Pesole

As long as I can remember my parents celebrated events around food. Growing up, it wasn't uncommon for Mom to cook a turkey dinner on Sunday. Dinner was prayed for and eaten as a family around the table. Not only did we learn table manners, but social manners as well. During dinner, family members engaged in topics of interest and sometimes controversy while enjoying a well cooked and healthy meal. Many of my college instructors and professors have complimented me on my well developed communication style. My parents' willingness to prepare such meals and talk with their children young and old contributed greatly to my ability to think through and discuss challenges that matter.

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise to me that even though my parents both come from European-American backgrounds, that they too embrace many aspects of my husband's side of the family's Latino culture--especially those centered around food. Last week, my brother, his wife, and children came for a visit to Washington. For memorial day, Mom asked if I would help her chop garnishes for pesole. Pesole is a hardy pork and chicken stew, many times reserved for special occasions such as Christmas or New Years. For me it is a symbol of family togetherness and cultural tradition. Yesterday, I got up early to shop at la tienda for essential items such as freshly warm corn tortillas. As I chopped onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and jalapenos I contemplated the richness of family. I celebrated this love through my labor and care.

My mother-in-law taught me how to prepare special traditional foods such as pesole, tamales, menudo, or mole while working together in the kitchen. My Spanish is most fluent while centering around these activities. I am not sure if it is because where I feel grounded and loved or because the food is so delicious that I am more motivated to learn. Whatever the reason, the Spanish language comes to life in my mind while preparing or sharing a meal.

Anniversary--Day

Yesterday, Ernie asked me what I would like to do for the day and offered to take me for a nice lunch at a trendy spot in Portland. He did not look very surprised when I suggested that I take him to one of my favorite spots in Woodland. He then added that we could drive up to the mountain (later sharing that he had read my morning's blog).

Lunch was okay, but the drive was spectacular! We must have stopped at every observatory from exit 49 to Johnson's Ridge! In memory of her 29th eruption anniversary, they were all free and packed with like minded travelers.

In one of the observatories, I found the full legend that I had been looking for. It was from the Klickitat Tribe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klickitat_Tribe and explained the story behind the Bridge of the Gods and mountains. The great chief had two sons who sometimes fought (in one case creating the Bridge of the Gods). He separated his boys by giving them distant territories with the river dividing them. He wanted both sons to have fire, so he went to Loowit and asked her what she wanted in return. Loowit was an old woman who was the a guardian of fire. She said that she wanted youthful beauty again. Unfortunately, in the end, both of the great chiefs sons fell in love with Loowit and continued to fight--this time involving many braves. The Great Spirit was angered at this bickering and turned one son into Mt. Hood and the other into Mt. Adams. Of course, he turned Loowit into St. Helens.

After seeing the destruction the mountain left behind in nature, I could see why she had been thought of as the fire lady as a mortal and later named Smoking Mountain. I thought of an old saying about a woman's scorn.

Wedding & Eruption Anniversary

I woke up thinking about the mountain today. I have felt connected to her for as long as I can remember. I drove down to Lewisville HWY to feel her majesty.

29 years ago when she erupted, I was only 9-years-old living in Amboy, Washington. That morning, we were in Woodland attending services when the earth began to shake. Church ended early as my mom packed us children in our car and raced home. Upon arriving home, we closed ourselves in our house and waited while the sky got dark and the ash fell.

Ten years later, Ernie and I were married on her anniversary. A few years ago I began studying more about the mountain. Long before Europeans came to this country, the Native-Americans told stories explaining beautiful & temperamental Louwala-Clough (St. Helens) which translated to Smoking Mountain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens#Importance_to_Native_Americans

Serendipity

Last year I read the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. She introduced the concept of serendipity. Basically, this is the idea that when your energy is open, the universe will send you what is needed in your life. So maybe that isn't well stated, but I had always called that phenomenon the Spirit of God directing your way in life. I had never learned how to really tap into it to enlarge personal creativity though.

Being between semesters in my program, I had time to nurture my creativity. I spent a few hours a day engaged in exercises to unblock my creative energy. I wrote down lists of activities that would be healthful and reviving to my spirit/mind/body. The book required you to have an alone time "artist's date" once a week. It was upon deciding where to go for that date when I resolved to let the energy of the universe guide my activities. I opened the phone book right up to a coupon for a free massage. I had not been able to get back to the chiropractor for medical massage for several months and my back had been in a lot of pain. When I called, they were able to get me right in. This chiropractor was in Woodland, yet only a twenty minute drive from my home. Everything about that day felt magical. Even the people that I met that day seemed like characters from a book (being wonderfully eccentric).

The receptionist, uncannily similar to Emma Thompson in Harry Potter mesmerized me through her Coke-bottle glasses, and would not let me leave after I finished. She bubbled on about all of the wonderful sites in town. She told me about the lilac gardens down the road and insisted on writing down the address and directions. When I got there the garden had barely been closed down for the rest of the year because the lilacs were bloomed out. I was able to walk around the historic home and see the beautiful gardens kept up by the Hulda Klager Lilac Society… Yet, I would have to wait another year before seeing the garden in its full splendor. http://www.lilacgardens.com/ This year, when May came, I was ready to go! I grabbed my daughter and we braved the crowds of gardeners grabbing up their favorite varieties of lilacs that would only be available for a few short weeks.

That one visit to Woodland opened up a summer full of artist's dates. I visited the Mt. St. Helen's visitor's center, the Chief Lelooska Lodge, Founder Days, and discovered the active artistic pursuits in this town, a cultural jewel within this small and best kept secret in SW Washington!