Reflection

 

If I had to pick one photo from all the hundreds I’ve taken this year, to tell the story of the past 12 months, this one is it.  A year of adventure shared with loved ones.   Celebrating life in the simplest of ways. 

 

Perfection

 

Travel Bucket List

“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

Ever since the movie “The Bucket List”, the topic of what one wants to accomplish before they die seems to be more in the forefront.  I am sure people have always had this sort of mental list in their head but it seems there is more talk about it since the characters played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson starting writing their own.  Or perhaps it’s because I am getting older that I am starting to give it more thought.  I hate to admit it, but likely the later is true.

The thing with me is, although I have no formal list on paper, I constantly have a list in my head.  More than that, I MUST, at ALL times, have a trip in the works.  No matter big or small, there must be an escape of some sort on the calendar.  If there isn’t one, I feel instantly trapped.  Not sure why, but I have been like this for as long as I can remember.  It must be the gypsy in me.  Whether a day trip to the lake, a road trip to visit family halfway across the country or a grand journey that requires passports and airline tickets to some tiny spot on the globe, I crave a new place to explore.  Eager to plan and learn as much as I can about a new destination.  In lots of ways this is a blessing.  I’m always curious to learn and discover a new place.  In many others, it is a curse.  Or as I often refer to it as, a “travel affliction”.  Never able to sit still and simply enjoy where I am.  Always feeling like I am missing out on some grand adventure.

So, I’ve been home from a 6-day trip to Los Angeles to visit family for… oh… about 48 hours.  There’s an amazing musician named Pavlo that were going to see perform in Toronto this weekend.  Yes, even a 2 hour jaunt north of the border for an overnight counts as a trip to me!  But… what I realized just 24 hours ago while flipping through the calendar, is that I’ve got nothing after that.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  Yikes! 

You can bet over the next several weeks, I’ll start dreaming up that mental list of mine.  Half the fun of any trip is simply planning it.  I’ll be checking out websites, looking for signs of where I am “supposed” to go next and researching destinations I’ve kept tucked in the back of my head.  I’ll probably write them down, arrange and rearrange them in chronological order dozens of times then let the planning frenzy begin!

In case you’re wondering which destinations seem to be hovering near the top of my Travel Bucket List at the moment…

Turkey – A Family Gulet trip along the Turkish coast  – www.petersommer.com

Peru  – A good friend of mine owns a small hotel near the base of Machu Picchu.  He’s been teasing me with photos for years.  Simply can’t take the temptation anymore.  www.KBTambo.com

Santorini, Greece. – Give me any excuse to go and I’ll be there!

The Olive and the Caper

This summer, while at the library, I stumbled upon the most wonderful little cookbook.  Well… “stumbled” would not be accurate as I found the book in the Mediterranean Cooking section.  And as anyone knows me, I am attracted to just about anything with even the faintest hint of Mediterranean flair like a bee to honey.  No matter if it’s a candle claiming the scent reminiscent of the beaches of Santorini to olive oil pressed in Crete to lipstick named “Turkish Delight”, I am completely drawn to it all.  If I can’t actually be there, then I might as well try to be as close as I can get.  If it’s got any connection to the Mediterranean, I somehow find it.  Or as I like to think… it somehow finds me!

“The Olive and the Caper” by Susanna Hoffman was an absolutely gem of a find.  Originally, I checked it out from the library.  But after renewing it twice, I decided to just buy the darn thing. I can honestly say, nearly every new recipe I have tried in the past few months has come from this newly found treasure. 

I love the book for several reasons.  Most importantly, every recipe I have made is excellent.  All have the ability to transport me right back to my happy place on the other side of the world with their savory smells and delicious tastes.  The scent of fresh roasted vegetables and spices all dance so beautifully within my kitchen.  The ingredients are simple and straight from the earth.  The vegetable section is getting especially well worn.  I’ve written notes on all my favorites.  Pages are getting dog-eared.  It is a cookbook that is showing signs of being well loved. 

The best part of this book is not only the beautiful visual presentation, but the stories, legends and origins behind each dish are shared.  I am always interested in discovering any new tasty tidbits about Greece. This book offers an eclectic cornucopia of trivia sure to satisfy any Philhellene.  For me, just skimming through the pages gaining bits of Mediterranean lore is enough to temporarily quench my desire for a connection to the sights of Greece.  You can only imagine how happy my senses are when I can smell the aromas and taste the flavors of the place that warms my soul.

Winter Leek Soup

Knock knock

While in Italy in the summer of 2009, I fell in love with all the ornate and unusual door knockers.  Around every corner and down every street there were more eerie and stoic faces to discover guarding the entrances to Italian residences.  I could have walked for endless hours searching for these treasures.  My mind filled with wonder about each and every one.  Oh… the stories they could tell about the guests they had greeted.

This rugged man with the furrowed brow and thick mustache.  How many times did he nearly lose a tooth from frantic knocking?  Is he a gargoyle or an angry nymph? 

Rome, Italy

I love this beautiful Egyptian inspired knocker.  So much mystery implied with this one.  Is this a man or a woman?  What is he or she doing in Italy so far from home? 

Sorrento, Italy

I’ve had a fascination with Medusa ever since I took a university Mythology class.  A woman with so much power.  Perhaps I envied her and her magical ability to turn people to stone.  Is this her?

Sorrento, Italy

I tried in vain while on the trip, to find a hardware store that carried any kind of knocker but with no success.  Hmmm… I think that’s a reason for me to pay another visit!

A Bag of Mixed Emotions

Yesterday was a big day.  One we’d talked about for well over a year.  However, sending out that email telling our friends and family we’re selling our house, well, that was hard.   I cried, although I am not entirely sure why, as it was my big idea to do it.  No, we’re not moving because one of us is being transferred to a new city.  Nor are we moving because we don’t like our house, our neighborhood or find we need more room.  Rather, we’re moving for a pretty unconventional yet completely logical reason.  We’re selling the home we’ve worked the last 5+ years to remodel and make our own because we simply want to travel more.  Is this such a crazy idea?  I can already hear the quiet whispers of acquaintances saying, “They must be having financial trouble”.  Perhaps there are rumors our marriage isn’t going so well.  I’d be lying if I said that sort of chatter isn’t going to bother me.  It will.  Especially, when it’s just the contrary.  Despite the glum economy, we’re fortunate my husband’s business is growing and doing really well.  Other than a little bickering and an occasional bad day, my marriage of 11+ years is humming along just fine.  We decided to sell our house so we are able to untie ourselves from our large home and be free to see the world a little more.  We’ve got two young children and at this point in life, most of our peers are buying larger homes to accommodate their growing families.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  We did just the same.  The big house defined me but it did not complete me.  It’s a little out of the ordinary to be moving just to simplify our lives at this stage of the game.  We’re not too close to the typical age of having a mid-life crisis.  To be honest, I’m pretty darn shocked I was able to convince my husband to agree this is even a good idea.

The thing is, this summer was a turning point.  I changed the way I was thinking.  While traveling in Europe, I saw people all around me who had done just what I had always dreamed of doing.  People who picked up their life and moved it to the other side of the world.  People who were perfectly normal, with good jobs and leading a great life.  People, who like me, wanted to explore the world.  They wanted to live in different places and experience foreign cultures, not just talk or dream about it.  They wanted to defy the norm and the comfortable.  The difference for me is I can’t simply pick up and leave right now.  Sure I could, but I would ruin the family life I’ve tried so hard to create.  I have a husband who is perfectly content to live where we are.  I have children who would be happy anywhere, but this is their home.  We are lucky to have grandparents who live within minutes of our driveway.  I am trying to balance everyone’s needs including my own somewhat gracefully.  So, I’ve decided to bite off my dream into tiny morsels.  Manageable baby steps I suppose you’d call them.  Hey, I’ll take what I can get.  Right now, it’s sell the house, move to something smaller and start to take our kids on extraordinary adventures.  Big and small.  Near and far.  You name it.   I am willing to pack for it.

Our kids have been all over the place in their short little lives.  Trust me, they have not been short-changed in the travel department.  But they are getting to the age where they’ll actually remember the destinations we’ll go now.  They can have an active role in learning about the places we’ll see, the tastes and sounds of far away places.  Sure every kid dreams about going to Disney World.  I did too.  I suppose we’ll have to break down and take them there.  But I am of the mind-set that says, why go to Epcot Center to see the lands of Germany, Mexico and China when you can spend nearly the same amount of money and go to the real thing?

It’s been 24 hours since our little announcement.  No one is knocking down our doors to buy our home yet.  I’ve heard no gossip from neighbors about our personal affairs. Ironically, we’ve gotten the opposite response from what we’d expected.  Almost everyone has said they admire us.  One friend said he and his wife talk about this same thing all the time.  Another called us “trail blazers”.  I liked that comment best!  Overall, I believe people think it’s really admirable that in an age where “bigger is better” and “the one with the most toys wins” that some folks have a different point of view.  That we’ve had the guts to take a step back, review what’s important to us in life and to “just do it”.  To realize there is so much the world has to show us if we simply create the opportunity to make it possible to experience it.

So, I’ve got mixed emotions.  I love my home.  It’s perfect in every way.  I cry to think someone else will use my address as their own.  But then, I think of all the cities, languages, modes of transportation, cultures and foods I will get to experience as I cross this planet with the people who mean the most to me.  My husband, always the realist, says I’ll laugh at all of this house drama one day as I am basking in the sun in some foreign land with a cocktail in my hands.  I’ll be darn right giddy as we stroll through museum halls filled with world-famous masterpieces.  You know what?  He is right!  Now who’s got that SOLD sign so we can start packing?

Inspiration

For years I’ve always looked to quotes for inspiration and motivation. I remember in grade school, my friend’s older brother used to have various sayings posted all over his bedroom. I thought it was odd, all these tiny clippings with nuggets of wisdom scribbled on them. As I got older, I found myself doing just the same thing.  I found myself drawn to certain quotes for all sorts of reasons. Generally in a few short words or sentences, a really poignant quote can certainly strike a chord.  I thought I’d share a few my favorites.  Perhaps they’ll hit a note with you as well.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt with the heart.” ~ Helen Keller 

I cut this out of a friend’s wedding program in the mid 1990′s.  I loved the gentle reminder of what is really important in this world.

“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean Sea.” ~ Nikos Kazantzakis 

While reading Zorba the Greek, again in the mid-1990′s apparently an impressionable time for me, I grabbed on to this quote.  It spoke to my soul.  By this time, I’d fallen in love with the country of Greece.  I think subconsciously, I wanted to always remember, no matter where I was in life, that rugged and romantic country is the place that makes me the most content, alive and complete.  It has hung on my wall ever since. 

“Life isn’t about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself.” ~ Unknown 

Last fall I was pretty depressed.  Not sure what I was doing in the life I had willingly created around me.  In the midst of my mind running on overload trying to figure out how I was going to manage being the me I had become, I ran across this quote on a card while grocery shopping.  BANG.  There it was.  In black and white.  Simply staring at me.  I bought the card, stood it on my desk and read it every day.  I am telling you, this quote saved me.  Well, that along with a couple of counseling sessions.  It is so true.  For the past 10 years I’d been trying to find myself in the wife and mother that I’d become.  Somewhere along the road of life I felt like I’d lost me.   But this little saying so innocently perched in the small card section tucked between produce and canned goods, reminded me that I am creating myself.  I hadn’t lost myself after all.  I was a work in progress.  Not one that was done and now left sitting on a shelf like a souvenir from an amazing long forgotten vacation.  I was ever evolving and it was up to me to continue to create myself.

“Life is short.  Eat candy.” ~ Dylan’s Candy Bar 

I bought a cute t-shirt with this saying from Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York City a few years ago.  I probably was really hungry when I bought it but none the less, as a chick with a big sweet tooth, I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

Whether it be from a fortune cookie at lunch today, a bit of advise from a good friend or a quote you hear when you least expect it, try to remember the good ones that speak to you.  Write them down.  Keep them handy.  You never know when you’ll need an inspiring word or soft reminder to keep you on track.

Santorini Dreaming

Last fall, likely in the middle of the night, while trying to send my soul back to my personal paradise, Santorini, Greece, I stumbled across my first blog. The blog chronicled the life of a man, a caveman none the less, who picked up his family’s life and moved it to Santorini. To make a long story short, he later went on to hold a short essay contest which I entered and somehow managed to win. The prize… 5 nights of luxury accommodations on Santorini! Winning was one thing. What happened along the way, another thing entirely.

For years, really ever since I was a kid, I have enjoyed writing. Mainly journaling while on vacations and letter writing. By the way, does anyone really do this anymore? Sadly, it is a lost art. Anyway, that’s a subject of another post. Once I’d won the contest and family and friends started reading what I’d written, well… they ooh’d, ahh’d, congratulated me and then asked if they could join me in Greece!

Everyone raved and suggested I had a hidden talent and that perhaps I should start a new career. A good friend went so far as to set this whole blog up for me just to be sure I’d start to write. All this leaving me no way to at least give my hand a try at something I’ve always wanted to persue but never found the inspiration, time or in truth, had the confidence to try… to be a writer.

So, this my friends is what started me down my writing journey.  A little travel essay based on what I believe to be the most magical place in the world.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I LOVED writing it.

SANTORINI DREAMING
I dream about Santorini a hundred times a day.  Whether I glance at a framed postcard in my kitchen that reads “We serve Greek salads here” or when I grab my keys and catch the words “Greece” spelled out in silver beads dangling from my evil eye key chain, I am constantly reminded of my magical times on Santorini.

The first time I was introduced to the enchanting little island of Santorini was in 1982, when like so many others who filled theater seats to see the quirky film “Summer Lovers”, I left knowing I would one day experience it for myself.  A few years later, imagine my delight when one of my closest friends announced her family would be spending a year living in Athens.  I leapt at the chance to visit the country I had dreamed about since leaving that theater in Minneapolis.

Since that first trip in 1985, I’ve returned to “my” island, but not nearly enough to satisfy my soul nor to experience the real essence of the island.  Much like wine that develops a more intense flavor as it ages, on each subsequent visit my love affair for the island grows more complex.  Each time I have set foot on Santorini’s soil I feel as though I am truly where I am meant to be, yet I know I have only scratched the surface of this complex rocky gem.  I’ve tried to explain this feeling to people over the years but I’ve yet to find the words. Perhaps it is a feeling for which there simply aren’t words.  Like falling in love for the first time, there are not enough adjectives to accurately express your emotions.  Rather, I believe, the lure and spiritual charm of the island has to be felt deep within one’s heart.

When I close my eyes and let my mind wander away freely, I always drift to sultry sun-kissed Santorini.  Perhaps it is the hypnotic rhythm of the waves and the pulling of the tide that gently calls to my subconscious.  My mind always fills to the brim with the endless possibilities of time spent on this ancient and alluring isle.  In my idyllic dream what would I do? How would I fill my time in my paradise?

• I want to view the early morning rising sun and feel how, with each passing minute, the light and warmth begins to awaken and enliven my soul.
• I want to stroll to a local kafenio and sip piping hot coffee while learning to play tavli.
• I want to explore the famous ruins at Akrotiri.  The Minoan city surely keeps the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis within its crumbling walls and exquisitely preserved frescos.
• Many years ago I read “Zorba the Greek”.  A passage from the book has hung on my wall ever since.  The paper has yellowed and is a bit crumpled but it has not been forgotten as I am reminded of my quest every day.  “Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean Sea.”  Perhaps now is the time to unfurl my sails and let the warm Cycladic winds fill my dreams.
• I want to visit the vineyards and see how the assurtiko grape flourishes in the hot and dry fields.   Then stomp the grapes with my bare feet as though I am participating in an ancient mythical Dionysian festival.
• I want to break a plate while shouting “Ompah” and drinking ouzo!
• I want to walk along the rugged path that clings to the caldera’s edge from Fira to Oia relishing in the breath taking views that surround me.
• I want to listen to live bouzouki music.
• I want to live in the moment.  Why is it in “real life” that we have such difficulty achieving this most simple and obvious task?
• I want to pick up a paint brush or piece of chalk and attempt to capture the dramatic and ever changing beauty that was created by nature’s hand.  I’m not an artist but I know here I could be.  I can’t imagine a setting more inspirational, colorful and poetic.
• I want to ride a donkey.
• I want to taste the bounty of this volcanic arid land.  Fragrant bright yellow lemons, succulent grapes, pungent feta cheese, plump vine ripened tomatoes, freshly pressed olive oil, honey , pistachios and salty olives would all be served around my table.
• I want to sit down on the edge of the caldera with a bottle of retsina and slowly watch the sun slip to sleep beneath the rolling sea.
• I want to gaze up at the night sky and watch the stars dancing like millions of fireflies to the heavens as I drift off to sleep knowing I have found paradise.

This is my Santorini Dream.  It plays daily in my mind.  It is serene, intimate, respectful, romantic, soulful, filled with passion and uniquely my own.