THE NOW

New Year’s Eve; traditional time for reflection, resolutions and taking stock. I try to keep myself focused on the present, in the moment, on the Now as Eckhart Tolle says. After they start paying you to stay away from work, if you wait for the culture to point the way or throw you a line you can fall off the cart altogether, on the fast track to irrelevance. So I ask myself what is important to me, right now. As soon as I get an answer, that’s what I act on. I’ll ask myself again in a few hours. Ironically, that’s what we should all be doing, young to old. But Tolle was right when he wrote his little book and nothing has changed. All I’ve ever had to work with is the Now and I still have that. 

2014 was good. I finished with good health, family, good friends and enough to pay my bills. I covered a lot of miles, gave my passport some exercise and captured a few great photographs. There were speed bumps and a tumble or two but you don’t get redo’s; I won’t mull over it. 2015 has a loose schedule but schedules have a way of morphing into something else. My daughter and I have seats reserved on a river raft for the end of August. We ran away from home, the two of us, in June of ’89. Everybody else in the family had jobs and we saw the writing on the wall. If we stayed home we would be mowing grass and cleaning house all summer. So we threw bikes and sleeping bags in the pickup and headed for the west coast. Together, we discovered the Grand Canyon. You may have seen the movie and heard the stories but you can’t experience it vicariously. We promised ourselves that someday, we would float the Colorado from top to bottom. I was there four years ago with my granddaughter; realized if we were going to float, it had to be soon. This is the year. 

The Now has me in Baton Rouge for the New Year and I’ll work on celebrating some bubbly at midnight. The Grand is too far out for me to give it much thought. Tomorrow will be high priority when it becomes the NOW, and the day after that as well. But the morning I find myself on the beach at Lee’s Ferry, AZ and we are packing our dry bags onto the raft, it will be the only thing on my mind. 

I collect quotes; not a bad way to close out the blog for 2014. Most quotes are too long for me and either cliche or clever word play. But some are worth keeping. These are favorites.

“What day is it?”

“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

“My favorite day,” said Pooh.

A.A. Milne

 “Do not dwell in the past nor dream of the future.                                                    Concentrate on the present moment.”

Buddha

12/21/14

Holiday atmosphere had been dampened by several days of low clouds and rain. But 12/21 has nice symmetry, maybe a little mojo working. Sunday was the only day my kids and their kids could rendezvous for food and gift exchanges and we jumped on the opportunity. Had we costumes, one might have mistaken the table for a medieval feast. Grapes and cherries, cheese, veggies, chips and dip; chile substituted for roast pig and we used spoons. After gifts were opened we settled in for a board game that had everyone drawing cards to find out what kind of ridiculous act they had to perform in front of the others. We had to set ground rules about smart phone videos and what could be posted on Facebook. 

Back on 12/21/12, it was an altogether different celebration. In Dayton, Ohio, we celebrated a wedding. My oldest son Pete and my 2 now, going on 3 year daughter said their, ”I Do’s.” We got to talk on the phone with them last night as they marked their 2nd anniversary. We talked to our daughter/sister in Alaska as well. Her birthday, just a long week earlier was still fresh in our celebrating. 

When I got home the rain had let up but the patio was still wet. I gathered scrap wood from a barrel in the basement and built a mini-bonfire in the chiminea. Sitting in front of the fire, I watched flames leap out of the stack, sparks rising and disappearing in the dark. 12/21 is winter solstice; has been since they adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Solstice must be the earliest, most enduring celebration in the history of human-kind. I love it. The longest night of the year signals longer days, more sunlight and the promise of warmer weather. The warmer weather takes a while, like 4 months but the promise is something you can hang onto. It will happen. From their cave-condos, our ancestors associated longer hours of daylight, even by a few minutes; before they knew what a minute was, with the return of warm weather. 

In Great Britain, Pagan Druids worshiped trees and burned logs in sacrifice on that longest night of the year. Out of that tradition came the Yule Log. Decorating trees and the Yule Log were later incorporated into Christian tradition, a way to help assimilate pagans into the new, Roman religion. So I sing, “Silent Night” and, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” in keeping with the new. I also build a bonfire on the longest night, in keeping with the old. 

PLAN FOR THE DAY

My plan for the day was to mat and frame some photographs for a show I’m hanging in the spring. I’ve never done that before and I need help. Today my helper couldn’t make it so we rescheduled for another day. I called a friend and asked if he would help me size the gallery space, come up with the ideal number of pieces and frame sizes to best fit the room. So imagine two little old men with tape measures and sketchpad, fumbling around the gallery. Straight out, it was reminiscent of an old, Laurel & Hardy movie. We arranged empty frames up against blank panels and debated the merits of here or there, large or small, vertical or horizontal. After a couple of hours, we had a new plan. It looks like 23 pieces, plus or minus; and three different sizes. I love it when I have a plan. I never stick to the plan but it’s nice to know there is one. 

I’ve known Nelson since 2008; we go to the same church. We both have kids in Alaska and we teamed up on a big road trip. We drove my daughter’s car to Washington then took it on the boat, up the inland passage. He flew back after a week or so and I stayed in Anchorage for a couple of months. I hadn’t seen him recently; I was down on the gulf coast for thanksgiving and he was in N.Y. for the Macy’s Parade. His career was all about how crop insurance should work in 3rd world countries and mine was about teenagers and the difference between momentum and inertia. He is a good friend. 

It was lunch time when we finished and the weather today was unbelievable, Here it is, warm and sunny in mid December. We both wanted to eat outside as the weather will surely close down soon, leaving us to sit in a booth next to a window and watch winter go by. So we landed at a little sandwich shop on the Country Club Plaza. It’s a high end shopping district, built in the 20’s, with Spanish architecture and pricy shops. I had a salad and he got a sandwich. Our table was in a sunny corner, out of the wind. I have forgotten what we talked about but I always do. 

Nelson wanted to walk for a while, for exercise and to look in the shops. A young woman with dark, pulled back hair and full, rosy cheeks was stationed by the door of her store. It was a tea place. That’s it. They sold tea and tea pots. She had a couple of tea urns and lots of small cups for samples. While I was sipping my Orang Blossom tea, she updated me on the wonders of their exotic product. She said the sweetener was all natural and unprocessed. I asked if she had to go to Nepal to learn about unprocessed sweeteners. Nepal is after all, where Tea Gods dwell. She told me no, that her cohort standing beside us, shaking tea out of one large tin into smaller tins had trained her. So I asked her boss if she had been to Nepal to learn the tea trade. She laughed and I sipped a second sample. I spent eight dollars on two ounces of Orange Blossom tea, sampling another cup as I went out the door. I’ll make a point to drink some tea before the new year or, its aroma is so nice I could use it for a potpourri. 

I’ve got a new wood shop project going on in the basement that requires rabbets and dados. I belong to the Kansas City Woodworkers Guild. They have a world class work shop with top of the line power tools.  I go there when I need powerful, precision equipment or someone over my shoulder, telling me either, “No, not like that,” or, “yes, you got it.” That’s my plan for tomorrow. My holiday greetings are stuffed in their envelopes and stamped, ready to go. I’ll probably wait another day or two before I send them on their way. 

IDLE

Thanks Giving came and went without a hitch. I made fish & shrimp tacos; halibut from Alaska and fresh, Gulf shrimp. Couldn’t be thankful though without cranberry sauce, (orange zest and pecans) and cornbread stuffing. Skipped all the football in favor of PBS. Louisiana: good food and music and I count on that. The Indian Pow Wow was way-cool. Spent a couple of days ratting around antique shops in Mississippi and am now sitting under a tin roof shelter house on the beach; Pensacola, FL.  My action on the computer is about all that is going on. Sun is starting to get low and gulls are all perched on their favorite pilings. Birds are great fliers but even better at conserving energy. They don’t fly unless it’s about food, sex or survival. Right now, they’re all happy to be idle. Except for the occasional acorn falling on the tin roof and shadows getting longer, one could make a case for suspended animation. 

A while ago, a guy was fishing with a cast net off the pier and a Great Blue Heron was shadowing him. I wanted to see how close I could get before it flew. Looking through my camera lens I started inching up on it; had to keep adjusting the zoom out to keep it all in frame. So close I thought I’d step on its foot and then a croak that sounded really insulting. Sounded like, “What in the #!!# do you want?” in Heron-ese. It opened up its wings and stroked twice, to the other side of the boardwalk. Not exactly wildlife photography. I’m on my way north tomorrow. I’ll miss 70’s and sunshine but If I plan right, it will be meal time when I get to Memphis.