Jul-Aug – Memories Already

AUGUST: A brief visit to Portland was heart driven – to see a dear friend, Constance Strawn, display her photography for the first time, to paint a little, and to visit my sister and her new companion Rosie.

ART Constance has taken photos of Women at Work all over the world and it was a packed First Thursday at the Umpqua Bank in Portland. She’s a multi-talented artist – photography, oils, watercolor, home and garden remodel. My last morning with Constance, we (she, Claudia, and I) went to breakfast. Constance follows spirit and we were headed to one restaurant, when she said, “No, we need to go to Cadillac.” At the Cadillac Café, not only was the food fabulous, our waiter—to our great surprise—was Claudia’s childhood neighbor (the boy next door) she hadn’t seen in years (he’d been in New York and she in Holland)! 

My sister packed for a long-time dream trip to the Galapagos Islands, while Rosie was my focus, obviously. As a Taurus (Ferdinand is my Taurean icon—sitting quietly under his tree, smelling the flowers) , I innately know patience, yet not to this degree! Rosie sat for the longest time waiting for birds to show up at the feeder outside her window. And...we did get our naps in! Kittynaps in laps are the best.

CREATIVE CONNECTIONS I met an amazingly creative and energetic woman and fabulous cook (new cookbook just off to her publisher), Orianna Fielding Banks  (author, London's TV interior design maven, and eco-specialist practicing Wabi-Sabi), and her non-typical teen-age son Sasha (meaning he’s not anti-social and he gets along with his mom and her friends even though he's 15) at a BBQ at Pat & Paula's. We had that instant feeling of tribe. She listened to my vision for retreats and has offered her home for a small group to come to Costa Brava! Now I have two sites for future creativity workshops/trips: Intuition Through Art Retreats in Mexico and Spain! I've added a Contact Me page (see the tabs at the top of this post) - let me know if you are interested in creative workshops or retreats.

JULY:

WEDDING Christine and I had adjoining rooms at the beautiful Ryde Hotel on the Sacramento River for Dana and Jeremy’s perfect weather Monday evening wedding in the gazebo. See what can happen when you are the driving force behind a high school reunion? "2 Kids Finally Married!" They’d gone to Prom together. One of the most touching toasts was Jeremy's brother saying how much they’d wanted Dana to be part of their family years ago. Timing is everything.

The wedding put ideas into Chris’s head…she’s working on fixing me up with her Uncle Paul. If he’s like the rest of her family – he’ll be a great guy. Tell me what you think! Should I? Yes or No? Write a comment.

INTENTION CEREMONY Paula sent an invitation to friends and family to her Intention gathering (she and Patrick are building the dream home) and that is how I was told I was going to be “leading the Ceremony.” Eeek. I declined. She talked me into it. Never have done that before—at least not for someone else and definitely not a crowd. Here’s what I came up with for the evening in their empty space, soon to be completely restructured:  Paula set out a scarf on the floor with a Feng Shui bagua of items of deep meaning and intention combined with the Dao, and I led a visualization that combined the 4 directions and a property cleansing from the Perelandra workbook - requesting the Archangels to oversee the work. Everyone attending spoke their intention for them, and then we feasted and drew on the walls (like happy kids) the things we saw for them in their new home (good friends, good luck beetles, abundance, etc.). Powerful evening. With gratitude and thanks to Raphael, Michael, Uriel, and Gabriel and all of those who had gone before on this land.

There's been no time for writing. It's decided...I must go to NATURE and WRITE!