What’s cookin’ in the good ole USA?
Well, I’m glad you asked!!
Today (Labor Day, 9/7/20), using the above “ingredients for life”, I’ll be making simple, savory selections for summer to share with my little seven-year old granddaughter, Evie.
It’s a kind of farm-to-table dining experience for just the two of us, and it’s happening in the back yard by the garden.
You might even call it “Gardenside Gourmet”. 😀
I just love it when serendipity shows up at my door.
With all the negative things that happen out there in the world, it’s a great feeling to know the Universe (I see it as God’s love) is always behind the scenes, pulling the strings, and doing its magic, for our benefit, no less.
But you have to be able to see it to appreciate it.
In two previous posts, “The Creative Zone: Serendipity/Syncronicity”, and “Creativity: When Ideas Strike!”, I wrote about a serendipitous moment I experienced when I was brainstorming ideas for a bookcase I needed and wanted to build, myself, in my shop. I needed it to hold some Korean books, dictionaries and language reference books I had accumulated while I worked and lived in Korea for 12 years as a Korean translator.
(Click on the links above and scroll toward the bottom to see the bookcase and read the story about how the idea for the bookcase came about through a series of seemingly unrelated events…until that moment!…when they all became related. Ahhh… the serendipitous event!)
Also in my last post, “Serendipity At Work”, I mentioned four separate incidents of serendipity at work, while I was traveling around Europe to see and hear Lizz Wright sing, in April this year.
So this post is about, yet, another serendipitous moment I experienced which was also Lizz-related. It started to unfold in 2015 but actually took place in 2017.
If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ll know that I’ve been traveling frequently to see and hear Lizz Wright sing.
It is one great joy of mine. When I listen to her, it sparks ideas and emotions within me and influences my creativity. Her voice, words, music, style of singing, songwriting, artistry, and her very essence continue to inspire me in various ways.
We have known about each other for nearly four years now, ever since I went to Madison, Wisconsin, to see and hear her sing for the first time, to give her a song (Lizz Wright: The Sweet Honey In The Rock) I wrote about her, and to give her a digital frame with some songs and a “Seattle Bouquet” (macro shots of flowers I had taken around the Seattle area) on it. Those things were tokens of my appreciation and affection for her. I was so taken by her then and I still am. I told her about my website, the first post that I had just written about her (Lizz Wright: Doing One Thing Really Well), and how to contact me if she ever needed to.
That day in Madison, she and Rachel (a talented piano player) were walking North toward that triangular building on the corner (in the picture above), and I was walking West, away from the Capitol, toward that same corner. I was walking back to my hotel to get ready to go to the show. I assume she and Rachel were doing the same thing.
When I was about 10 steps from the corner, I suddenly saw Lizz walking across the street, about 10 steps from the same corner I was headed for. We would have met right at the corner had not that group of 5-7 people rushed right in front of me to get across the street before the light changed. I then had to go around them and catch up to Lizz from behind, which I did.
Officially, Spring started March 20th, and I see the daffodils and the camellias already leading the charge, as they pop up everywhere each Spring here in Seattle.
And there are at least several hundred other unique and beautiful flowers, just within a 10-mile radius of Seattle, that will soon reappear and present an encore of last year’s performance, to those who eagerly await their arrival, as well as to some who noticed them before but didn’t REALLY SEE them.
The Boat Desk
Now as I think about it, this is where it all started for me. This is where I started paying attention to my creative nature. This single event turned me sharply on a journey of self-discovery which I’m still on today.
This is where my interest in design and woodworking began to develop and grow. This is where changes in me were about to happen.
My kids were young (4 and a half and six years old) and were just starting kindergarten and elementary school.
They needed a desk but I didn’t want to just buy them a desk. I decided I’d try to build a desk for them where they could do their homework. But I didn’t want to build them just any desk.