Prayer for this week

The view from our room this week

Heavenly Father, in You we live and move and have our being. We humbly pray You so to guide and govern us by Your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget You, but may remember that we are ever walking in Your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

A Collect for Guidance
The Book of Common Prayer
 

Faith my eyes

So keep 'em coming these lines on the road

And keep me responsible be it a light or heavy load

And keep me guessing with these blessings in disguise

And I'll walk with grace my feet and faith my eyes

*Lyrics from Faith My Eye's by Caedmon's Call

Sisters

The Friday Clive

"Humans live in time...therefore...attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself and to...the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity...in it alone freedom and actuality are offered."

Debate: One last time

It's hard to remember that summer is fast approaching as I reach for another sweater and see raindrops pouring off the patio umbrella.  I do live in California, don't I?

The signs of summer begin to wash ashore, though.  And the bridge between the school year and summer is a debate grand finale.  Rex will debate with and against his good friends for the last time in his high school career.  I will get to visit with some of my closest friends, and through it all we will get way too little sleep.

I guarantee that more than once I will wonder why we do this crazy, expensive, exhausting life.  And then I will listen to a student deliver an interpretive speech on The Elephant Man that makes me cry, and it will begin to make sense.  As a fifteen-year-old girl talks about her love of Africa and her heart for the poor, I will be grateful to be challenged by a younger (and wiser) woman.  I will watch Rex debate and think, "There is a lot going right in this world."  And as I am tempted to fall asleep during the award ceremony, my body unable to handle being awake for one more minute, I will no longer be asking why.  The answer will be in the faces of the students filling the rows of seats, ordinary kids who have chosen to do extraordinary work. 

Speech and debate...it's a good place to be.

Napa: Phase Three (The foodie details)

The French Laundry, Yountville, California

No, we didn't eat at the French Laundry.  But we did wander around the incredible gardens across the street, and we did some lurking and snooping to see if we could make a Thomas Keller sighting at the afternoon event in the courtyard.  Some say we were unsuccessful, but I think the guy in the blue shirt might have been him.

The next night we made our way back to Yountville, no thanks to the bizarre road construction stops ("No more than fifteen minute wait") at several seemingly random locations on the back roads.  Thanks to clever changing techniques in the back seat, we arrived only ten minutes late for our much-anticipated culinary treat at

- for temporary relief of hunger -

Thomas Keller's family style restaurant is at the other end of Washington Street.  I can't imagine creating the masterpieces that are served so perfectly at The French Laundry, but the food at ad hoc is incredible AND home menu worthy. Highly recommended:  Ad Hoc at Home.  The melted onions are worth the price of the tome.

It was good to have a food enthusiast friend with me.  John loves food, don't get me wrong.  Fortunately for me he considers a timely delivered grilled cheese sandwich to be heaven sent, but the subtleties of pixie mandarins and carnaroli risotto are a little lost on him (although, if the word "garlic" is included, his ears perk up.)   

A four course meal, ad hoc style:


First course:  Salad.

Really tasty roasted garlic (John:  "Garlic?") vinaigrette, and the toasted almonds were perfect.  I wish I knew what was different about them. A piece of tuna (yum!)  There were anchovies.  I ate one.  For the first time in my life (and maybe the last.)  I thought they looked like lizards.  This is not a compliment.  The dressing and the almonds made this a win.







Second course:  Main dish.

Veal with carnaroli risotto, peas and carrots.  Risotto is on my short list of things to learn to cook well.


An extra main dish:  Pork Belly.  The mustardy sauce and pine nuts, combined with such flavorful meat, were the best. 




Third course:  The cheese course.

Leonora ("From the dry, arid hills northwest of Madrid comes this large brick of soft, cakey goat’s milk cheese that will dazzle your palate with bright grass and lemon flavors. The crusty, natural rind makes a beautiful contrast with the pure white interior.")  Served with with cherry compote and crostini, but also with honey that we drizzled on the cheese.

If you are at my next dinner party, expect a cheese course.  It was lovely.






Fourth course:  Dessert.

Slices of chocolate cake and scoops of cinnamon walnut ice cream.  I'm not a great fan of cake or ice cream, but they were good.







An espresso for the driving home garlic lover, and the long-awaited meal was over.  It was a generous gift from dear friends, it was a night to remember.








Lessons learned:
Napa Valley Casual = wear whatever you want.
Anchovies = no thanks.
Cheese course = as often as possible.
ad hoc = temporary relief of hunger and so much more.

"When we eat together, when we set out to do so deliberately, life is better, no matter your circumstances.  Whether it's a sad or difficult time, whether it's an ordinary-seeming day, or whether it's a time of celebration, our lives are enriched when we share meals together."                                                       Thomas Keller, from ad hoc at home. 

Napa: Phase Two

There's no longer any doubt in my mind about the beauty of Napa in the spring.  The vines are bright green, straight and endless and everywhere.  The stone buildings, the dark wood barn doors, the roses lined up at the edge of the fields, the mounds of blooming lavender...it is one gasp of beauty after another.

Wineries are beautiful places, too.  Comfortable seating, gorgeous landscape, friendly smiles and good wine. 

Little did we know when we arrived in Yountville on Thursday that our first stop would be the highlight, the standard to meet, the "you won the lottery" winery of the trip.  Hope and Grace lived up to its name:  Matthew was a gifted tasting guru, the cafe table in the courtyard provided us with seating for long conversation and a selection of unbelievably good wine.  We even enjoyed the companionship of a beautiful winery dog:  Romeo.

 Romeo, waiting for Juliet?

We walked, we sat, we solved problems, we told stories, we commiserated, we rejoiced, we wondered, and we laughed a lot. 

And that is the best kind of beautiful.

We savored the fellowship, down to the very last drop.

Napa: Phase One

Napa was heavenly.  It was blue sky after the rain, marriage retreat, fellowship binge and wine/foodie tasting all folded into two contented days.

I never seem to remember how good it is for us to drive away together.  We should probably get in the car and drive more often.  Destination is unimportant...time in the car is priceless.  And so we drove as the sun rose, leaving everyone sleeping at home.  We listened to David Sanborn, we talked and listened, we even talked about really hard things that we disagree about; it was time we needed and we are the better for taking it.

Oxbow Public Market, specifically Ritual Coffee Roasters, provided the perfect cup of espresso, twice.

Cup number one was outside by the river and under the shimmering canopy of bright blue sky.  We were serenaded by an extremely extroverted song bird, it was a little chilly (just the right amount of chilly) and we were all by ourselves.  Occasionally an obviously-on-their-way-to-work person would march purposefully by with their game face on, and we were the smirking, shirking, no-job-to-race-to couple that just kept staring at the blue sky and sipping and talking as long as we wanted to.

We weren't done talking when the chill soaked into our bones, so we moved inside.  I loved the golden walls, the unusual light fixtures, the open feel of the marketplace.  The smells of spices and pastries and coffee and tea mingled together to make the perfect ambiance.  

I expected Napa to make me uncomfortable.  The high prices, the celebrity status of the place, the glamour of it all isn't really my style.  Yes, we are Fairplay Wine Snobs.  But on this Thursday morning, a work day with regulars chatting over cups of coffee and pastries, the feeling was of a beautiful, normal neighborhood.  I felt very much at home.

 

Americano:  $2.95

Worth every penny.

We could have strolled back to the car, hand-in-hand, and headed back to Placerville to face life again.  It was that good.  But we didn't.  Well, we strolled back to the car hand-in-hand, but instead of going home we went up the hill, above downtown Napa, and we found the cottage that was the vacation place for friends.

It was time for the feast of fellowship, wine and food, games and laughter.  More on that tomorrow.

The Friday Clive

"The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are."

Leaving at dawn

Sometimes, in the midst of the hard and the tedious, there's a break.

We're skipping town as the sun rises this morning, meandering down to the valley and across the western hills to the Napa Valley.

We plan to linger over coffee and take it slow.  I am looking forward to the chance to think and speak and listen, all without being interrupted by the swirl of home life.

But once the day gets going, we're heading to see some out of town friends who are in Napa for a 50th birthday celebration.  It's hard to get time together when you live on opposite coasts, but we'll make up for lost time with wine tasting, speed scrabble and dinner at Thomas Keller's ad hoc restaurant. Excited? Oh, just a bit.

A break.  Just what the doctor ordered.

Phew.

Thoughts on love from The Brothers Karamazov

"Above all, avoid falsehood, every kind of falsehood, especially falseness to yourself. Watch over your own deceitfulness and look into it every hour, every minute. Avoid being scornful, both to others and to yourself. What seems to you bad within you will grow purer from the very fact of your observing it in yourself. Avoid fear, too, though fear is only the consequence of every sort of falsehood. Never be frightened at your own faint-heartedness in attaining love. Don’t be frightened overmuch even at your evil actions. I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labour and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science. But I predict that just when you see with horror that in spite of all your efforts you are getting farther from your goal instead of nearer to it-at that very moment I predict that you will reach it and behold clearly the miraculous power of the Lord who has been all the time loving and mysteriously guiding you."

The reading life

From the book flap (which is as far as I have gotten):

Cultural commentators are up in arms about the decline of reading in America.  Americans are not reading enough, they say, or not reading the right books in the right way.


Alan Jacobs argues that reading is alive and well in America.

Susan Wise Bauer on the state of reading in the 21st century:

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

The Friday Clive

It is easy to acknowledge, but almost impossible to realize for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us. Surely we must have a little, however little, native luminosity? Surely we can't be quite creatures? Grace substitutes a full, childlike and delighted acceptance of our Need, a joy in total dependence. We become 'jolly beggars'.

~C. S. Lewis

Billy Collins (1941- )

I Ask You


What scene would I want to be enveloped in
more than this one,
an ordinary night at the kitchen table,
floral wallpaper pressing in,
white cabinets full of glass,
the telephone silent,
a pen tilted back in my hand?


It gives me time to think
about all that is going on outside--
leaves gathering in corners,
lichen greening the high grey rocks,
while over the dunes the world sails on,
huge, ocean-going, history bubbling in its wake.

To read the rest, see I Ask You at Poem Hunter.

 

Thinking of my dear mother on this first Mother's Day without her. Missing her laughter, her wisdom, her love.  Grateful for the years we had.

A mom reads you like a book, and wherever she goes, people read you like a glowing book review.  

~Robert Brault~

It is hard to remember when I was not a mother.  It has been almost twenty-one years, a lifetime of memories and learning.  Being a mother is the most sanctifying, gratifying work I have ever done.  

  I am unbelievably blessed by these goofballs.

Happy Mother's Day!