My Book ~ A Journey Toward Midlife Renewal

Basecamp, CA -- The book is well on it's way toward completion.  Yipeee!!!  Here is the backcover blurb:

At midlife Ingrid Hart is a single woman whose two children have just left for college.  Once a mother who made cinnamon toast for her children, she has lost her identity. Ingrid wants to discover who she is in the second half of life and makes a bold choice. She launches on a one-year journey across California where she lives in one city per month for a year.  

  

Financial obstacles block her path from the start. Will she overcome these barriers and continue her journey or will she abandon her dream of discovering who she really is? 

Ingrid learns that her journey is mostly internal and loses faith in herself and her choices. She discovers her sacred wound—and it acts as a catalyst for her transformation—what imprisons her will also set her free. She holds both the lock and key to her personal salvation.  Ingrid must overcome her fears and learn to trust herself once again.  

A Journey Toward Midlife Renewal ~ My Year In California is a travelogue and pictorial essay.   There are over 80 images and captions of people and places that help tell Ingrid’s personal California story.  

Cabrillo National Monument

My son Jordan balances himself along
a wall at Cabrillo National Monument.
I closed my eyes while snapping this pix.

San Diego, CA -- “This may be the most beautiful day of the year,” I told Jordan at the Cabrillo National Monument as we gazed over all of downtown San Diego, sailboats set in the foreground.  It had rained the night before and there was snow on Mount Palomar and the Laguna Mountains.  I've worn contact lenses for the past 20 years, so my eyes are no longer sharp, yet I could still clearly make out the Spanish revival style tower that houses the Museum of Man at Balboa Park, ten miles away. 

Ojai: Krotona Library

My daughter Haley considers
the idea of theosophy as a course
of spiritual study for her future.

Ojai, CA -- I spent time at the Krotona Library studying my new non-religion: theosophy.   This well-stocked library, which was built in 1924 and houses rare, out-of-print books focuses on the esoteric branches of knowledge such as alchemy, astrology, and mysticism. In my opinion, the Kratona Library invented and now owns “new age.” Sometimes I would just sit in this venerable space looking out from the floor-to-ceiling picture window at the Heritage Oak tree and rose garden. In the background were rolling hills of dry, yellow grasslands framed by mountains. Through osmosis I would absorb the teachings without even cracking a book. 

Venice: The Boys Are Back In Town

Venice, CA -- On a tranquil winter day, I sat on the beach, meditating on gentle waves tumbling on the shore when three young men carrying skateboards passed in front of me. Freedom. Riding on that same breeze was a whiff of incense, the scent of Venice, tenderly reminding me to remain in the present moment. I drew a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. There is only one time, and it is now.

Carmel: Memories Of My Father

Carmel, CA -- A haunting musical sound drifted on the wind from the luxurious Spanish Bay Golf Links at Pebble Beach.  A Scottish bagpipe player emerged, playing a soulful rendition of Amazing Grace in full regalia—a kilt, knee-high stockings and a wedge-shaped cap with a trailing ribbon. The last time I heard that song was at my father’s grave site.  He was a simple, old-world man who insisted our family emigrate from Brazil to the land of opportunity—California.  The memory of my beloved father, his simple life, and love of the bagpipe made me smile, and then I wept.  

Heart of Ireland Beats In Davis

Davis, CA -- The day I went to visit my son Jordan at his university in Davis, it was overcast and rainy.  Our first stop was a one-hour philosophy class deconstructing the skepticism associated with the writings of 16^th century philosopher René Descartes.  I don’t believe the professor understood when he wrote Cartesian Demon on the blackboard, it meant the demon Facebook because that’s what students were viewing on their laptops instead of listening to his lecture. 

 

After class, Jordan and I wanted some comfort food so we walked in a gentle rain from his frat house to de Vere’s Irish Pub in downtown Davis.   We sat in the library room on a plush red leather couch surrounded by antique fixtures, stained glass windows, polished wood, and yes, books.  If American Free Bird wasn’t blasting from the speakers, I would have sworn I was in Ireland. 

Our order of Bangers and Mash was clearly the comfort food we were seeking, wanting to sink deeper into Irish culture within this jewelry box of a restaurant.  The creamy mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy were worth the price of admission alone.  I asked our waiter Josh to bring us some gnarly mustard and he laughed.  A few moments later with the gnarly addition, the meal took on new heights as I dipped the housemade sausage into a zesty brew of brown seed mustard with a horseradish kick—my whole mouth zigging and zagging resounding with Zing!  My only regret was not ordering a pint of Guinness to balance the zig and zag.

Sadly, our time together was coming to an end.  Jordan and I walked back to his frat house and hugged goodbye.  He would pull an all-nighter to complete a term paper.  My heart was heavy for the parting once again, but made lighter by the memory of our precious time together.  I got in my car, turned on  the XM satellite radio to the 70s station hoping that Free Bird would float through the speakers, sending me back to the happy place once again, at de Vere's, with Jordan by my side. 

A New Yorker In San Francisco

San Francisco, CA -- “Drink it.  Enjoy it.  What could be simpler than that?” 

Eric Asimov, author of How To Love

Wine talks with Virginia Miller of the

San Francisco Bay Guardian.

New York Times chief wine critic Eric Asimov shared this insightful tip with an audience of 150 eager oenophiles, or wine lovers, at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club.  Asimov was in town to promote his memoir and manifesto: How To Love Wine.   I admit, the talk was a little high-brow for me, but I did learn that Asimov thinks tasting notes, or wine descriptions such as tastes like black current with a hint of a rare leather-bond book, are a total waste of time. “Do they convey anything relevant at all?” asked Asimov. 

I hit the jackpot at the end of the conversation, led by Virginia Miller, San Francisco Bay Guardian head food and wine writer, when my question was selected from a pile of handwritten queries.  “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done under the influence of an awesome bottle of wine?” Bingo.  Seriously Asimov, I’m handing you my Carte Blanche card to go wild.  His answer: “I’d open up another bottle of wine.”  Really? That's your wild story?

After that response, I was ready to bolt out the door toward the wine tasting reception—the challenge was so were 150 of my closest oenophile friends.  Given that there were only two people pouring wine, the lines were very, very long and I was growing very, very desperate.  Still, I waited. 

In line I met vintner Christopher Buchanan owner of Redwood Country Wines.  His operation is in Humboldt County along a mountaintop ridge in Miranda near old-growth redwoods, the Mattole and Eel rivers, and the Pacific Ocean.  His terroir—the combination of geography, geology and climate might just be the recipe for an award winning bottle of wine that I will be eager to try.

After waiting in line for 20 minutes, I sampled a flight of pinot noir, made by Bravium winemaker Derek Rohlffs.  My favorite was a Jackpot Black 2011.  I didn’t even bother with making up silly tasting notes to impress the winemaker.  I’m actually quite good at saying stuff like tastes like crushed blackberries and cassis with a hint of black pepper aged at the Bancroft Library in John Fremont’s journal from his 1843 expedition over the Sierra Nevada.

Taking the advice I’d heard earlier from New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov, I drank it and enjoyed it.  What could be simpler than that? 

Derek Rohlffs, winemaker at

Bravium with a bottle of Pinot

Noir "Jackpot Black 2011."