Mendocino Coast, Accordians & Ecclesiastes

Hopped a flight to San Francisco to visit family near the Mendocino coast, close an open book, and attend the world famous Cotati Accordian Festival. The redwoods are so big, strong and SILENT. You feel their presence. Something to learn from this. I stayed in my Aunt Lil's old cabin. I drove up on a moonlit, foggy nite to the remote cabin. Such wonderful solitude to reflect or shoot a haunted movie. 👀🌙I shared a meravigliosa Italian meal with family. Great grandchildren to Aunt Lil. Dinner was a plethora of home grown vegetables and homemade gnocchi. Aunt Lil worries that the farm is running down. You can see it and is a vivid reminder that nothing on the earth stays the same. Visiting my 92 year old Aunt and her 89 year old "baby bro", I pondered the question again, what to do and where to live when one's working career is over? Their lives center around extended family, living in nature, and growing. Can that be enough? On this trip I closed one chapter in life. I stopped by the house of one of my oldest dearest friends to see how her fight with cancer was going. Her son met me at the door and told me she had passed.  I wasn't completely surprised as I had not received a reply from my inquiries or phone calls.  I met Bonnie Davenport when I was 16 and had struck not only by her beauty, but by her tremendous faith and grace. As the years passed I became part of their family and her mom was like a 2nd mom. I learned much about life and loving God from them. It was also a real world Ecclesiastes story. That life can be very painful and tragic even for a devout Christian who "walks the walk".

I also opened a new chapter. On the way back to SF I stopped in Cotati and enjoyed listening to amazing musicians at the Cotati Accordian Festival, including my friend, Ginny Mac! Her song about a traveling man resonated in some ways with me.  I see myself having abodes and friends all over the world as long as possible. All the hippies of my era made it feel like Woodstock revisited. Living in the NOW remains the key 


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Location: Little River, CA, USA

Comments

  1. Deb GSeptember 2, 2019 at 7:23 AM

    Hi, Aunt Beth sent the link to your blog. When I think of silence, one of the places I think of is the ranch and the redwoods. Your posts about Italy make me want to go back. :) I spent two weeks there and loved it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SojournerSeptember 25, 2019 at 5:23 AM

      Deb, so nice to hear from you! The Laguna ranch is very special. I hope you find a way to return there someday.

      Delete

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