Spinning, Sipping and Seeing

I'm enjoying a glass of Shelton Cabernet Franc and thinking about how the world is spinning faster than I'm used to. I feel like there's no safety net and no straps to hold me in and I wonder if we all feel that way right now.

The wine slides down like I'm wrapping myself in a claret, velvet cape. My lips giggle with anticipation as each swallow glides easily past the taste buds that feel they're denied a longer embrace with the aged liquid.

Sure, the lasagna that I created tonight was a crowd-pleaser. And half of the concoction is hibernating in my freezer until the next meal calls. But it's the dance with the glass I need tonight as I hold on to what hasn't changed in the face of events that define why we wish Monday's could simply slide off the calender to be left behind forever.

I'm remembering the soothing vibration of a deep yoga breath I called forth to ease my fears, earlier today. Quelling my panic until I could measure my day against my health, my happiness, and the warmth of my bed in the morning light.

Then, as I wallowed in my own fear I recall my chance encounter with the faces and stories of women I found online. Powerful ladies who have the strength to smile through their cancer while I cling desperately to the purple glow on the skiff of snow that blankets the lawn outside my March window knowing that I must stop crying without reason for a future yet unknown.

My glass is almost empty and like the end of a visit with a friend, you realize that you feel better already and what you're worried about isn't that bad. That there are people around that still need you to be whole, and they're waiting for you to heal them when their world is rocked.

I think I'll pour another, and fill the sink with sudsy, white clouds to immerse the remnants of meat and cheese. I'll sip awhile longer and ride the ride I'm on today. Spinning as it may, in ever increasing revolutions, my world, my present moment, is still the only way to experience the life I have been given. And I'll enjoy it because I own it and it goes so well with the wine, and the sunrise that I know tomorrow will bring.

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.