One of the great things about traveling is that you are forced to live your life one day at a time. It is a rare opportunity for someone like me to live in the moment. When I am at home, I am busy at the ranch every day. Then there’s the running Izze back and forth to preschool (which is 25 miles away), taking Chinese lessons twice a week and dance class one a week. Reading a book has become a luxury of late.
I did get to slow it down a bit when we were hit with one of the worse winters I have seen in Ohio in all the years I have been there. The snow and frigid temps allowed me not only to take it all in but to stop running. At my age if I fall on the ice, well….that would be bad. Honestly, I am not a fan of winter. I am from the east coast and figure that I have done my time in the snow and ice and that gave me the right to complain about any winter, whether it was snowy or just cold. But I can’t stand to hear myself complain (because I am so good at it). So last year, I vowed to not complain about the weather…..the cold weather. This year was the true test. And I think I passed. At the end of the day when I came back to the farm and got out of my car, I looked passed the mounds of snow piled high from Jorma’s deluxe plowing. I ducked every time I entered the door to the house, as to be sure I would not get decapitated from the foot long ice sickles that had formed out and over our gutters…and when it came time to walk my dog , I just said, “let’s go Nana, it so beautiful out.” I made walking trails for myself and the dog and shoveled every day and somewhere along the way, I stopped faking it. It was beautiful and I had become grateful for the opportunity to not complain.

The middle of February came and we were ready to head to Palm Springs to teach our winter workshops. I tried not to gloat to my friends about where I was heading. I have to say, it was nice. It was 80 degrees the entire time we were there. We made our annual pilgrimage with some of our students to the Coachella Valley View Point to watch the sun come up over the Salton Sea and I took it all in. I laid in the sun, read a book (wow!!!!) and tried not to talk about how I escaped the winter back home.

I am winding my trip up….just a few more days in California. I am on my second book and unfortunately have come down with a little cold causing me to feel a bit vulnerable. I am home sick. I miss my office, my home, my friends and the snow (yikes). What I have discovered is that one of the beauties of this life is that I don’t have to go far to experience nature in all her glory. Out here I have seen scenic vista’s, water views, majestic trees, dirt paths and picturesque landscaping. I have all of that and more in my little neck of the woods in southeast Ohio… not to mention the homelike warmth around every corner in the rolling foothills that is my refuge.

Snow or no snow, cold or no cold, I celebrate the fact that that today…..there are no ripple’s in my pond.