Full Moon Solstice Christmas Season

What a busy time of year, at year's end.  

'Tis the season of controlled chaos, somewhat self created, but do you feel the momentum toward the light?

With each sunrise, the soul is uplifted.  Warmth and mood elevating with the promise that the world will go on...

...and our leaders are listening to our heartfelt petitions...

...on this day when a child was born in a humble stable where animals were housed and fed, a child who came to show the way...

...and where consumerism got all mixed up with giving...

...turn your face to the light and the beauty of human creation...

...and to Grandmother Moon, as she in her fullness sets.

Listen to your own heart and bloom in place on this beautiful Mother Earth we call home!

Merry Christmas everyone.  Love YOU!

Lights in the Darkness

Kate McGarrigle, who passed over a year ago this month, is remembered for her voice of roses and thorns accompanied by her sister Anna's harmony.

In this link below, she sings for the last time with her whole family, on stage in the Royal Albert Hall, a parting lament to Proserpina (Persephone) to come home to her mama.


Click "play" and then "pause" and wait a few minutes for the video to buffer to enjoy the song all the way through to the end.

vimeo.com/12183699

Torino Window Shopping

At this year's end, I am thinking of my sisters and daughters and our mothers and grandmothers.  May our lights carry on through the darkness.


This is especially for you, my sister, who travels with Persephone!  


travelswithpersephone.blogspot.com

Rome to Home

Let's see - I left Roma on the rapido train to Milano on Saturday at 10:15 am (via Firenza and Bologna)...

...having first had a farewell cappuccino and special pastry with my wonderful host Nanni at her favorite caffe...

... after a last familiar walk down my morning and evening beaten path, carpeted with golden leaves...

...having said goodbye just the afternoon the day before to my darling Italian lesson classmates,...

...proud that my old bones can still support the backpack containing my TV quality video camera, which I carried to film the olive harvest in Greece...

 ...along with the laptop which connects me to the global world and is a vessel for my creativity, all the cords and cables and phones... 

...as well as two suitcases and one purse which all hung on my achy breaky body...

 ...to the highly recommended Hotel Cardano (by TripAdvisor.com) at Malpensa airport (MXP) outside of Milano, as the sun sets outside my window over the residential airport neighborhood.

 Taking stock of the wardrobe I wore everyday these past two months, (and used that sewing kit to mend holes with several times), I ponder how to configure the airline's allotment of bags and weight restrictions...

...for the next morning's flight.  

I gaze with heavy eyes outside my porthole window at Milano below and the Alps in the distance dusted with fresh snow...

... commencing a long journey westward to awake to sunrise over the snow dusted Pryor Mountains of Montana, facing East where I came from two days earlier (and little sleep later)...

...and through my grape arbor framing the ski run in the Beartooth Mountains to the south, it is now Monday morning.

The flock of wild turkeys, which escaped Thanksgiving dinner, has come to greet me.

Cluck, cluck! I am proud to have fulfilled my dreams pursued.  

Ah, home is sweet home - but I will return.

From Pillar to Post alla Roma

Getting to Italian lessons in Roma in the winter reminds me of my teenage years in London and is quite like orienteering on that popular TV show called the Amazing Race...

...wake in the dark, shake off the chill of damp cold rooms with a quick hot shower and dress for the day outside in the weather...

catch the bus...

...feed yourself into the moving mass of Romans on their way through the tunnels of the Metro like rats in a maze...

...arriva alla scuola...

...climb the true stairmaster...

...sit in class in a lovely room with new friends from all over the world...

...take your venti minuti break for a cappuccino and a pastry in "le club" in the basement (OK this was taken in Milano)...

 ...walk by some old ruins on your way to la pranza (lunch)...

...manga  deliciosa e curiosa puntarella greens with anchovy vinagrette and a carciofi from Sicilia...

...stumble upon a tabletop dulcimer player in a piccola piazza and be mezmerized for a while...

...find your door key and be glad that it is attached to a warm room inside...

...where your work desk is waiting at the end of another molto bene giorno alla Romana.

Next time I will share some  daily "Plan B" incidentals ~ of life on the streets. 


Ciao for now! ~ Deborah

My 60th Birthday in Roma

Sometimes you get dealt a bountiful hand in life.  That would be me!

Who else gets to travel to 5 Mediterranean countries with her molto simpatico husband...

 ...sit in a hot tub with my goddess sister under the ruins of Athena's temple...

...take lezioni Italiani in Roma with my che bello figlio ...

...make music with a new best friend...

...buy a little giftie alla Armani for myself...

...follow in the foot steps of mia madre...

...and mi padre?         Mama Mia!

Hats off to you Dad for giving life to me on this day 60 years ago.

I am one grateful Mama for all my buon fortuna.  

Te Amo Tutti!

The Plane Trees of Lago Maggiore