The Beauty of Nature

                Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
John Muir

            Lake Tahoe is just the place to nourish body and soul. If you are lucky enough to get to the lake early in the morning, when the sunlight hits the water, and sparkles reflect the light, then you begin to realize a different pace of life. It begins to sink in that the beauty surrounding you reflects the divine, and calls forth a response from your spirit.Contemplating the deep azure color of the water, with ribbons of emerald and light violet, I was struck by the magnificence before me. To slow down and appreciate the masterpiece of nature is to give thanks to God for his creation.

             

The role of a father...

Fathers play a very important, and irreplaceable role in our society as a whole, but most importantly in the family. Within the family unit, the father is protector and provider. These two qualities require development, but they are essential to the full maturity of a father. 


A father is fulfilled through service to his wife and children, just as children grow and mature from the unconditional love from their parents. There is a saying that the mother is the "heart of the home", and there is truth in that saying. The gentle touch of a mother is precious and needed within the family. If the woman is the "heart", then the man is the"lifeblood of the home", ready to protect and defend his family at all costs.


I and my three siblings were blessed to have a wonderful father. He lived a joyful and appreciative life, where he gave unselfishly to his family. Each of our lives have been enriched by the love and sacrifice that he (and our mother) made for each one of us to live a fulfilling life. He passed along to us his love of learning, his love of cooking,and his love of travel and adventure. 


On this day after Father's Day, I hope that our society will always value the role that fathers have, and that fathers will realize and appreciate how important they are to the well-being of society...but most of all to the health of their own family.

Summer in Paris-2010

Recently I was reminded of my trip to Paris two summers ago with one of our daughters. In many ways, this trip was like something out of an I Love Lucy Show. The one hour train ride from the little northern town of Beauvais into Paris, and then the return trip back was the setting for a series of mishaps, and near disasters. 


The train was clean, fast and expensive to take each day. Our motive was to save money by trying to get away with using an old train ticket each day, saving us over 40 euros/day. We got lucky the first time we tried this, and decided to try it again the next day. Much to our dismay, on this particular day there were three men checking tickets once the train got underway. In our favor, the two-level train was built with glass doors separating different areas, which allowed for seeing these "ticket checkers" from afar, and deciding a course of action/escape.


On this particularly fateful day, my daughter and I spent fifty minutes out of the hour train ride into Paris trying to evade these three men. It became a cat and mouse game of sorts, as we both scurried upstairs and down, and even resorted to the bathroom at one point!


Luck eventually ran out, as all three "ticket men" ended up in our section, and it would have been impossible at that point to evade them. I feigned sleep, and let my daughter (whose idea this whole thing was) to deal with the men, and pay the ticket fee. We had been caught five minutes before the train arrived in Paris.


We learned our lesson the hard way, and bought our tickets for the remainder of our trip. I would never try such a thing in the U.S., but something about being in a foreign country, and being on a budget made it seem more reasonable...and even fun at the time. That all ended with paying the full ticket fee, and I would never try such a thing ever again. 

Playing the Piano

                                 This is our piano, a P.S. Wick from St. Paul, Minnesota. It is
                     a cabinet grand piano with a wonderful tone. It is 80 years
                     old.
                     I found this piano at an estate sale in 1988, and knew
                     it was a great deal. 

                    I had wanted to learn to play the piano since I first touched
                    my grandparents piano...at the age of two. Their policy was
                    a hands off policy, so I never was allowed to touch even one
                    key. 

                    Our first child took piano lessons, and with running after
                    several children under the age of ten, it was fulfilling to
                    listen to someone else play the piano. Over the years a 
                    few of our children took to the piano, and that was enough
                    for me at the time.

                    As children began to graduate from college and leave home,
                    the piano was sitting idle for long periods of time. I began
                    to feel again my childhood longing for learning how to
                    play this lovely instrument. So, I took a series of lessons,
                    and after many long hours of practicing numerous songs,
                    scales and chords,I can say that I am fairly decent on
                    the piano, as long as the piece is at my level.

                    More than learning the Circle of Fifths and other elements
                    of theory, I learned that if you really want to learn something,
                    no matter how difficult, it can be done. So much of learning is 
                    attitude. I will never be an expert pianist, but I didn't take up
                    learning piano in order to become an expert. I enjoy the 
                    process of learning, and when I look back at where I started
                    in piano, and what I know and can play now...it was all worth
                    every minute of practice that I put into it!

                    

Sewing and Knitting

                                           

                    Lately I have been doing quite a bit of sewing and knitting, which has 
             been very enjoyable. My plan is to sell some of my creations at 
             the local senior center, and donate the proceeds to a charity.
         
             The majority of what I have sewn is for little girls-pj's, shorts,and
             dresses. I am not a perfect sewer, as I do make small errors at
             times. Creations by Kathy is my small, home-operated business.


             Knitting is much closer to my heart than is sewing. I know this because
             when choosing between the two crafts, I always choose knitting.
             For me, knitting requires less thinking. I can knit while watching the 
             news, or Jeopardy, and not drop stitches. Knitting is relaxing,
             while sewing is more stressful. Perhaps this stress is tied to my 
             earliest memories of sewing in middle school, where I ripped out a 
             zipper 20 times before getting it right. Only with my fathers help
             was I able to make some sense out of following a pattern.

                                            


             I learned to knit the same year I learned to sew, which was
             7th grade. Above are the knitted cotton baby washcloths 
             with different designs on them that I have been working on
             for the past few months. 


             Knitting relies on a different skill set than sewing does. Sewing is 
             very precise. Sewing is also somewhat mathematical, with fractions
             meeting you at every seam. I really don't enjoy working with 
             fractions in a precise way. 


             Knitting on the other hand, is a bit more forgiving in terms of 
             reading the pattern and carrying it out. A dropped stitch can
             be a catastrophe, but other minor errors can be hidden. I like that!


             Both knitting and sewing come from the heart however. They both
             take time and thoughtfulness. They are both expensive crafts, but
             because of the effort involved, they are priceless gifts when given
             away.    
  

Fruit Picking and Summer Memories

            There is something quintessentially summer in picking fruit. It brings
            back to me treasured memories of childhood-hours spent roaming
            forest and field. These were the two special places of my childhood
            years. In the forest, we discovered the differences between the 
            seasons in tangible ways-the colors and textures of leaves, the habits 
            of squirrels and birds. In the field behind my childhood home we   
            discovered milkweed and wild strawberries. 


            Every summer I would scour the field in search of the best strawberries 
            to bring home to my family. If I was lucky, I would find a 
           "jackpot" which was a large cluster of berries together. The smell of 
            these sweet berries is still with me, as is their distinctive taste.   


            Nothing from my childhood so reminds me of summer,
            nothing from my childhood so resonates with
            memories of carefree summer days. James Whitcomb Riley's poem
           "Barefoot Boy" is the closest literature has come to bringing me back
            to the sights, smells, sounds and feelings of my childhood in rural
            upstate New York.