New Redwood Empire Food Bank Open House

 I can only start by telling you this is conceptual form and function business thought going on here, and if not for one of Joyce's friends June Smith being involved in some fashionable manner we might not have participated in the grand tour and learned of the updated programs and huge square footage that will take this Food Bank into the future serving Sonoma county and communities to the north.  The thinking and functional parts to me that were updates were the large cooler spaces for fresh fruits, vegetables and meats, the kitchen that can be rented out and the conference room of that same nature.

Now here you have a few of the newly acquired kitchen equipment, from convection ovens to the new standard three sink set-up, large quantity mixers, meat slicing machine and robocop food processor and things like an oven that bakes off a whole baker's rack at a time.  Lots of table top prepping areas and large viewing windows so people in the foyer of the building can watch the goings on in the kitchen as it happens. I think any restaurant or food establishment would be happy with this expansive kitchen. 

 On one side we find a glorious store filled with all the natural ingredients found in most of your local markets, but catering to the lower income brackets of your local communities.  Here they will have the benefit of friendly smiles, gracious attitudes and attentiveness of the volunteers as they search out the items on their grocery lists and be educated on all the smart choices if need be. Fresh fruits, meats and coolers inside the store will provide the environment for the customers to pick out items they normally wouldn't get at a Food Bank.

As we entered the foyer of the new building that houses the Food Bank, a glorious flower arrangement bid you hello, a large sign pointed out information about the services provided and windows into the kitchen gave you views of the culinary processes going on.  The diabetes van and educational program delivered and catered to people who were in need of their care and as you can see, the bicycle with the osterizer on the back gave an understanding of the human energy needed for such a process. It is a good sign that the new Food Bank is here.

Being There, Instead of Being Here.....

 There was this thought of being there, the destination, the patterns of time and space, the nuances of peace and quiet time spent for no good reason except you were no longer here, but There.
Joyce had upon inception thought of a way to reminisce about her father, Harry and a way to conceptualize the Birth of her mother in a place that they could coexist with their surroundings once a year, where the family together was not able to accomplish during the time spent as a nuclear family, and there was where it was at.

 Now Bob, being a photo journalist, had the paintings on the wall come out as the glorious visuals as the Sun, in all it's glorious magnificence, stroked the horizon of both here and there. As one leaves the sequences of time in a day, memories can only hold onto their permanence in some sort of impressionistic collage, putting the protocols of the events of the day into the blinks of an eye, forever graffiti on the subway walls of the prophets memory, without any words having to be spoken.

 Now the idea that not all the participants were going to fit into this 13th annual event as the expansion of the extended family burst onto the coming of the tribal gathering, though they were all there in spirit, one gets the inner glows of the ones that did sit around what might be called the round table of existence of the being we have all come to be beholding to for some odd years, culminating in a celebration of 87 years of her own Private Sonoma County Existence. We all owe in a debt of gratitude that no one will ever pay back with the interest of Adele.

 Now besides the stamina and perseverance of Joyce, their in lies the fullness of Margie, the other blessed creative female soul conceived by Harry and Adele. While they sat upon a lone sand dune, musing, their beneath the waves, walked the bits and pieces of extended fortitude, in the grassy knoll and the incoming tides gently going to and fro from the scrabble board of families. Adele later told me the nakedness of the great grandchildren didn't stop at the ocean   floor, but found it's way back to the domicile of the home they all had started from earlier.

As the little Hamlets of Island homes pervaded the visual landscape that surrounded the iridescent waves crashing one upon another at Mother Nature's doormat called the shore, the panoramic views provided a kaleidoscope of fancy dancing images that burst forth to commemorate the coming of being There with Adele and not the lonely feeling that our spirits missed out on such benign musings from ship to shore upon the gracious moments shared with one another, here.      
As for me, though I was here, rather than there for the meeting of the tribal council of the Mortensen Clan, the night before I shared the precious moments with Adele and Joyce partaking the culinary flavor profiles of the Chicken Pot Pie, silent, yet auditory company of our friends the Gladiolus and the frivolity of the Birthday Party Hats that rested upon the mantle of the fireplace. The moonlit cloud formations around the moonscape that night pervaded into my sleepless night and caused my early retreat from the Maddening Crowd that was to follow in my undetectable footsteps, leaving the scene of the Celebratory Happenings.                                                             

Intuition and It's Culinary Partners

 Welcome my friends to the taste that never ends.  Right before your eyes, nothing up our sleeves, let me introduce to you from Woodfour Brewing Company, Corn Soup, Beet Salad and our favorite, drum roll please, Eggplant Meatballs.  Wonderful Stuff to contemplate.

 Here we found, thanks to Joyce, a sampler for any 5 of their beers for 8 bucks.  I met one of the chefs that heard about me as "Uncle Steve", and his nickname from Justin Wangler was "Cornmeal"...Great Stuff.

And then a few shots of what the new shopping and restaurant destination is, in Sebastopol, called the Barlow.  Many more offerings to delight the senses, and various businesses moving here to congregate their elusive and beautiful traditions that had been scattered up until now all over the multitudes of Sonoma County, California....another Me

Is that all there is, then let's Begin....

          After very little thought, I must admit that whatever you want to call the Human Race, it seems after all this evolution that we would quit these concepts of brinkmanship.  If we are truly on the global thought pattern that everyone from investment counselors to school systems invoke about we are now on a smaller planet, with 24 hour news programs giving out erroneous dialogues of partisan bickering and everyone trying to be the first in line with whatever is happening moment to moment on any subject.
       Is the only way to run a country and solve problems by brandishing opinions from the barrel of some weapon.  By now we could of been, or at least should of been aware that there are other ways to solve a particular set of circumstances, other than being right, rather than being happy.
      It doesn't have to be this idea of haves and haves not, but rather what is in the best interest for the majority of the congregation or constituents involved in the process of negotiation or compromise.  Why is it that we can ascertain the nuances of Universes, but we can't get this idea of share and share alike down.  Those people who are set in life, whether or not they pay enormous amounts of their income in taxes, and those who struggle day to day with their financial wherewithal and pay no taxes, don't need to pick at one another from time to time, instead they could figure out ways in which to enrich both sides of any fence that has been built to make them disenfranchise one another.
      Morally, killing off anyone that disagrees with you is not a problem solving answer, because sooner or later it will come to blow by blow consolations.  Existence side by side is mutually beneficial and capable of maintaining the status quo.  I can't or won't spend paragraphs giving examples of either way of doing things, just know that we are all well aware of  the alternatives, and it is just going to come down to making it happen or not. Just sit back and enjoy the ride, or struggle with the lack of anyone defining the parameters of these societal miscues.  Sooner or later the water will break and we can come to the end of this evolutionary tale of being Human.  Hopefully, or optimistically, we will begin to evolve into a higher state of being where we can see all the possibilities because for now, at least, we are myopic in our natures.

Fragmentations

       Waking up alongside fragments of past events, even though the dreams are not exactly what I would call memories, more so of coming events, posts on social media have tended to be of nostalgic images of successes or nuances of what life had to offer at those lines in the proverbial sands.
        In essence one eye is closed while the contrivance neglects those present situations that can also cast the shadows of timelessness.  Not in any way am I claiming here that I exist on those exhalations that come with accomplishments as they happen, which is really hard to do, considering as soon as the reflections start persuading or clouding the inertia behind conceiving, those moments are gone.
        New sets of challenges always seem to boggle large parts of the populations into trying to persuade others to see their skill sets of perception, so they can be somewhat the fifteen minutes of their own demise.  Too many chiefs and not enough Indians left to pick up the pieces from the hill of Little Big Horn, I surmise.
        I have been, by my own persuasion, one of those Indians hoping to tie up the loose ends, letting others gather the creative moments and joys surrounding Glorious moments such as they come in contact with every so often.  I'm sure in retrospect I don't do these inquires because I too would enjoy the gifts associated with such tumultuous events, but rather I have felt the obligations to record, even though I am bias in my accounts also, but in truth, there is a sense of urgency and responsibility not being tied in some way to the event itself, but as an socially incoherent innocent bystander.
         I know it is easier to stand, one leg or two, on our own individual laurels, but in times of squabbles, having the capacity, like my brother Mike, to stay above the fray, holding out that sincere hand, which ever one it might be, at the moment of inception, and saying to the masses, just take your soliloquies up on the mountain and talk to that imaginary hand, giving some sort of forethought to unmasking your egos and rest your souls for moments at a time.  Then maybe, just maybe, your futures will be one ascertained by some truth, honor, justice and wisdom, balanced by the art of humility.
        Go forth my sons and daughters of anarchy, in those moments of uncertainy, where, I suppose you long to be in someone's warm and tender loving arms and give way to the infinite wisdom of the Universe unfolding just the way it was meant to unfold, with or without your personal blessings.