..and the Creek don't rise....

Honest Work Series                                                 Til'  Harvest                                                                              c- 2011

…and the Creek don’t rise…..

We returned on Sunday from a whirlwind road trip to Taos and back in just a few days. It was a dream of ours to all be together and there were times in very recent memory that we wondered out loud if it would ever happen. It happened !!

 Astute map planning cut many hours off of an already long trip. We were blessed with a reliable automobile, clear skies, beautiful stars, planets, a few meteors and a really nice ¾ moon as we drove on and on throughout the darkness. Lowel George’s “Willin” came easily to me as we passed certain towns and the numerous trucks on the way.

I love road trips.

Daytime is preferred but given the holiday and the fact that we had children with us the evening travel made the most sense. As we drove through some of the most sparsely populated parts of this country I was reminded of what a young country we are and how we have thrived beyond what could have ever been imagined just a few generations before.

We were originally a country of risk takers and dreamers. I’m not so sure anymore “what” we are but the risk takers and dreamers seem few and far between. As we passed thousands of acres of cattle ranches and various farms I was reminded that it was these industries that kept this part of the world going for hundreds of years. We soon passed the huge wind farms in Lubbock and my admiration for dreamers and risk takers resurfaced again.  Blessed are the "can-do" men / women.

We were greeted in Taos with open arms and the hospitality was overwhelming. The kids immediately went to work catching up on the current hierarchy and the novelty of having a new little fella around. Sisters Sistered, Men got to work in the kitchen and Edy was in her glory as her brood flourished. A collective sigh could be heard as we all sat together. WOW, We did it !! This is one for the wall paintings in our Village. A valuable lesson for generations to come.

I was also reminded that it was just four years ago that Saffron was hatched around another Thanksgiving Table. It’s a dream I still hold, but as of today it’s not found a place to root despite many false starts.  If this gathering has shown us anything it is that if it meant to be – it will be...............when the time is right.

Before we knew it, it was time to retrace our route back to Texas. The ride was mellow with more good talks all around. Kids slept and before we knew it we were back, road buzz and all.

Today was our first day back to yoga for a week. Aside from stiffness from sitting in a car for 30+ hours and too much rich food, the class was just what I needed. After I showered and came back out into the waiting room I overheard a discussion between and instructor and Edy about how things are never the same after beginning yoga as a practice. Boy could I relate to that! It’s not that any kind of judgment needs to be placed on that statement it has more to do with additional perspective and awareness’s than it does with anything else. I’ll call it the 1^st law of yoga. Hold on and Let Go !

 This year is not over yet but it sure has been a doozie. Plans and certainties of the first of the year shifted by the 2^nd quarter and have been shifting ever since in an almost blinding slideshow. Nothing feels certain and any hope of sure footing seems impossible. It’s also not been cataclysmic in its shifting although it sure feels like it could be. It’s been more like physical, emotional, spiritual  and professional tectonic plates moving around to find another pre-ordained alignment. It’s pretty darned exciting sometimes when it’s not so scary. I am so grateful we all get the chance to witness each other as we progress through our individual and collective evolution. It’s a vulnerability I am not at all used to but it does feel right and God Wilin' ; I’m certainly “Willin" and ready for the next.....

      

Times of Plenty

Times of Plenty

Seasonal change in the south is subtle, very subtle. Slight variations in hue, fluffy seed pods, and St. Augustine Grass slowly fading toward tans. We missed a lot of this subtlety last year because of the draught, whereby all we saw from one winter to the next was a lot of brown and dry.

One of the most interesting things that has come about as a result of last year’s devastating draught is the abundance of seeds, nuts and fruit produced by the surviving trees. If one had no idea that the draught occurred they might assume that his is a “normal crop”. Of course this is not the case.

It would be a simple task for the city to gather up a small portion of these and just cover them with soil to replace the 5MM+ trees that were lost last summer. It won’t happen but it’s nice to think it could. Shoot we have 5MM in out block alone to start with. Then there is the whole revenue stream and job creation thing but I try not to dip my toe in those waters any more.

Another fun part of this time of year is that some of these “seeds” happen to be pecans. I first found a few last month while riding in a neighborhood I rarely ride through and then today Edy and I passed a “mother -load” and gathered some which I  just got through candying for snacks.

The recipe was one I “invented” when I was in 6^th grade after I stumbled upon another “mother-load” while climbing on the roof of our apartment building.  I collected three shopping bags of them and devised a grand plan of becoming the next “Stucky’s”.   The shelling of 1/6^th of one bag tempered these dreams a bit but I used up all the Glad Bags we had in the house and took them (raw-unshelled) to school and sold them for 25 cents a bag. Big bucks in the late 60’s, I assure you.  I experimented with my candy recipe some more and tried to do a caramel/chocolate thing (I later learned they were called turtles) which became mush and gooey on the way to school and settled on a pecan brittle type thing with cinnamon.  I have no idea how I came up with the recipe but am sure a lot of experimentation took place. What is even more amazing is that I remembered it all these years later as well as the “art of shelling”.

Anyway, “back in the day” I soon found that I could get 25 cents for 6 candied pecans where my bags held 30+/- whole pecans. I did the math and it turned out to be a thriving business for about a week until the school found out and told me to stop. It then turned into a black market operation for a bit more with folks meeting me after school and “doing a deal”.  Like many consumer items this one faded from the spotlight due partially to seasonal availability and more importantly customer saturation. The novelty had worn off.  

 

It was a very important lesson.   

 

 

Don't Look Back

Sought Relection in 1984 after creating Reganomics and other assorted follies - He was relected because the other guy was a putz (Mondale) ...............So, who is really still running the show here folks ???  .........REALLY ??

Don’t Look Back

There are milestones and then there are milestones. Today happens to be one that makes me shake my head in wonder and offer up an extra hooray of gratitude for life and ALL that goes with it. There are many times when I feel the need to judge a moment in time as good or bad but it’s days like these that let me remember what a truly bad day is and let any judgments about what IS go as quickly as possible.

28 years ago today, in 1984 Reagan was president seeking another term and I was sitting in a chair in Upstate New York wondering what the heck I had done with my life?  I was 27 years old and had already achieved a lot of outside successes as well as having experienced some truly dismal failures; that chair being one of them, or so I thought at the time.  At that moment I knew that all my tomorrows were going to be like my yesterdays and even though I was not even 30 years old yet, I was already a has been.  It was a bad day.

I learned a lot over the next twenty eight days about the definition of a disease, co-dependence, soul sickness and grace. I left there feeling that I had no clue what was going to happen next, but whatever it was – I’d be ok, of this I was absolutely certain.

I found out much later that people are actually born with this inner knowing. There were so many of those epiphanies over the next several years that I stopped counting and just re-programmed everything I thought I knew and spent most of those years shaking my head saying out loud ……“Oh my, that too?”.

Over the years, I’ve met thousands of folks who also suffer from the same “affliction”. From the upper crust 1 %ers to guys in Maximum Security at a State Penn. It’s an equal opportunity disease that spares no one, regardless of income level or address.  In fact some of the guys in Max WERE 1%ers at one time. Back in my day they gave a success rate of less than 10% for folks obtaining remission. Today I think it is even less.

Like everything else I do in life I dove in to the new life with all I had and never looked back. I approached my new life with Bushido  as I felt I was now at war.  Also, as a big 007 fan, I remember thinking “hey”.....You Only Live Twice, and put the pedal to the metal. There seemed to be a huge sense of urgency to make up for lost time and I worked like crazy to build or more accurately re-build dreams I lost while off-track. The promises they promised me came true in spades and on the outside things were looking pretty fine and dandy. I was graced and did not even know it.

Then folks around me started dying. Dying from the disease itself and from the many off-shoot forms of mutation it takes on. These were some of my very closest friends, confidents and support team members. This rocked my world to its core and set be back on my butt. I asked one of my senior mentors “what the heck was going on here?, this just isn’t right”. “Davey, ma-boy” he said “This is a killer, don’t you forget it. and never, NEVER let your guard down because it’s not about the stuff you put in you, It’s Life, LIFE is waiting for you to drop your guard”….”Crap” I said “really”?.....”Life on Life’s Terms Davey, Not YOURS”, (bless you George P).

Over the years those words and many others like them float in and out of my brain during high times and low times. What seems like a huge victory is often revealed as a major folly and conversely what feels like the worst thing ever turns out to be a springboard for something joyful beyond comprehension (cue “the chair” in the 2nd paragraph and a thousand other things).     A lot of life has gone under the bridge over these past decades, some of it I’ve accepted as it came along, other parts I have fought with all my might until I surrendered and cried “uncle”.

One of the most wonderful and unexpected gifts of this past year has been a complete transformation and resurrection of my body. I am healthier now that I have EVER been. Even when I ran nine miles a day in my early 20’s I was not in the shape I am in today after only ten months of Bikram yoga. I am amazed at this. The other is my relationship with Edy and all we have gleaned in 2012. There is way too much to put into a post like this but suffice it to say it is deeper and wider than anything I ever knew existed in this life to date.

For a guy who made sure his life was arranged with certainty and nice little ducks in a row for years, these past several years of fearless exploration, risk, adventure and creation have been the most exciting yet. Scary as anything but exciting, very exciting! I have no clue how any of this will turn out,  but I do know it’s all going to be OK, of this I am certain..........................just Don’t Look Back