Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of the year and the last day of a decade. Everywhere are lists of the best and worst of the last 10 years – the best movies, books, YouTube videos, websites, actors and actresses, food and television shows. Who puts these lists together? Some days I can’t remember the previous 24 hours, let alone the last 10 years. But that’s a function of age, isn’t it?

Thinking about it, though, it might be more a function of how much the average person sees, hears and reads these days. Technology has so greatly increased the amount of information we get on a daily basis that at times it is at overload level. I like that explanation better than the one where I’m getting old and the memory lapse is a “senior moment.”

I can look ahead more easily and 2010 looms large on the horizon. Every year I like to choose a new subject to learn. One year was languages – I chose Italian. (It helped that I was living in Rome.) Another year was cooking – got that down pretty well. I wouldn’t give myself the title of Chef but I can put together some tasty dishes.

This year I’m going for a subject that I deftly evaded as much as possible in school - the physical sciences. It seems like a great topic inasmuch as the environment is a constant source of news, and physics is, well, the theme of one of my favorite TV shows, The Big Bang Theory. I hope to get some inkling of what Sheldon is talking about.

I’m starting by reading Einstein, His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson. Not light beach reading but perfect for the cold winter days ahead. I want to learn about this man with the brilliant mind.

The book opens – and I’ll close – with a passage from a letter that Albert Einstein wrote to his son Eduard, in 1930:

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

And so I shall.

Happy New Year!

First snow!

We have our first snow.

The ground is warm so the streets are still clear but the grassy areas and trees are beginning to be covered and it looks so pretty.

Such a wonderful gift from Mother Nature.

I Won!

A few entries back I wrote about a visit to a local fabric store. I loved that they offered a chance to win a gift certificate in lieu of taking a bag with a purchase. Going green is a good thing.

For them and for me, apparently, because late on October 31st my phone rang and it was the store owner. You, she told me, have won the $10.00 gift certificate for this month.

Cool. Quite cool.

Just because....

Just because today is a rainy and dreary day, and because all of the leaves are falling from the trees, here's a photo of the final harvest from the garden. Just wanted to share.

Discoveries in the Garden

There’s a certain sadness in clearing out the garden at the end of the growing season. All of the hard work that went into the tilling of the soil, the planting of the young seedlings and the bending that the weeding required is now a memory. There’s a sense of loss as the last of the fresh tomatoes are picked, with the small green ones that can’t be used left on the wilted vines for the neighborhood critters to eat. That smell that envelops the gardener, standing in the middle of the tall, leafy plants, could be bottled and sold, it being such a heady and inviting aroma. Now the smell is gone, replaced by clear, crisp autumn air. Ahh. The garden of the summer of 2009 is no more.

But with that sadness come some intriguing discoveries that mirror the patterns of life and give pause to consider our own situations. Because there, waiting to grow full, are the plants that were lost as other plants became overgrown with all of the rain and had invaded their space. The garlic chives had waited patiently as the leggy salad tomatoes had topped them, taking their sun and slurping their water. Now that the tomatoes were gone and the sun and air were theirs, they smiled in full advantage. Take us, they beckoned. Take us for your next recipe. We make cannelloni more spectacular a dish than even you can imagine.

The blue flowers that started with an impulse purchase of a package of seeds for a plant I’d never grown were now standing tall next to the chives. Under all of those tomato vines, the Blue Enchantment had spread to make a small carpet of lush, green, pointed leaves. Petite blue, yellow and white flowers were now greeting the morning light.

So go the paths we often take. Some times we take a back seat to another – a spouse, child, friend or colleague, so that they can reach their goals. We are the supportive structure that gives them the opportunity to grown in their own sun, to be nourished with words and actions, just as the plants are nourished by the water. Until one day, when they have achieved and they move aside, allowing us the chance to flourish. All of that time, we have been waiting until the leaves and vines and ripened fruit are gone and now we stand tall, reaching for the morning light and showing that we, too, can make our life one spectacular dish that even the best chef cannot imagine.

Going Green with a Wedding Request

Just a week ago, my sister-in-law called me with a request. Could I make a ring bearer pillow for her nephew's wedding, she asked. Seems the bride had been shopping and didn't love what she saw so they thought I might be able to help. I said yes, of course, anticipating the fun I'd have as I did my best Project Runway imitation. Send in Tim Gunn, I thought, and I'll show him I can "make it work!"

Two days later, I received an email. Can you make another for a second young ring bearer, it asked. Sure, I said. So I got to work.

Why write about it here? Two reasons. First is that I've been on a mission to declutter my house and I'd be able to use fabric and ribbon and lace that was already taking up space in my sewing boxes. And second, because when I went to the fabric store to pick up one more piece of ribbon I experienced a "go green moment."

I paid for the ribbon - the beautiful wedgewood blue seen above - and the woman selling it asked me if I wanted a bag. When I said yes, she told me that if I didn't take a bag, I could fill out a small raffle ticket and have a chance to win a $10.00 gift certificate to the store. Of course I then declined the bag because who couldn't carry a small piece of ribbon and I could win a prize.

What a great idea for a small retailer where customers generally don't bring their own fabric shopping bags. All of that money saved on buying paper bags that would end up in a recycling pile or worse, in the trash, or on plastic bags that would carry their negative environmental impact. And I'll think about that fabric shop first when I need to make another purchase. Which, given the yards and yards of fabric and the many notions that I have, may not be for awhile. Unless there's another wedding request. But hey, Halloween is rapidly approaching and that means costumes!

The pillows were finished and given to the groom's mom today. Tomorrow Pat and Anna take their vows, a young couple just beginning their married life. To them go all best wishes for a joyous day and a wonderful future.

A Sunny Afternoon at Field Hockey

One of the greatest pleasures I have is spending an afternoon watching my nieces play field hockey. One of them is in high school and the other in middle school, both schools that I also attended. I played field hockey in middle school but turned all my attention to my swimming after that. I was a pretty good player but I loved the camraderie of my team and friends more than anything.

What strikes me now, so many years after I played on the forward line, is how many more opportunities there are for these young women to pursue their athletic careers in college. When I graduated from high school, there were no athletic scholarships available for girls. A fellow member of my swim team was an All-American in her events and a state champion but no college recruiters came calling for her to attend their schools. She was an excellent student and received a small academic scholarship to a local college but it always felt like she should be getting more.

Less than 10 years later, the landscape had dramatically changed. Now I watched as my young cousin, an outstanding swimmer, received a full 4-year scholarship to an NCAA Division I school. She deserved it - getting up at dawn and into the pool as most were drinking their first coffees, undergoing knee surgery and being back in the pool in record time, getting good grades in class and setting records in the water. She joined thousands of graduating high school seniors who would be able to continue their education and enjoy their sports.

Just recently, as I stood with parents and friends on the sidelines watching the varsity high school ladies playing, everything came full circle. My brother - dad of my niece - remarked that one of the players on the opposing team had signed with a Division I school to play on a scholarship, and several others were being recruited. My niece has her eyes on an Ivy League school to play lacrosse or field hockey (or both) and we discussed what she'd have to do for her grades to get there because there are no athletic scholarships and oh, by the way, her high school lacrosse coach is back there watching and he's quite impressed with her play. One of her teammates, also an outstanding hockey and soccer player, and high jumper, is collecting her information for college with an eye to scholarships as well.

Wow. What an awesome feeling to watch these young ladies work so hard and have the potential for those kinds of rewards. How far it has come from the days when my middle school field hockey teammates and I wore matching braided headbands and when my high school swim team suit was so baggy that I could have fit another 1/2 of me there! (No full body suits, no lycra there!)

These are definitely Pink Power Slipper moments and I believe I'll have to go find a pair of pink hockey spikes. Size 9, please.

One year to declutter, Part I.

For my recent birthday I gifted myself with this effort. One year. Why? For me, the moment came after I'd watched the umpteenth cable TV show devoted to clutter. Rather, their message was to declutter. Had it not been for the myriad of TV shows that implored me to clean up, clean out and have a better life - and who could resist the allure of a better life - the hundreds of things that I've accumulated over the years would still be safe in their special nooks and crannies.

It might have happened when I realized that my dry skin needed some lotion and, when I went to grab a bottle, found that I had a choice of more than a few. There was lotion with aloe and lotion that would tan me; lotion that promised firmer skin, smelled like an ocean breeze, that contained a lovely green tint to minimize redness, and more. How did I get all of this lotion? And how much money did I spend to buy these products that were now accumulating like watered gremlins after dark?

My urge to declutter could have been the result of looking through my birthday card stash and realizing that I'd have to wade through hundreds of greeting cards for all occasions among the postcards gathered from trips around the world. Some of these cards were, gulp, more than 20 years old. Had I really lugged them from my mom's house to several apartments to my house for that long? Did I even know enough people to send these to?

I breathed a heavy sigh and looked around. I was sitting at my desk and it too, had lots of things that included hand lotion (more...) and at least one thousand pencils. Exaggerating that point; it just seemed like there were 1000 pencils. Maybe only 200 and so I decided to count.

I laid all of the contents of my Animaniacs pencil holder onto the table and neatly arrayed the pencils, pens and markers side by side. I laid out regular pencils and ones with color - green, purple and gray. There were thin tipped markers, sharpies and even two with metallic gold and silver inks. Not to miss anything, I took two more pencil holders from the other desk. The first one was a yellow ceramic mug extolling the virtues of lawyers, the other a conservative leather navy blue with gold trim from a fancy desk set. Their contents joined the others already on the table.

I took a photo and pondered my next moves.

Coming next: Part II, Can Pencils Be Repurposed?

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The Magic

The slippers were purchased during a time when I was helping a good friend who was battling brain cancer. I was spending a lot of time at his house, helping him as counsel and manager of his company, and it was on one of the grocery runs for the household that I found them.

My friend's diagnosis was a very serious one that he faced with courage and strength but it was one that forced physical and mental changes on him. Nevertheless, he never let his humor and charm go away. They were the parts of his character that endeared him to people. Well, that and the athletic prowess and fierce competitiveness that put him in the spotlight.

The magic of the slippers was more about what they meant than what they looked like. They were comfort at a time when illness and uncertainty were present. Wearing them brought a feeling of power, like things could be fixed. Wearing them was just fun because they were the go-to shoes! I'd purchased three pair and shared them with friends, and since one of the women was around the house as well, there were often two of us wearing the slippers. It was a shared secret that these were the "pink power slippers."

Throughout several months, before my friend lost his battle with his disease, the slippers were an omnipresent part of the household. After he passed, my slippers came home with me. A less than perfect pink, with worn soles and matted fur. I kept them for awhile and looking at them brought back both happy and poignant memories. I missed my friend and mourned his loss - still do - but having those around for awhile brought a smile. They are gone now, worn to a point they all but fell apart, but they left a lasting impression. They had worked their magic.

Welcome!

Who knew what one pair of pink fuzzy slippers could do?

I saw them in a bin at the Acme, a local grocery store where I'd gone to pick up a few items for dinner. They were pink and fuzzy slip-ons and they were on sale for $3.99. I'm not much of a bargain shopper and don't like prowling stores and hunting through racks of clothes to find something at a low price. I know some women, and have friends, who love the thrill of the hunt to find the perfect outfit at a price that can only be described as a steal and more power to them. That's just not me.

But I do like it when a bargain is put right in front of me where I can easily spot it and the item is one that speaks to me. That's what happened in the Acme that day. There they were, the slippers, in an open mesh wire bin at the end of the aisle with aspirin and other pain relievers. You know that section in the grocery store: impulse buy items galore. The slippers were a pretty, girly pink. I reached in, found my size and thought, "I'm going to give these a try."

Size large to fit my size nine foot. I slid my socked foot in. Like the ruby slippers for Dorothy, these had an instant connection for me. I knew they were fun and I knew they felt good. I just didn't know what they would come to mean for me.

I took them home and the magic began.