Good TV

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What constitutes good TV is a highly subjective opinion. Last night, I observed just such an opinion from Charlie.

Charlie is my companion in the evening when I watch TV. He is generally curled up next to me, sometimes napping on the rocker in the corner.

Last night, flipping channels during endless commercials on another show, I stopped to watch a PBS nature documentary on Willow, a mountain lion and the six kittens she raised. It spanned ten years in Montana’s wilderness with amazing footage of every aspect of their lives and the animals who shared her environment.

It was when Willow approached a den of fox cubs, and the mother fox nearby began barking a warning to them that Charlie jumped up on high alert to the sounds.

I brought him next to me for a better angle, and he remained fascinated for the rest of the show. With sharp interest, he watched Willow raising her young, feeding them smaller prey, bringing down elk, sharing the kill with other non-familial cougars, and negotiating the changing seasons. He listened intently to all the growls and hisses and other utterances that big cats make. I shared his fascination.

But this wasn’t the first time he has watched animals on television.

Oddly, the Parsons Jack Russell was the one dog in the show that really kept Charlie’s interest. He only occasionally glanced up at the other dogs in the ring.

I guess he has now positively confirmed his idea of good TV, and it does not include my much-loved K-drama.

The (Now) Annual German Plum Cake

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It looks a lot like apples, you say, and it is. I’ve been making this recipe for decades, and it’s one of my favorites. All butter, sugar, egg yolks, and flour, and fruit. Yum.

The original is made with Italian prune plums, which are not in season very long, and it’s delicious. I started experimenting with other fruits, and found peaches were a natural, as are apples.

I now make this with apples, cinnamon added to the sugar, at least once a year in the fall, experimenting with different apple flavors and varieties. It’s so incredibly easy with all ingredients mixed together right in the baking pan.

It always comes out fabulous, even if my fruit arrangement may occasionally leave something to be desired.

Baking is good for the soul.

Want to make a German Plum Cake yourself? You can find the recipe right here. Enjoy!

A Thousand Splendid Suns

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You think your pain and your heartbreak
are unprecedented in the history of the world,
and then you read.
~ James Baldwin

A Thousand Splendid Suns, historical fiction, by Khaled Hosseini was a very difficult read for me. For many reasons.

Most disturbing to me was the horrific brutality to women, to our two main characters, Mariam and Laila, but also to women in general under the shifting periods of leadership in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban, women were severely beaten or possibly executed for being on the street unaccompanied by a close male family member.

The abuse perpetrated on Mariam and Laila in their home by their husband was heinous. Rather than being happy for the two women, I was sometimes simply relieved that they somehow managed to survive. There were happy moments, but very few with him.

While the story begins in Herat, most takes place in Kabul over a period of decades when there is non-stop destruction between warring parties from within and from outside of the country. This would have been hard enough to read, but in the face of the horror going on currently in Gaza, the seemingly endless war in Ukraine, and an unfounded war in Iran, more war was painful to read about.

The fact that I am not a history buff by any means also made this novel a challenge, plus this is a culture I have little familiarity with. I had a lot to learn.

The story itself is essentially about two incredibly brave women who were not raised to be brave. In their fight to survive, Mariam and Laila became bonded like mother and daughter, repeatedly risking so much to protect their children and others they loved. How they endured and overcame so much loss and found strength through one another is at the inspiring core of this story.

As I write this, I find tears in my eyes as I think of Mariam and Laila, of Tariq, of Aziza and Kalmai, of Babi and Mammy, of Nana, and of Mullah Faizullah. Even for Jalil who, too late, came to understand what he had done. For Zaman, who ran the orphanage.

It is, in the end, a story of love, of heroism, of hope, and survival against all odds, but I now know why it sat on my TBR shelf so long after my having read The Kite Runner. Some books just ask a lot of you. This, for me, was one of them. It was worth it.

The Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit

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These, courtesy of American author, Anne Lamott.

Anne Lamott is perhaps most known for her book on writing, “Bird by Bird.” This quote is from her book, “Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son.”

“I was reminded of
the Four Immutable
Laws of the Spirit:

Whoever is present
are the right people.

Whenever it begins
is the right time.

Whatever happens
is the only thing
that could have happened.

And when it’s over, it’s over.”

Another quote from this book that I liked: “grace is a small white butterfly, and life is a semi-trailer careening up 101.”

All of Ms. Lamott’s books can be found here on goodreads.

The Creative Sweet Spot

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For most of us, our lives were built around the security of routine. For us creatives, routine can become a prison. Where is the sweet spot between the necessity of routine and stepping outside it to create? I’m working at finding that balance.

It’s an established fact that children thrive on routine. In our earliest years, it provides stability, safety, and a kind of certainty that life is predictable.

Photo thanks to: Arthur Krijgsman / pexels

School provides more of the same. Our earliest schedules prescribe the beginning of our day, the order of subjects, teachers and classes, and a 3 o’clock bell. In time, we evolve to work – get on the train, the subway, in the car to arrive at work at 9, finish at 5 (or some variation.)

The one-time comfort of routine can easily become a sturdy fence of limitation around us. Even when schedules shift, there may still be an insistent subtext.

Where and when is the space to be creative? Does it have to wait until the end of our day or the weekend? I still struggle with this even though I freelance from home. While I continue to mostly work a traditional workweek for clients, I do have some flexibility.  

Yet I wonder – can I just leave what I’m doing at the computer and go draw or write in my studio for hours at a time? Can I just leave my desk and go walking and take photographs? And as crazy as this sounds, can I take a Monday-Friday “workday” and spend it cleaning, or cooking and baking – instead of doing something work-related?

Changing our habits is how we grow. To create is to step outside our comfort zone, to let go of what feels safe and secure, and take a leap, of whatever size it may be. To break a habit is to rewire our brain, one which, for many of us, has been wired for life to fit a schedule.

Breaking that kind of habit can be a challenge, and while I wish it were otherwise, it often still is for me. I’m pushing through, little step by little step, often grappling with guilt, but it’s the only way out. I actually have no idea what my sweet spot will look like, only that it can’t be this, and for now, every little push has to be enough.

Do you struggle with breaking the habit of routine to find your creative self?