We went to the Bolder Boulder festivities today. Sweetie ran in it while Honey slept in. Sugar and I walked downtown to the stadium to see the last runners come in and the show. I felt robbed of my annual high emotional moment that accompanies the parachuters jumping into the stadium to Lee Greenwood singing "Proud to be an American". The winds were strong enough to push them a) into the crowd b) onto the bleachers c) onto a tree in the park next door! No one was hurt and they still entertained us. My moment came later when we were singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and right as we hit "The laaand of the freeeeeeeeeeee!", the fighter jets flew over with one missing. That is always a powerful sight for me.

Another powerful sight is all the runners who participate. The wheelchair racers, the disabled people, the palsied children in strollers pushed by relatives, the way out of shape people who look like they are struggling but having the time of their lives. I love all the humanity at this event.

Ok, ok, ok. I love Fantasia Barrino!! She won me over with her early performance of "Something to Talk About" which, by the way, is here - click on the performance video list then scroll down to her name. I gotta say, I think the last girl she competed against has a powerhouse voice but when she sang the "Idol single", I didn't know what she was saying. With Fantasia, I could understand the words and the meaning and the full message.
Yes, "ART is a word which summarizes THE QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION." and she really delivers her art.

Well, ok. I did start volunteering at our local food bank again. Years ago, I worked in their warehouse a few times, went to the cannery a few times and worked in the garden raising food for other people. One day I stood up from weeding, looked around and thought, "Where are all the people I'm doing this work for? Why are they not out here helping me help them?". I put the trowel down and stopped showing up.

Years roll by and the nagging feeling remains that the help we can offer people in the way of education, drug rehab and general counseling isn't possible unless people are well fed. Hungry people have a hard time accepting advice and direction. So here I am back again helping people get their food. It's more symbolic than necessary in this affluent town, I imagine, but still, it's a contribution.

A few years ago, a man stopped me in the grocery store parking lot asking for a hand out. I said I didn't have any cash (I really didn't) but offered him some food that I had in my bag. "Nah," he said. "Food's not the problem. There is so much free food in this town." I wished him luck and he went on his way.

Maybe something I do at the food bank will end up helping truly hungry people somewhere. It's a pretty congenial place to spend some time, anyway.

Does something new and different have to happen every single day? Can't we just have a couple of days when things are pretty much the same? In a good way, that is. I've noticed that the universe is a little off balance lately and I see it manifested in the odd things that people around me are doing. When it gets like this, I have to remember to be certain about my own universe rather than focus on the bumps and hiccups going on around me. This helps:

"What is true for you is what you have observed yourself and when you lose that you have lost everything."

Meanwhile, it's gorgeous in Boulder this time of year. Looks like weather for the Bolder Boulder will be cool and clear. No, no, no - I'm not going to run in it! This year we're going to walk down to Folsom Stadium through the race route and see the festivities and get some free Power Bars. Then we'll wander over to the Boulder Creek Festival. Great way to kick off the summer.

I don't understand why northern people insist on making cornbread sweet. We got some takeout from a place called "Lulu's" in Boulder and though it was touted as down home Southern cooking, the cornbread is like cake.

Here's the recipe for the best cornbread in the world, right off the Clabber Girl Double Acting Baking Powder can:

Southern Corn Bread
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups white cornmeal
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Clabber Girl Baking Powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
1 egg

Cornbread was the one dish that I was taught to make by feel and sight rather than by measuring. I recall heating the oven up to about 450º, putting a spoonful of bacon grease in a small cast iron skillet and into the oven to heat up till it looked a certain way. Then take a scoop of this and a pinch of that and get it about that wet and pour it into the skillet to cook for about 20 minutes. Years after Mama died I was surprised to find her recipe so well approximated on the can of baking powder.

I tried to make cornbread in Colorado and it never turned out like I remember it, so I don't try anymore. Cracker Barrel cornbread tastes pretty good, though.

This time of year I can't get enough of after having too much of winter. Every year I think, "Next year - I have to go away for the winter." then it comes and it's ok and it goes by and then right at the end, I think, "Get me out of here! I need some green!"

I think the snow has stopped for the year and maybe we lost some fruit but it's ok. We still need the moisture and last year, the fruit trees overdid themselves a bit. The plum tree still seems to be recovering from the weight of all that sweet succulence, glad to just hold its leaves up. I heard some hummingbirds the other morning and put out the feeder but they haven't found it yet. The goldfinches found the thistle bag, though. Sweetie and I did some clearing and planted a lupine, a campanula, some sandwort, and some hollyhocks. The chamomile I seeded last fall has come up but no blooms yet. I discovered chamomile in Turkey near a big bazaar in Istanbul. The smell of apples filled the air but I couldn't see any around. I turned a corner and there it was, a huge plaza filled with little white and yellow blossoms.

Spring doesn't last long enough anywhere.

I thought I was some kind of artist till I went to see Julia Cameron speak. Something about her message woke me to the fact that I don't have any urgent message to share with the world in the form of some specific presentation. I do want to effect change, but not in the customary forms of art. That was that.

In some primitive cultures, art isn't considered a separate activity but is more infused into everyday living. Maybe that's what I've been doing - using my whole life as a form of self expression. But everybody does that, don't they? That would make us all artists in one form or another. One difference is whether or not it's done consciously, right?

I had lots of time for drawing and writing before I had kids. The last 2 decades, that same creative energy has been directed toward helping them orient to life. Homeschooling was great fun and gave me the opportunity to explore with them. Now that they are up and grown and independent, I've been looking around for some outlet to direct that energy toward. Feeding hungry people is what has my interest now.

potential trouble source: a person who is in some way connected to and being adversely affected by a suppressive person. Such a person is called a potential trouble source because he can be a lot of trouble to himself and to others.

Trouble like not getting enough sleep to be sharp and present for big projects, trouble like thinking one thing was said when another was said, trouble like ordering the supplies for the wrong store, trouble like never quite getting around to completing the projects, trouble like not quite stating the whole picture so that people know what you need. Yes, a person in that situation is aptly named. I'm glad to have a label for it -otherwise it could drive someone nuts.

We signed up with Monroe Organic Farms, a CSA farm in Northern Colorado. Long ago, when they were first starting, we were members, then dropped out for a few years of co-op ordering with other homeschoolers. We went back to Monroe a few years ago and shared the abundance. One thing I like about the Monroes is that their family has been farming organically for 3 generations (or maybe 2) - anyway, for a long time. They are real farmers on a real farm. The Harvest potluck at the farm is pretty fun, too.

When you have some kind of reaction to something but you don't know what is causing it, you can eliminate everything except something basic - like brown rice. Eat that for a few days, and let your body adjust to that. Then add some other food to see what reaction you get. Then later add something else, etc.

I've never had to do that with food since my body likes it all. But I do have to do that from time to time with people. I'm in the middle of an elimination diet as far as communication lines go. You know, if it's not working, sometimes it's just better to let it go and see what else is out there.