds at this time of year, even if only for a few days. Makes all the difference in the world when we go our separate ways, as we all invariably do. When we left Silicon Valley for Humboldt County, there was a compromise. The traffic pictured above was happily jettisoned for California's quiet North Coast. For a small town vibe amid several not tiny enclaves that make up the Fortuna/Eureka/Arcata/McKinleyville corridor along U.S. Route 101. That's where we call home, a Redwood tree-lined mish-mash of locales and folks, banana slugs and brown slugs, deer and other critters. We've lived there now for three years and I LOVE IT. I really do. I also adore my children and grandkids, and none of them live anywhere remotely close. Remote i...

Slippers my grandsons left behind. Not long after my most recent post, I accidentally hit the create new post button. I titled it Not sure yet because of course there would be another post, written at a more opportune moment. In the middle of a family bash, most of my focus was on relatives and party details, and I can happily say the festivities were phenomenal! We haven't thrown a wing-ding like that in ages, nor at our still new-ish residence, which for many guests was their first time visiting. My husband certainly felt the love, many hands made for light work, and I got to play heaps of card games with the grandkids and others who appreciate Crazy 8's and Go Fish. By eight p.m. last night however I was TOAST. Partying hard in one's late fifties is...hilarious, in that I required a cup of caffeinated tea at lunch yesterday and still went to be before eight thirty. While I slept well, I've been awake for, um, a good while, and despite the mostly clear sky, admiring ...

  It's a quiet moment, all guest in the house asleep. The above shot was taken at 5.15 a.m. today, although it's not cold outside, fifty-one degrees Fahrenheit. Which is MARVELOUS for a clear night in nearly mid-November. Amid party prep, we wondered what kind of weather would greet the festivities, and so far it's been SPECTACULAR, as have been the reunions and revelries. No rain in sight and so many embraces, peals of laughter, appreciative gestures and surprise gifts, two of which were for me, hehehe. My youngest sister brought a painting our mom had done of Dad, as well as a blanket I made for him. Those treasures joined a couple of pieces of furniture delivered, tables made from a redwood slab the previous owner of our home left for us four years ago. We've been living here for a little over forty-eight months, and now my husband is sixty, and in hosting a collection of our nearest and dearest, perhaps this house is now fully integrated into the familial.... I can...