Returning to My Home

I guess I really am getting older... as I approach having three quarters of a century under my belt, I realize I don't have to justify why Recreational Vehicle living was just 'not my thing.' I loved living aboard the sailboat and I naturally thought that a land yacht could be a lovely extrapolation of that joy without the hassle of dicey weather.

Well, 'landing' in Lake City, FL, was wet, wild and wretched. Aside from the emotional stuff that was going on with a son who continues to resist growing up and getting a job, even a part-time one, it was clear that my RV life could not continue with Wayne. He has his way of living and I have mine and while we will remain casual friends, the 420 sq. feet in his home (not ours, not truly shared) made it challenging.

Square dancing with the Dixie Dancers in Lake City, FL
was a high point in the square dancing journey for me;
and I reconnected with Barbara Rosenthal, and her husband.

I loved the adventure of traveling and having a companion to view the world with was pleasurable. I still want to travel and I still want to share it with a friend and so in time I will journey out again.

But for now I am back in Sequim, WA, which is actually warmer than Florida (today) and warmer than much of the southern U.S. due to a nasty storm that developed into a Nor'easter for the northeast states. I am back on my routine of painting at least two days a week (sorely missed in the space-limiting RV), and will rejoin the Y next week to shore up my activity plan.

It's very much OK that I discovered in two months something which could have made life painful for both of us had we continued. Of course I wish Wayne all the best in the new year, finding all the square dances that give him such joy and maybe more peacefulness in his grieving process as I seek peace about my son. I am grateful for all Wayne's help with getting my personal effects into storage.

As this new year progresses and my personal things finally find their way to Washington, I am planning to clarify what brings me peace and joy and I hope the same for all my readers.

Wayne and I at the St. Augustine Pier, FL, where he bought
a plank to be placed on the pier honoring his late wife.

Around the Lake

This is little Gwen Lake. I have no idea why or how it got
that name, unless an early settler named it after his wife or
daughter or maybe his mother. Who knows?

In order to keep up my commitment-to-exercise plan, I took a little walk around one of the many lakes that are the reason for this location in Florida to be called "Lake City." This one is very close to my home, but I am not blessed with a view. Maybe that's better because it forces me to walk to see it. Anyhow, along the way I noticed that the azaleas are starting to bust out, which means I may miss the Azalea Festival.

The azaleas are starting show their lovely colors already.

And as I was walking, this cat came up to greet me. That in itself is sort of amazing, since most cats tend to be somewhat standoffish. But then look what happened (See photos). This cat dropped right down in the middle of the road, and although this is not a very busy street, nevertheless, I would take this as somewhat risky behavior. While flipping over from side to side, obviously hoping for some tummy scratching, it finally simply just settled down and watched the approaching car without even flinching.

No, this is NOT a dead cat in the
middle of the road. This is a cat in the
 middle of the road with a death wish,
or possibly just showing off
how brave it is.

I watched, too, and in the end it was the car and driver who veered off to avoid the cat. The cat never moved! I saw a smile on the driver's face, and thus concluded that he was accustomed to dealing with this fearless feline as I saw him turning into a nearby driveway. But what about those drivers who are not cat-conscious?

Maybe this is the clue that we are coming to the End of Times - when dogs acts more like cats and cats do more dog-like things, when the weather is upside-down with snow falling in places it normally doesn't and isn't coming down in places where it usually does. We are rushing toward the December 21 deadline for Something To Happen, but I am unsure that there is anyone who really has a clue.

The cat just stayed in the road watching the car approach.
It was the car that took evasive action, not the cat.

Suddenly it is nearing the end of January and, according to one of the astrological blogs I follow, the next seven days are critical for World Peace. The writer asks for us to pray until February 4 and hope/intend that no rogue nation does something foolish to upset the delicate balance in place at present.

I see no harm in promoting seven days of conscious prayer and/or intending the world's people can put aside their prejudices and imagine being peaceful. 

The biggest obstacle I have is that most people cannot stop arguing for a day, never mind seven of them, and that seems like an important mental and emotional shift when it comes to political beliefs - and those appear to be the elements of conflict both locally and globally. At any rate, I am willing to suspend my disbelief in this matter for seven days.

Will you join me in this intention? "Intending that everyone, everywhere is having a moment of imagining a world at peace and this imagining is growing every day until peace is the only acceptable solution, for the highest and best good of all concerned, so be it and so it is.... Whooooooo!"

Thanks for the Life of Dr. Alphonso Levy

Dr. Alphonso Levy, director of the St. James Episcopal
Church choir, put up with my antics as an alto in the
group for the years I was with them. I shall miss him.

It is hard to believe it when a community member who has made such a huge impression on so many lives passes away. Very early this morning 83 years of music were silenced with the death of Dr. Alphonso Levy in Lake City, Florida. I say 83 years because it must have been music to his mother's ears when he cried out, "I am here!"

This was a man of physically small stature, but he was huge in his impression through his musical talent.  Three years ago on his birthday the Lake City Community College personnel and members of both Lake City and Columbia County leaders celebrated his accomplishments with a Dr. Alphonso Levy Day.

He was 'on stage' for most of his life and as members of his choir at St. James Episcopal Church, we were often regaled during rehearsals with tales of his early peccadillos, machinations, and general playfulness with family, relatives, friends and associates. And he had many, many friends... I was blessed to meet him and join that special group, if only for a couple of years.

Until he was too ill to play publicly anymore, Dr. Levy often could be found performing on the weekends in restaurants around town, or at various events. When I moved to Lake City in 2005, I was given a birthday dinner at Tucker's Restaurant (sadly now closed) where Dr. Levy and Tony Buzzella also known as "Alphonso and Buzz" were at that time offering up their unique weekend repertoire of musical entertainment. On the website link you can hear some of the music they made together. I especially like listening to Alphonso's piano rendition of  "Amazing Grace" with Tony on the sax. What a team! Singing, kibitzing, working the crowd, the two of them were a delight and I was happily entertained to have them serenade me on my special day. I couldn't have known then how both of them would intertwine their musical energies into my life then, but now I have these fine memories.

I went to St. James Episcopal Church that weekend and - surprise! - there he was again, leading the choir in "Dona Nobis Pacem," by Mozart. (The link to this group singing is not our choir, but we were about the same size.) A peaceful man by his nature, Levy managed to keep his head through the struggles of church leaders and stay focused on the music, leading the choir to an esteemed position in the local diocese for our excellence in performance - all the credit goes to Dr. Levy who had a high standard we worked to maintain. (NOTE: I may have had a personal family link to this church as well since I was married to a relative whose mother's family included the name Snowden.)

As a choir we worked hard to produce the musical sound that Dr. Levy wanted from us on any given Sunday. He would sometimes come to rehearsal with a composition he had been working on (He loved writing music as much as playing it!) only to decide on Sunday's pre-church rehearsal that he wanted to make a few changes. But it was never all hard work and we enjoyed much laughter and camaraderie in those years with him. One of his favorites was "Deep River," chosen for Black History Month. I grew to love it as well and invite you to listen to this version by the Indiana Wesleyan University Chorale (2005-2006) in his memory.

Our church group was never as large as the Chorale, but he swelled the ranks of the singers when he did several productions of Handel's "Messiah" and pulled together church choirs from around Lake City to do annual fund raisers for a local food bank. My son remembers singing in our choir when he was living in Lake City and recalled that "Dr. Levy had a great appreciation for talent and how to incorporate or use that person to get the best out of them." As a participant in the annual "Messiah" one year, he also recalled how Dr. Levy would simply stand silently in front of the group waiting for everyone to stop talking and pay attention to the man with the little white stick, waiting to direct them. Tony Buzzella and other musician friends, like Harry Woest, joined us for these "Messiah" performances in the orchestra, so there was always this musical undercurrent between them that they all played off of - still working the crowd!

There are lots and lots of people who have known Dr. Levy far longer than I have, and have closer ties to him. But he will always be someone I remember with great fondness and appreciation for the lessons learned and the special friendship we shared, albeit brief. Well done, faithful servant, may the heavenly choir welcome you.

Singing Again

The Barichara Chorus was rehearsing in this shot.

I was part of the choir at St. James Episcopal Church today and it was quite amusing to see the reactions of 'the regulars' as they came past the choir for their communion. More than a few did a double-take seeing me in the Alto section and it was  good to be singing again.

My connections in Barichara, the village in Colombia, report that rehearsals are continuing and I was sent some words for one of the songs I have to be ready to sing in a couple of weeks.

This week I will be re-packing my suitcases and checking to make sure I have all the promised items I was asked to bring back or that I will need in my little casa.

The church choir director, Dr Alfonso Levy, was not directing us this morning because he was put into hospital for various reasons. So he did not know that I was there for rehearsal on Tuesday or in church today. I decided to go and visit him this afternoon and got there just as his brother and sister-in-law were leaving. He was so overwhelmed that I was there that he got us both crying and I said I was going to have to leave if I was upsetting him. He replied, "Girl, I don't want to be anything but upset right now I am that glad to see you."

We talked about my Colombia 'choir' and how the director there noticed that I knew about correct breathing and immediately Dr. Levy relaxed and said, "You just have to watch for the commas," and I smiled and said I didn't know how to say that in Spanish yet, but I remembered his instruction about that and would learn the words so I can share his tip with the group there.

Before I left Dr. Levy for the day, I asked him if he wanted me to do Reiki on him again (as I had done once before with a critical health issue for him) and he said I should proceed "as usual,' which made us both laugh. So I have been doing Reiki on him at a distance and intending that these current health issues resolve themselves so that he can be up and around again.

The other half of the Barichara choral group at rehearsal.

It will be hard to leave here but I am still excited about my new adventures and plans and the only things I really am waiting on are my papers for the 'pensioner visa' which are being processed from all I can gather.

At any rate it was certainly pleasant to be singing again as there is something so very satisfying to be in a group making music together, and I know how hard it is for Dr. Levy to be lying in a bed and not doing that which he loves... Get well soon, my  friend.

Seattle to Bogota

The day started REALLY early... like 3 a.m.! A friend, an amazing friend, picked me and my travel buddy, Jeyhu, up at my apartment and drove us to the airport. Then it was kind of a blur until we got on the plane and the engines revved up. I want to tell you a story about this, but perhaps it can wait because I just want you to see some amazing pictures and then I can go off to bed. Because it is now another day here in Colombia and sleeping on the airplane just didn't cut it.

Mt. Rainier at sunrise. This is not very sharp due to the
pitted windows. And it appeared larger to my eyes.

Atlanta was its usual hub of frenetic and orderly chaos and there were no delays until we got on the plane and were told we had to wait since the customer who had bags in the hold didn't show up for the flight. "It's a safety issue," said the captain, and it caused us a 25 minute delay, but he put the pedal to the metal and we got to Colombia right on time!

This is one of my favorite things to do when flying -
to track our progress over the ground. This route took us
over Cuba, but it was too dark by that time to see out.

Our route took us from Atlanta down I-75 essentially to Miami and the sky was so clear you could make out the highways from 39,000 feet! It was well after 6 p.m. when we got over the tip of Florida, so this was the last good shot of the day. I don't know what my internet access will be in Barichara this time, so don't give up if a few days go by. G'nite all.

We are over Miami, Florida, flying at over 500 mph at 39,000 feet. I was impressed that my little Sony
digital travel camera could get this one. The sun was already setting at 7 p.m.

Still too cool for me...

It seems too cool for February - even in northern Florida. I guess I keep expecting spring to be arriving with the robins who are passing through on their way north... brrrr! Do they know there's been a huge snowstorm up there? There have been two 'waves' of the red-breasted beauties about a week apart. They like my yard because I don't use chemicals and I have a sort of spring dribbling down one side of the driveway where they can get fresh water. I like seeing them because it reminds me of when I was little and watched for the first robin to arrive - the harbinger of spring in New England. (The picture is of a small lake near where I walk just as the sun was setting.)

Some people who will read this next part will know it is a family story... when I was little - about 7 or so - my father knew I was watching for the robins and he would yell out at breakfast, "I see it, I see it - but it's a white robin!" I would jump up from the table hoping to see it. By the time I got back to my seat, my bacon was gone. I don't know that he took it every time, but my brother certainly had been convicted of that particular crime more than once using other ruses.

Today I spent some time with a close friend who has just been diagnosed with early dementia. She is scared about losing her memories, about the stories of her life for her grandchildren. We talked about how we ARE our histories, our family events, descriptions of relatives, sharing the similarities of those who have passed with those who are growing up. Her granddaughter is old enough to write down some of the information and it could be a bonding time for the two of them, I suggested. It's too new to think that far ahead, I realized after I'd voiced it. We joked a little, tried to ease the horror of what lies ahead, but in the end we just hugged each other. I'm scared, too, for how this will change both our lives.