Reverb 13, Day 2: Nourishment and the BEST moment

The prompts:

1. The way we nourish ourselves determines our ability to shine our light in the world. And nourishment doesn't just come in the form of food and drink and sunshine; it's equally important to nourish your spirit.
What made your soul feel most nourished this year?

2.  Shine: What was the best moment of 2013?

 Ah, nourishment of the soul: what feeds my spirit? 

 The arts, short answer. Theater, books, magazines, movies, music, even television. Creativity unfolding in story, notes on a scale, words on the page, actors and designers and directors creating timeless emotion and story. 

When I was recuperating from surgery, I literally could NOT do things and thus sat still for days. So I read more than I usually get to, devouring books and stories and articles daily and luxuriating in that freedom to just read. My first real excursion outside the house was to a play while I was still non-weight-bearing in a wheelchair. Nearly the first outing when I graduated to the boot and using a cane was to a play, the annual performance of The Vagina Monologues, held this year at Rolling Hills Casino. We watched movies a lot, have our favorite television shows.

They make me think. They stir my emotions and my beliefs. They help me find answers to hard questions, and ponder paths and options. Bits of music -- yes, even the dreaded earworms -- help me through difficult times and even pain (my iPod was with me in the hospital and got me through some hard and noisy hours). 

I am challenged and found and redeemed by the words I have read and seen this year, and I am so grateful for the ability to see and to hear them. 

The best moment of 2013: hmmmm.

I think the best moment was when we drove to our favorite Oregon coast spot in Bandon on our 13th wedding anniversary to spend a few days, and seeing our glorious Mama Ocean rolling in. It rained quite a bit while we were there, but we watched her from our windows facing in two directions and went places anyway. We met by the ocean 16 years ago and were married on the ocean. She never fails to settle our spirits and minimize our worries and fears, and we've happily spent many more days this year on her coast than we have in some time. But that day, May 20, we had come through months of surgery recovery and work and worry, and it was so good to be together by our beloved ocean and not to have a list of chores to do. It was a beautiful time away and apart from everything else.

Scintilla#13, Day 4-5

We're running slightly behind schedule here -- a busy weekend for this still-recovering writer. Here is Saturday's prompt;

1. Being trapped in a confined environment can turn an ordinary experience into a powder keg. Write about a thing that happened to you while you were using transportation; anything from your first school bus ride, to a train or plane, to being in the backseat of the car on a family road trip.

It was a quiet trip. Very quiet.  (Even the elephant in the back seat said nothing.)

I'd come to understand, through many counseling sessions and a lot of introspection during that pivotal year, that my husband really liked it when we talked about him, his interests, his work day, his concerns, his pleasure, when I asked him questions about himself or what he was thinking/doing/feeling. He didn't really ask similar questions of me, and when I did volunteer such information, it usually became a conversation about him and his experiences and opinions.

So I decided not to ask and see what happened. If he asked a question, I responded, but I didn't volunteer much. I sat and read. Listened to music. Watched the scenery. Thought a lot.

For two days.

I was pleasant enough, visiting some with the group we were traveling with, and I was pleasant to him. I just didn't ask him his opinion, his thoughts, but waited to see if he would pick up the conversational ball.

He didn't. We didn't acknowledge the elephant that had come along either, the one that had been living in our house for some time. But a few months later he finally said he thought it would be a good idea if we got a divorce. HE said it. And I agreed.

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Sunday's prompt:
1. What talent do you have that your usual blog readers don't know about? Talk about a time when you showed it to its best advantage.

I can sew. I learned the basics in my seventh grade home economics class, and some from my mother who was an excellent seamstress, making most of my childhood clothing and some wonderful things for my daughter in addition to draperies, pillows, crafty accessories, and embellishing towels and pillowcases with insets and appliques.

I made clothing. Nothing terribly tailored -- that was never much my style anyway, but I loved choosing fabric to create long, flowing dresses and tops and skirts and pants that suited me and my height -- it was always difficult to find clothing that was long enough in the sleeves or legs, or that fit my broad shoulders, much less in a color that I liked.

So I made them, often trying on styles in department stores and then heading to the fabric store to find similar patterns to customize. Most of my career clothing was my creation, and I could whip up a pair of pants or a top one day to wear them to an event the next. (I still have a long velvet button shirt and skinny pants that I made oh so many years ago for a special banquet!)

When the rage in the late '80s was for knit separates, skirts, pants and tops that could be accessorized with belts and scarves and jewelry, I made them -- easy to do with one marvelous pattern that could be customized for sleeve length, crew or v-neck, and length. And they were all finished with the machine -- nothing by hand -- which made them even easier!

The most intricate dress I made was a prom dress for my daughter, a strapless black brocade with a fitted and boned bodice and a double skirt -- an underskirt of tulle with the black overskirt. It fit her to a tee and she looked marvelous in it -- she had chosen the pattern, the fabric, the length, and was thrilled with it. And so was I. 

I have my mother's Bernina and all her notes from the classes she loved to take at the local sewing shop, but I haven't made anything except a pair of curtains and repaired a few seams here and there in more than a decade. You just never know when you might need it again.

All will be well, and all will be well....

The Steel Magnolias opening was spectacular. We had a great audience, helped, no doubt, by the wonderful food that Riverfront volunteers had prepared for them, and free champagne. They laughed at everything. They cried. One person said she'd been coming to openings for 30 years, and ours was the BEST (of course she could say that to every cast and we wouldn't know).

Nonetheless, we were pleased. Tonight starts the round of buy-out performances. We'll be doing the play five times a week -- three for the public, two for groups who have paid for private performances. Until June 20. I expect we'll all be sick of the characters by that time. I can't imagine doing a play for years on end.

But I do like Miss Clairee. I rather think there is more of her in me than I'd once thought.

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My brother and sister-in-law celebrate their third anniversary today. I wrote about it here, although not nearly as indepth as it might have been, but I was still reeling from both my mother's and my uncle's deaths and hadn't written much of anything since the previous October.

But it was a lovely day, a blessing in the midst of all that pain. And they've gone through some hard times since, with health issues and concerns over work that are the result of the recession -- just like so many people.

It's not the good times that make us strong, it's the tough ones and how we handle stress, pressure, uncertainty, fear. The good times may give us the knowledge that this, too, shall pass, however, and that there are still good things to come. But it's in the fire that we are shaped and tempered and glazed.

Today's Daily Om has a wonderful meditation on marriage. Among other bits of wisdom and observation are these:

"If your relationship is not secure, marriage will not make it so. Likewise, if your partner is not as attentive, loving, or kind as you would like, your becoming spouses will not change that. Marriage has no power to permanently fill any emotional or spiritual gaps in your life. Before you choose to marry, ask yourself whether you and your partner are adept at resolving conflict, can speak openly to one another, and fully respect one another."

In this day and age, it is common to live together before marriage -- indeed, my mother surprised the heck outta me in her later years when she proclaimed that she thought living together was a good idea! Even a committed relationship is not marriage -- although people stay in them for years and years. It changes things somehow, in addition to the legal matters -- or at least it did for us. It brought the sacred into our commitment, I think, and expanded our relationship.

(Maybe I haven't had enough coffee to wax eloquently this morning! I seem to be struggling for adequate words....)

At any rate, I wish them a happy anniversary and hope that "All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. " -- Julian of Norwich

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Summer is here, no matter the calendar. Triple digits forecast for today; swamp cooler is in full blast mode; north wind is keeping the humidity well below 20 percent. The garden grows measurably each day (as do the grasses in it, blast and damn). Memorial Day always marks summer's grand entrance, and the groceries were full of hot dogs and hamburgers and watermelon. Next is Independence Day. Time goes so quickly.