Yesterday was also a momentous
day in the Ashbury family. We had two birthdays on November 8—my husband’s, and
our second daughter, Sonja’s. It’s difficult with her schedule and our
daughter’s, but we work hard to have a time when we can all go out to dinner
together, to celebrate. This year, it was the day before yesterday—Monday, the
7th. It makes for a nice party at
the local Keg Steakhouse: there’s ten of us. For this occasion, our instructions
to the gang have always been to order whatever they want. We usually get a few
appetizer platters for sharing, as well. The main courses by themselves are more
food than I can eat, but that’s what ‘doggie’ bags are for.
Our two youngest grandchildren
have always had a good sense of gastronomic adventure, willing to try anything
once. When they were small, they weren’t interested in eating junk food so much
as just basic good food. When I had them overnight, especially during the
winter, they would often request hot cereal for breakfast, opting for that over
their sugar-sweetened favorites. No instant hot cereals in this house, either.
Just regular oatmeal, oat bran, cornmeal and cream of wheat, cereals that
require good, old fashioned cooking.
When we’d go to the Keg for our
annual expensive pig-out, they would happily try mushrooms stuffed with crab,
bacon wrapped scallops, or whatever else we ordered as appetizers. Now they’re
16 (granddaughter) and 14 (grandson) and they spent the first part of the
evening with their young cousins, my two great-grandbabies who are 3 and 2. It
warmed me to see them encourage the little ones to try the appetizers, too. Abby
loved the crab stuffing, and Archer, at two years old, was all about those
scallops!
There’s something about the
rhythm of day to day life, especially at this time of year, that I find
comforting. It’s the beat of the music that our souls recognize as we go through
the days, one after the other, as the seasons ebb and flow. Colder weather
brings out hearty meals, hot cocoa, and snuggling down with a blanket, often
more for comfort than for warmth. There are of course, new episodes of our
favorite television shows to watch, and there are always lots of good books to
read. It can be challenging sometimes to keep the main thing the main thing and
to maintain that rhythm from season to season. Distractions can be…well, very
distracting. It’s good to have all the very worst distractions over with, at
least for the foreseeable future.
It's also at this time of year,
especially, that I rue my advancing age. I agree with those of you who will say,
without equivocation, that 62 is not old. However, 62 and riddled with
arthritis, and with heart disease thrown in along with a side of diabetes makes
me a tad too old or maybe ‘challenged’ to do the things my inner self hungers to
do. We’re into the meat of autumn now. I should be making pickles and jams,
freezing the produce out of the gardens, and generally, getting my “den” ready
for the winter to come. The fact that I feel these instinctive urges so keenly
this year, more than any in recent memory in fact, tells me we might indeed be
in for what the old folks used to call one humdinger of a winter.
I miss gardening, and believe
it or not, I even miss those times when I would don my winter gear and go out
and shovel snow off the walkway. I think it’s that whole “self-sufficiency”
thing that I really miss. I am at the point in my life where I can’t live the
way I want to live all by myself. Not if I want to keep the main thing being the
main thing.
What is the main thing? For me,
right now, it’s focusing on what really matters in life—relationships,
community, and a sense that we are all a part of something much bigger than the
sum of our parts.
Love,
Morgan
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