Big Sur, California - Two Year Anniversary

Today, I've been thinking of when I lived in California. I lived in Sacramento for 17 years, but was lucky to be able to visit the central coast and the Carmel/Monterey/Big Sur area several times a year. To me, it's one of the most beautiful places in the world and certainly one of my all-time favorite places to visit. Since I was thinking about it so much today, I decided to repost my very first blog post, which was something I wrote about the Big Sur area. I looked back in my posts to retrieve it - and was shocked to see I wrote it exactly 2 years ago today!! So, today, is my two-year blogging anniversary and it snuck up on me! Call it coincidence or serendipity, but I think it's so crazy wonderful that I decided to repost this today! So, I hope you enjoy it...and the photos, too (which are mine, unless otherwise noted.)

Photo Courtesy: mikelevin.com

It has been said that "Big Sur is as much a feeling as it is a place.” Along this stretch of Pacific Ocean coastline in central California, steep cliffs plunge into the sea and the surf beats endlessly against the rocks. In secluded coves, the sea gently washes in and out, as sea crabs scuttle across the open beach. The area is almost desolate and the only indication one gets of habitation is the occasional mailbox or rooftop peaking through the lush forest. Few homes or roads disturb the landscape, except for the curving Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) that in itself is a wondrous and breathtaking thing that seems "at one" with the beauty over which it journeys. The cry of seagulls circling overhead and the barking of a sea lion is often the only sound one hears to interrupt the constant roar of the surf. Such power...yet such peace. In the words of e.e. cummings: “for whatever we lose (like a you or a me) / it's always ourselves we find in the sea.”

 

 Photo Courtesy: Henry Miller Memorial Library, henrymiller.org

 

 

Until next time,

Cindy

Book Review: Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story

WINNER: 2012 eFestival of Words Best of Independent Book Awards (General Non-Fiction)

What would you do if your stepfather pinned you down and tried to cast Satan out of you? For thirteen-year-old Ingrid, the answer is simple: RUN.

Ingrid Ricks grew up in a dysfunctional Mormon family with an absent, freewheeling dad and an intensely religious mother who was desperate to ensure her family's eternal salvation. For years she yearned to escape the suffocating religion and poverty at home by joining her dad on the road as tool-selling vagabond. When her parents divorce and her mother marries Earl--a cruel authoritarian who exploits his Church-ordained priesthood powers to oppress her family--she finally gets her wish. At age thirteen, Ingrid begins spending her summers hustling tools throughout the Midwest with her dad and his slimy, revolving sales crew. He becomes her lifeline and escape from Earl. But when her dad is arrested, she learns the lesson that will change her life: she can't look to others to save her; she has to save herself.

I've been on a reading streak lately. It seems to come and go in spells - and quite honestly, as much as I love reading - a book must grab me at the beginning, or I tend to lose interest. Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story did just that! I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ingrid Ricks (her first novel!) Described as a "coming-of-age story," it made me think about my own 13-year-old self growing up in a middle-class Midwest family, with our own share of ups and downs and difficult times. There's something about that time of life - in between childhood and young adulthood - that is so full of bittersweet memories, yearning and angst. Ms. Ricks captures it perfectly! Although the main character in this book is a 13-year-old girl, this is a very grown-up story - make no mistake about it. It's about the often complicated relationships between fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters and siblings. It's about a dysfunctional family, yes, but how many among us can say there wasn't some sort of dysfunction in our own family growing up? The older I get, the more I realize that almost every family has their own dysfunction in one form or another - and it doesn't mean they don't love each other and stand strong in their support of each other when the chips are down.

I loved the descriptions in this book of life on the road with Ingrid and her father and the joys and disappointments and heartache that ensues. This is an authentic story and I loved it and could (and probably will) read it again. A great summer read!

About the Author:

Ingrid Ricks started her career as a journalist, spent fifteen years as a marketing/PR consultant and is now embracing her writing/mentoring dream full-time. She is the author of Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story, a coming-of-age memoir; FOCUS, a memoir about her journey with the blinding degenerative eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa; and A Little Book of Mormon (and Not So Mormon) Stories, a collection of short autobiographical stories.

Ingrid lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters. When not writing, working with students, or leading seminars focused on embracing the moment, she can be found accompanying her family to soccer games, ice hockey games, or the beach. She also enjoys hanging out at her neighborhood jazz club or alternating between her two favorite coffee shops. For more information, visit ingridricks.com.

To order Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story from Amazon.com, click below:

Spring Photos

Hello everyone,
I've been absent from blogging and I have no excuse! The days seem to go by so fast and I've had "spring fever." April has been a crazy-weather month, but I think it's finally settling down. Now, the trees have tiny new green leaves and the daffodils and tulips have popped open. I love this time of year! I've started a new daily walking routine. The county just opened a new nature preserve near where I live and today was the fourth day in a row I walked there! Yay!! It has a 3/4 mile, easy trail - which is perfect for me right now. I got lazy over the winter, and I do mean lazy!! So, I'm starting slow....but at least it's a start, right? Walking in the woods is one of my all-time favorite things to do. So, here are some photos from my walk.

 Totem pole at the entrance to the nature preserve. It was hand-carved and hand-painted by a local resident.

Beautiful moss on the tree stump

Woodland Wildflowers 

I have so many projects lined up (aside from work); gardening, some furniture I want to paint (I'm going to try using chalk paint, I've heard so much about it,) spring cleaning, and hopefully a short trip to West Virginia with my sister next month. What have you all been up to lately?

Happy Spring,

Cindy



Spring in Ohio

Spring has finally arrived! Yes, I think we've turned the corner. I feel bad for those living out west (6 inches of snow in Denver...with more to come??!) Yikes...and I thought spring was late arriving in Ohio. Here's a photo of my crocus in full bloom:

...and another sure sign of spring - Rudy sitting in the open window!

 

I also want to share some photos of a little log cabin I found on one of my recent country drives. When I need to clear my head...or if I'm bored...or sometimes for no reason at all, except I'm in the mood to get out and explore, I take drives in the country. I remember, as a child, the whole family would pile in the car for a Sunday drive. Back then, it was a form of entertainment. How many of you did that as children, as well?  

 

 

 

You'll never know what you might find. I have no information about this cabin. It sits right beside the highway, just outside the tiny town of Melmore. Little house on the prairie? I'd love to know who lived there. Both of my parents lived in log houses for a short time when they were children...but that's a story for another day.

 

 

I hope you're all having a good week!

Until next time,

Cindy