Category: Blog

While gusts of wind pressure moments of calm after this mild winter’s major mid-March Nor’Easter, my eyes fix on the tangerine flames that seek to warm me from the fire. This silence brings me back to the 70s as my bookmark rests on the last few chapters of the book I’m reading. This memoir, “I Refuse to Kill” fascinates me with suggested solutions for my own past of mystery and questions unanswered.

“Feeling fire and rain,,tonight snow. Friendless, lonely times never realizing any yesterday may have been the last.” Lines of that Sweet Baby James Taylor song drift through my mind as I prepare for this week’s funeral Mass. I will sit in the shadows, in the final church pews, present to pay the respect I’ve always maintained. They may not recognize me, or even know I’m there. Yet, I understand. Life gets in the way and everyone gets…”busy.” And people forget.

But in the stillness of warm rooms on cold March nights, I feel the presence of the many who seek to remember and permit hearts to recognize the Love that, once it is felt, can never be lost.

Since the shift in reality exacting by the turn of the decade,

After opportunists collude to sabotage systems with malfunctions and hollow promises,

After 20 years of unexpected tragedy raise healing spaces between lingering clouds of memory,

Today, at this precise time of noon, I stop my walk to probe the skies, to feel echoes of a past that hold all dear and earn the resonance–the moment of unity–in the blossoms of the crocus that welcome my gaze.

2/11/23

A glance at the kitchen ‘Frate Indovino’ Italian calendar and my realization dawns that we are in the midst of Carnevale 2023. A portion of the past rises inside my thoughts, still becoming part of this lifetime lived to understand. One of the marvels of where anyone spends time is the similarities with slight differences and the lessons to be gained. A simple dough of flour, scant sugar, an egg, melted butter, a splash of wine or rum becomes a pre-Lenten treat, ‘made essentially the same’ with variations depending on its region yet, named differently. In Milan, they are chiacchiere; in Tuscany, cenci; in Rome, frappe; in Veneto, crostoli; in Piemonte & Liguria, bugie. In some American /Italian-American circles, they are bow-ties. Through stories of varieties in cultures and those simple lessons, we are all capable of sitting together, with a cup of tea, coffee or glass of Vin Santo and share stories, life. What has become a distant possibility, in a purposeful reality is ‘essentially’ simple.

Round 1 of Dolci di Carnevale – in Piedmont (Piemonte) called “bugie” or lies.

Ferrovia: The “Great Iron Way” – carrying “merchandise” of all sorts to destinations for a variety of purposes. As we begin 2023, many of us, with boundaries beyond the immediate that surround us now, reflect on loved ones, from other places, other times. We belong to them, as they to us – regardless of whatever becomes the current trend in education, books, theory, politics or practice. We have been gifted with a sense to discern, to seek understanding through wisdom. And this gift arrives only through silence, observation, reflection…much that is voided or dismissed today.
What makes someone concretely refuse, resist, stand for an abstract concept – singularly and collectively? My daily four-hour travels to Manhattan from Upstate NY in the late 90s promised a daily departure and return, even through feelings of abandonment. This, in contrast to 600,000+ troops whose abandonment solidified their decision to resist and refuse. Worth the thought and consideration, then speaking to “now”…

“Il treno degli Internati Militari Italiani”: la storia rivive al Museo Ferroviario

The Frate Indovino Italian calendar/almanac, now my annual tradition, brings me back to a warm, welcoming kitchen of an elder who genuinely felt, cared and tried to express those sentiments with as candid a look and word as he was able to summon at the time. Often, these emotive depths are transmittable to those who have experienced them, often regardless of age. But with time, it is the Love, compassion desire to discover, understand and share in the lives of others that brings Light. Try more silence, introspection, listening to thought in tune with heartstrings, and allow the rise of consequential actions however small they may seem.

Today’s “paisana” reflection on the Frate Indovino Italian calendar/ almanac feels as though it may be a deep dive of reflection for those in Davos, DC or on TV…(photo credit: https://it.freepik.com/foto-gratuito)
Loosely translated, “Chatter, blather, flim-flam, gossip don’t make flour.”

12/19/22 – As prehistoric skeletal remains and footprints or old sunken ships are being revealed by receding waters through drought, (one part of Nature’s revenge), that which human beings deem as insignificant, makes its way into view its rightful place of recognition. A commemoration rests to be noticed in Florence, (Firenze), near La Fortezza, in the middle of one of the most historic cities in the world. (Grazie a Giuseppe Argentiero, & #IMI – Internati Militari Italiani)

#everynamecounts – ENC Arolsen Archives.

12/11/22 – These days have see-sawed between pleasantly warm and bone-chilling cold with enough humidity to make the back-and-forth sway dizzying for sensitive souls.

Since mid-November, I’ve noticed small flocks of Starlings, diving onto backyard feeders with no regard for any other birds already present. Their scruffy appearance defines as “non-breeding, immature adults” by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology–a consideration to apply to behaviors in the human species as well. Some characteristic behaviors of this particular breed give me pause for thought, especially with what we’ve witnessed since COVID descended into our lives globally at the end of the 2010 decade.

Unlike pairings of, let’s say, a savory Gorgonzola with Bosc pears, seemingly random individuals massed together bound by thoughts, (whether their own or of others), attitudes and actions. These all bubbled in full brew during in the middle of that decade. And now from the beginnings of the 2020 decade, some consequences mount to manifest.

Are there truths to the way life dips, dives, and rises, like the nature of these Starlings catapulting themselves on suet feeders without regard just to be first in line? Of course! Yet, for a good part of the human species, maintaining a thoughtful mindset, listening to one’s inner self, finding time for quiet can bring direction…and certainly more serenity. Set aside time for silence, to hear yourself think and feel. No one knows better than you what you truly want to fulfill your soul in life!

Finding Clarity

Magnification and Resolution. In the world of inquiry, to better view and hopefully understand much of a busy, subsurface world, microscopes are used. Words from our depths can be considered in the same way! It is not enough to have one’s thoughts and words “magnified” as in today’s media, but also with “precise resolution” to verify what’s in focus. This calls for something deeper than image, word, or stats —

19 September 2022: San Gennaro – The Miracle of San Gennaro today & positive results.
In today’s world of “alternative facts”, what you believe may be more of an indication of how and where your “heart speaks.” Of course, it may be said factually that “hearts don’t speak”, but they nudge thought & action in one direction or another. https://www.visitnaples.eu/en/neapolitanity/discover-naples/the-blood-of-st.-gennaro-miracle-or-artful-trick

La Terra di Pino Daniele e di una parte straordinaria della mia famiglia.