Daily Archives: November 25, 2010

Aging, Family, Holidays

Axel’s

Leave a comment

Samhain                                        Waning Thanksgiving Moon

Kate, Annie and I ate Thanksgiving dinner at Axel’s Woodroast in Roseville.  This was a major production, a huge buffet and seating for family size parties in the ballroom.  The food was good, not gourmet, but good.  I actually had breakfast, more or less, a crepe, bacon, scrambled eggs, some asparagus, watermelon and a mixed green salad followed by two creme brulee tarts.  Our waitress was an old hand who stayed mostly out of the picture, showing up just when we needed things for the most part.

I found the large number of people satisfying, as it mimicked the crowded Thanksgivings of my childhood.  I had the large number of people feeling without having to actually interact them.  Perfect.

Kate’s in for a nap, the dogs have toys to play with and I’m going back to reading my Chinese mystery novel.

Hope your afternoon is a good one, too.

Aging, Art and Culture, Asia, Bees, Dreams, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Friends, Great Work, Memories, Retirement

Not Stepping In The Same River Twice

Leave a comment

Samhain                                                      Waning Thanksgiving Moon

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  You, too, tiny Tim.

Stayed up late last night reading a novel about a Chinese detective in Chinatown, NYC.  Not sure how it happened but China has become my favorite country, much like Germany used to be and Russia before that.  Instead of Buddenbrooks I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, instead of Steppenwolf I read Chinese mysteries.  No more War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, though I could read them again, I choose, as I always have, to plow new ground, read things I have not read before.

I tend not to read things twice, except poetry.  A big part of reading for me is the journey to somewhere new, following a trail with no known ending, a similar joy to the one I find in traveling, especially to countries where the culture disorients me, leaves me little room for my old ways.

New disciplines give me a similar boost:  art history, Latin, writing, vegetable gardening, bee keeping, hydroponics.  I’m sure I miss something in my search for the novel, which may explain why I find living in the same house for 16 years, driving the same car for 16 years, being married to Kate for 20+ years soothing.  As Taoism teaches,  life is a dynamic movement between opposites, the new and the old, the familiar and the strange, the taxing and the comfortable.  The juice flows as the pulls of masculine and feminine, life and death, youth and age keep us fresh, vital.

My buddy Mario uproots himself and moves along the earth’s surface, finding new homes and new encounters.  He changes his work with apparent ease, finding new friends and new experiences as he does.  Brother Jim, Dusty, constantly challenges his present and his past, leaving himself always slightly off balance.  Both of these men take the juice and mold it into art.

There are many ancientrails through this life, including intentional disorientation, familiar surroundings, ambition, compassion, politics, nurturance, keen observation, delight, dance.  The key lies in finding yours and staying with it, getting to know it and to be it.

When you can, you will find every day (well, most days) are Thanksgiving.