Being a Wanderer

 Today I took an epic walk.  I decided I’d walk to the church.   Once a month, there’s a free movie mid-day there.  This month, it is “The Help” and I was attracted to it because I saw Viola Davis on Finding Your Roots, one of my favorite tv shows, last night. 

I left the house at noon, to walk the 3.3 miles.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take me.  The movie was to start at 1:30.  It was pleasant walking, just a perfect temperature around 70 degrees with a light wafting cool breeze and clear blue blue skies.  I chose shady streets to walk on.  There were few people walking along my route.  It was peaceful and very pleasant walking.  When I got to church, the doors were locked and there was no one about.  Strange, I thought, so I checked the church’s website and found out that the movie is next Wednesday.  Oops.  I sat in the shade resting for 5 or 10 minutes and then thought, “well, I guess I have to walk home now.”

I went across the street to the library to get a drink of water and set off up the steep road next to the library.  Part way up I asked a younger woman if this was the way to the path going through the woods?  She said she didn’t speak English.  I ventured onward and upward and found another woman, an older woman, along the way.  I asked her and she replied, “oh yes, you go to the top and turn left continuing past the school yard and then veer to the right.”  We chatted a bit and she asked where I’d come from?  I answered, “Near Centennial Dr on Grizzly Park.”  She said, “oh, you’re a wanderer, like me.”  I think she walked the paths of Berkeley and Kensington every day.  I set off and found the path through the woods right away.   It was very pleasant, shady with dappled light.  There was a young couple ahead of me, holding hands and walking slowly.  When I caught up with them, the man said his girlfriend/wife was tired.  She was Muslim in a long overcoat and a head scarf.  He kept saying to her how beautiful it was.  But I saw they didn’t continue.  Walking on the wide path was sovery pleasant.  

I continued on to Grizzly Peak Boulevard, I found my way to the benches by the reservoir.  I sat and rested a bit.  Soon an older woman came and asked if she could join me.  We began to chat.  She told me she’d  broken both of her feet walking.  I learned she lived nearby and came often to sit on the benches.  She said twice to me she had her children late, in her  40’s.   We spoke about loss and finding positive things to fill voids created by the losses of aging.  After a while, I said goodbye and started walking south on Grizzly Peak.  I chose it because it is the most level route back.  The way was surprisingly shady.  I was tired when I got home, having walked nearly 16,000 steps and almost 6 miles!  Maybe I am a wanderer.  

Seeing Bobby McFerrin

 Saturday night Bob and I joined several folks from ACC (our church) to go hear Bobby McFerrin at Freight and Salvage.  Freight and Salvage is the quintessential Berkeley stage featuring down home folk, jazz, funk and whatever music.  Even though I’ve loved Bobby McFerrin for years, I’ve never seen him in person.  I didn’t know what to expect. 

After a welcome by a F & S staff person, four people walked out on stage and sat down in the ring of five chairs.  Bobby McFerrin was in the middle.  Immediately they began to make music.  It was all rhythmic and do do do-ing, no words at all.  Oh my, I thought, is this all there is?  I remembered Bobby McFerrin is famous for unusual vocals and his one song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”  The musicians were amazing in the blending of their voices and the music rose like rich scents mixing and remixing and making new sounds and rhythms.  

Bobby McFerrin looked like a guy from the streets of Berkeley, Bob said and I agree.  At 73, his voice isn’t what it used to be.  He seemed tired and only rose up in energy in several songs.  And his constantly sipped his cup of tea.  There were pre-staged folks who came up and sang or performed the rhythmic do-bopping with the group on stage.  The best was when they got the audience singing back up notes and then Bobby and the group sang in and around the back up.  The performers were all amazing musicians!  The guy on the end was a fabulous bass.  The next guy said he used to play trombone, but decided he could express more emotion using his voice.  Strange, I thought because he’s just sounding like a clarinet or maybe a trombone.  The woman on the other end wore a bright red dress and was amazing in her vocalists.  Bobby McFerrin when we spoke was very spiritual.  I loved how he explained one has to sing from one’s heart.  He spoke about his love for his family and told about how hard it is to pray.  He prayed up his kids before they went out to go to school.  He seemed a kindly sort of guy.

Overall, it was fun to see Bobby McFerrin and hear his music.  But I wouldn’t go again.  

A Picnic to Remember

Today we went to a spectacular picnic, it brought to mind other spectacular picnics.  They all involved good food, good company and a setting to be remembered.  The first one that came to mind was one in France in 2015 while visiting our friends Jean and Martine.  We stopped in a simple grocery store out in the countryside and bought all the food.  When we got hungry, we stopped by the roadside and sat on a grassy bank all in a row, passing the baguette and soft ripe Brie and delicious sliced ham back and forth.  Nothing ever tasted as good as I remember that food tasted.  I remember picnic dinners at a deserted castle outside of Heidelberg.  I’d pack up the food and we’d put it in our bicycle baskets and all the family would pedal 4 or 5 kilometers on a bicycle path along the Neckar River to the castle where we’d lay down our bicycles and hike up a green shady path to the castle.   We’d put down a picnic blanket and have our picnic dinner on the warm summer evening.  

Today’s picnic involved a trip to Sonoma county, between Sebastapol and Petaluma, to the estate of our friend Whitney with our friends Hanno and Bob.  We were altogether on a birding trip to Chile ten years ago and became fast friends.  For today’s visit, I volunteered to bring a picnic lunch in the wicker picnic basket Bob won at a church event last year.  I wanted to bring food reminiscent of my favorite picnics from Europe.  I bought special cheeses, a a package of prosciutto and even a small tub of truffled pork liver pate all to go on fresh baguette and a loaf of olive bread.  I made a tomato basil  salad with the best freshest tomatoes I could buy.  I bought a package of special curry Chile cashews and a package of dried mango to go with the tub of sweet grapes.  We brought a bottle of 2018 French Pinot Noir I had been gifted when I ended my ministry last July.  And finally I made a pear tart using Asian pears from our tree.  

When we got to Whitney’s place, she greeted us with open arms and showed us all around the place.  We spent lots of time in her garden, which was especially bright and sunny and very peaceful.  We looked at all her plantings and were awed by the views.  She’s on a hilltop with 12 acres.  There are bird feeders all around.  She says she can see Mt Tamalpais and even Mt. Diablo on a good day.  It is only 8 miles as the crow flies to Pt. Reyes and the Pacific Ocean.  

When we sat down in her dining table, she had picked bright flowers from her garden—orange and red and purple flowers—to adorn the table.  She made side dishes of potato salad and beet salad with all fresh ingredients from her garden and an apple pie to boot. We sat and ate and talked and laughed and ate some more and laughed some more.  We must have been at her table more than two hours but no one was counting.  It was a perfect Sunday afternoon picnic meal.  One to remember.  

Finally Relaxed

 I haven’t written for these last weeks because of two reasons: not so much has happened and I’m finally getting really relaxed after a busy busy winter and spring.  I am actually amazed it has taken me two months to fully relax after I finished my ministry at ACC.  Now when I have a day with nothing to do, I relax and relish in the freedom that presents to me.  

Oh, we’ve been busy too.  Liam spent the last weekend with us.  We’ve been seeing a lot of him and we’ve settled into a routine.  Liam comes in, says hi to me and then asks where Grandpa is.  I usually just send him right down to shop.  He is quite comfortable in the shop.  He loves it.  I can only imagine how Bob’s shop stocked and stacked with tools, mostly old, tickle the imagination of a 10 year old boy.  He’s making a cribbage table for his other Grandmother.  It’s like an end table with a huge number of holes for the cribbage pegs. He’s stopped because he couldn’t decide which model of peg he liked better.  He moves off on to other projects.  Currently he’s busy sharpening old chisels he’s bought at Urban Ore.  Urban Ore is a classic junk shop in west Berkeley and is currently Liam’s favorite place to rummage..

Liam loves wood and the trees that it comes from.  He’s full of factoids about wood, he readily spouts when asked and sometimes just because he wants us to know it.  With me, he loves going to the Botanical Garden.  We walk around looking at trees, but we always end up in the Bamboo forest where a huge redwood crashed down and crushed his favorite tree, a California buckeye with two trunks woven together.  Sadly, all that is left is an awkward big burl.  The last time we went, Liam spotted new growth on it and wanted me to tell the horticulturist so he could put a wire cage around the stump to protect it.  Liam is empowered and loves these trees.

I spent my time these past weeks making drawings to send to Elsa, reading, working in the garden, going on walks and having tea with friends.  I’m happy to get back into a routine of walking.  Bob often joins me, especially when I walk in the late afternoon when the shadows bring coolness.  Today we climbed up a couple of steep stairways on the paths going between streets and it felt very good.  

I’m looking forward to going to Michigan this fall.  It will be fun to see Erika, now a Senior in High School.  Sadly, the Marching Band will be finished by the time we get there.  Hopefully there will still be some Cross Country meets so we can see Sonja run.  Paula has made reservations for us all to go to Greenfield Village.  It is a Halloween tradition for us.  And it’s very exciting that Erik has made plans to spend a couple of weeks in Michigan while we’re there so we’ll have lots of good time with him.  

Life is good.  I am very blessed and happy these days.