I did it. Boldly, I declared what I needed from the friendship. She stopped by for an impromptu visit, full of complaints and criticisms, and I said, “Enough! I don’t want to talk about other people or problems. I want to talk about the lack of balance and the direction of our relationship.” She was […]
Ah, good intentions! Oh, the excuses! Haven’t we all encountered situations where someone expects to be catered to? Haven’t we all been in circumstances where one demanding person takes center stage and just thinks everyone else will fall into line? Well, entitlement doesn’t work for us. In one particular incident, we decided to speak up […]
We spend our entire lives “Reaching,” for one thing or another. We reach for the alarm clock to turn it off or maybe hit the snooze button for 9 more minutes of sleep. We reach for a jar on the top shelf, only to find it beyond our grasp. Standing on tiptoes, we stretch, desperately […]
catchy name Last week we experienced a serendipitous moment. While browsing online for a nearby restaurant, we came across one with a curious name: Vino y Otros Remedios (Wine and Other Remedies). The name was intriguing with its suggestion of healing the body with great foods and wines, but it was the reviews that really […]
Hillary the signmaker pointing the way At the visitor’s center in the small French town of Saint-Vallier-sur-Rhône, we asked the director, our new British friend Hillary what to do. We had taken the train from Lyon earlier that morning, with the intention of continuing by bus to the tiny burg of Hauterives, to visit Ferdinand Cheval‘s “Ideal Palace.” […]
Illusion is a distortion of the senses. typical French street scene The brain picks up visual cues that are recognizable, instantly fitting them into familiar patterns. In a flash, it issues a report about what’s going on. The brain fills in the blanks. Normally, we “believe” what we see. However, sometimes we’re reminded that our […]
Gordon Matthew Sumner wore a favorite black and yellow striped shirt so often, that a friend finally blurted out that he looked like a bee. The nickname stuck. You might know him better today as Sting. Villa Contarini We’ve always enjoyed his particular style of jazz/rock, and have waited for him to show up in […]
We are storytellers Handmade Book Over the past 10 years we have used many different approaches—writing, music, art, video, creating a hand-made book, playing our music at coffee shops and now this blog—to tell a tale. Whatever method presented itself, we played with it to see how it could help us better express ourselves. We […]
Time to puzzle Well, it’s that time of year again. The holidays. From mid-November through the end of the year, the celebrations are strung together like beads. In fact, they can become a bit of a blur as they zip by. Of course, Thanksgiving is the gateway holiday for Black Friday—that all-important starting line […]
Tuscan farmhouse So here’s the situation: In our Italian neck of the woods, there is a law than permits only a certain number of windows per room. Yes, that’s right. Apparently, the practice started years ago when farmers didn’t want so many windows due to their inefficiency—you know, drafty winters, vulnerability, etc. So, over the […]
