The view is from my family room, over the garden powdered with a rare dusting of snow on this day, over Garrison Lake, over the dunes and the Pacific roiling in the background.
Yes, you think, Rosaria starts her conversations by referring to this view, from her cottage in the Northwest.And if I were to orate my story today, it would be full of connections to this place. We are, after all, part of our environment. We live and breathe and eat the foods that grow here.
My daughter notices when I use the phrase, "I'm glad it worked out!"
She says I use that phrase to signify that regardless of the cost, the effort, the time involved in any action, I want to emphasize my humble efforts in making something happen.
I remember the horns of this dilemma from what my mother used to say:
"If you boast, if you say you planned it that way, you will incur the envy of people and evil spirits. Boasting brought down important people, people with more talent, more grace, more connections than you will ever have."
For all we do, all we acquire, all the connections we have with the modern world, we are who we are, a collection of stories passed down and absorbed in our DNA, even though it has been shaken up and re-positioned for a new environment.
So much that is us, is not of our doing.
