Learning

Sometimes learning just means sitting still
this is difficult and important
how can I sit still??

A whole bunch of GG

push the volume key up there on the left corner for music

Biking Out The Back Door

Laguna Beach

A Thrill in Spandex

We left for this amazing little journey on July, 2 from Aspen. There were little signs of recession in this mountain town as we waited 45 minutes to take off due to all of the traffic from private jets. Just goes to show you, some people are doing just fine... at least on the surface. I slept and thought and drank a gorgeous glass of Musigny Burgundy at 10,000 feet chased down by Brunos pizza. Before I knew it, I was back in my homeland, Italia.
This trip was a long time coming. I hadn't been back to Italy since 1987 when I traveled to Europe with my parents and my older sister in the back of a VW camper that we bought in Germany. That was an adventure, but it was also a long time (four months) to be riding in a van with the family. Even at 11-years-old, I needed some space!
So now, at 32, I am comfortably traveling with a man old enough to be my father but who treats me like nothing more than a lover. It is a warm and cozy place to be, one filled with many fine wines and decadent hotels and flavors of all kinds. It is a world so much different than my life one year ago, and even more so, two years ago when I was traveling with my two dogs in an old Forest Service mini van. Each and every experience, valuable and cherished.
Back to Italy, well, it turns out I know some Italian, and I do look Italian, so I felt right at home. We spend eight days riding through the gentle rolling hills of the Tuscan wine country with our guides Marco and Guiliana.
At one point, and to my surprise, I said to myself while biking, "This is the most fun thing ever!" There were fields of sunflowers whizzing past my eyes, my friends racing just ahead or behind me, the little castle-like villages that defy time in the distance, the Tuscan sun beating down, the smooth pavement gripping my tires as I tore down the road. It was indeed, A Thrill in Spandex!!

Only 09

I let the Summer Solstice pass on a quiet couch on the hill 

absorbing light;

It was as if that whole year could fit into that sky

all the moments since the last longest day when I was dancing and singing and

flailing around with my girl at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, 

music swelling in our ears...

So filled with light it was, 

tonight

a gracefully gradual changing of seasons  

a yearning and a waning all in one great sky.

East West

Will never meet

Not in this sky

Not on the longest day

Not on this quiet night

Not tonight

I am surrounded by color

Brightening and fading

And I reflect on my life,

These times

When the Iranians are warring with each other

Innocent people are dying, again

The Iraqis still have no power or fuel at times

The Afghanis are angry

and want to know who to "get"

The Crips the Bloods

are all hating each

still

My grandma’s eyesight is nearly gone

My friend loses her father

I have a new lover

I am missing some friends

And my dog

To be completely honest

I am not where I have been

On this longest day for so many years past

I am on a different hill

with the lyrical sound of silence this time

and

This day finally fades.

I have seen all this light.

It did not go unnoticed.

It went with pink and purple and yellow and orange and brilliance smeared together like nothing,

like no one,

I have seen.

It was quite a show tonight, 

a quiet show.

It is the mood I’m in

for looking in

sitting still

reflecting and resetting...

There is no time to waste

I know

The days are getting shorter again.

Nice to Meet You

Last time I was here was May 27, 2008

that is a long time ago

since then I've changed

my life,

of course,

people i will love were born

people i did love died

I left

many things 

behind

and gained

more

in experience than

any one year should really give

to one.

Now I know what it's like

to do something

I've never done before

something I was afraid of

then to stop doing that

and do something else

that

I was afraid of.

I was.

I am.

Life is about conquering fears

taking

chances

keeping your eyes open when they automatically shut.

You have to See this.

You have to Feel this.

You have to Smell it and Taste it

to know it.

And I know her

I know him.

But, more importantly,

more accurately,

more lovingly,

now,

I know me.

How sweet that is...