Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Hidden Journeys


It’s odd, isn’t it. We discover our truest passions by accident, stumbling upon them like a pit in an olive or a fantastic sunset. Then, quite suddenly, they’re a part of our lives and we can’t imagine what we did before they came along.

My opinion is that these kinds illuminating moments inevitably solve a myriad of other open ended questions and create a recipe for solutions that’s as easy to follow as making chicken soup. Finding these kinds of analogous answers, and leveraging them to new heights, seems to be the hallmark of the female species. Sure, shopping with us is frustrating, so say some of our husbands and lovers. Guys hate it when we walk in to a store looking for red shoes, but walk out with a coffee maker, new eye shadow and salad tongs. But with one trip you can bet we’ve crossed out three other things on our list, and we’ll look good making our morning java!

Why are we so open to and drawn in by peripheral cues that guide us to a path different from the one we set out to travel? Because choices are made not just by logic but by emotion. The stimuli we feel at any given moment helps us make a judgement call to insure that we’re nurturing, protecting and expressing all at the same time. There are cues happening all around us beckoning us not to miss the subtleties of possibility, when the courage to take the path less traveled is put in motion.

It’s hard not to relate this to the story of wine. You never really know what the grape will become. You offer it soil and it prefers rocks. You give it water but it likes it when it’s just a little dry at the end of the season. You gently harvest it and massage it to release its liquid secrets but it never really gives you much hope of predicting it’s exact journey. How do we make wine? We give it respect, we offer it the chance to change and release hidden flavors, we protect it and let it sleep and refine and then it gives us the greatest gift of all, it’s uniqueness and complexity with every sniff, swirl, and swallow.

Our Networking, Women and Wine blog about wine is about that love affair, a connection that invents itself only when we let our intuition discover it’s own way, and then celebrate life together as women who are working hard to become all that we can be, when a passion finds us.

1 comment:

  1. Have you thought about expanding your reach? What if we could form many NWW around the country? I bet I could get the first chapter going in the Pacific Northwest!

    Anna

    ReplyDelete