blowing out the candles
You say it’s your birthdayIt’s my birthday too, yeahThey say it’s your birthdayWe’re gonna have a good timeI’m glad it’s your birthdayHappy birthday to you
So sing the Beatles, today and yesterday, and even though two of the Beatles have passed on, their art, their music remains, their gifts of song live on to inspire us. Anne Lamont points out that
“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again.”
This week I’m reflecting on gifts, the gifts of wine, the gifts of birthdays and cassoulets, the gifts of inspiration, how we keep from being squashed to keep on dancing.
Read more about why cassoulet for my birthday from this previous post and here where I share the story of my first cassoulet.
Rucksack GSM with cassoulet
Today is my birthday; it’s also the birthday of Burning Man founder Larry Harvey and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. Yesterday was the birthday of someone I called my almost birthday twin, Patrick Gavin Duffy, who passed on from this world the day before.
If you know me and my writing at all, you know that we wouldn’t be here without Matt Mullenweg’s WordPress blogging platform where I have been publishing about wine since 2008. Burning Man has had a huge impact on my life as well, and Larry Harvey encouraged me to share my poetry and art in the center cafe, making me the first artist to share their work there.
At a transitional time in my life, Patrick Duffy had a big impact: he was someone who helped me find the permission to be truer to who I am and discover my path. Patrick and I shared many passions and connections, including being born within 24 hours of each other but in different decades leading us to call each other our evil twin; we called each other our doppelgänger.
the always magical Patrick G Duffy by Linda Kale Hamm
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 