From Here to There

 

For the holiday season we often put books on sale that relate to it. I added one this year that introduced some of those characters and explained from where they had come. It will stay on sale longer than the others (until January 3, 2023) as it has a different set of purposes. 

From Here to There is the story of two romances-- one told through an old journal and the other alive at the time. It's also the story of a romance for Montana and ranch living. Today, not many know about ranch living as our culture is so urban oriented. That is logical, but it means many have no idea from where their food even comes-- other than the grocery store.

We redid the cover for the book (for the umpteenth time) as it seemed to never quite catch the zeitgeist of the book. It's not easy to capture a book's deeper purpose when it's a romance and a novel (over 90,000+ words). So if you decide, give it a try for 99¢ for another week. It's not like a novella in that there is a LOT more story to it that depicts what that life is like as well as the relationships. Still, I think for those who enjoy love stories, it will satisfy. For a family, as well as two individuals, it teaches something for the characters and the reader!  

It's a fun read. Although it is tough, I "much love" that life, and have lived it many years.

 From Here to There

the one thing

Last week we watched a film we've seen multiple times (we do that), City Slickers. We enjoy the camaraderie of the men, the humor, the working with cattle, the performances, and the 'one thing.' It is in the conversation between Jack Palance's and Billy Crystal's characters:

 "Do you know what the secret of life is?" Curly holds up one finger, and then says, "This." Mitch is mystified. "Your finger?" Curly shakes his head. "One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit." Mitch asks, "But what is the 'one thing?'" Curly just smiles. "That's what you have to find out."

I always like that scene because I think we are all searching for meaning of life. Or maybe that's most of us. When we have enough to eat, shelter, the

basics, we want to think life is about more than just surviving. When we are at risk of surviving, we put philosophy on hold.

In City Slickers, Mitch has the life he had been taught he should want, but he's unhappy. He feels trapped, and he's sliding into middle age or already there. The cattle drive is where he hopes to find what he feels he's been missing. He wants that one thing and does not know where to find it. It turns out it was inside him all along. It just took the cattle drive to bring it out.

 Always after I watch the film (which is worth watching for me just for its great western theme music), I think about the one thing for my life. 

Some people are born with the one thing drilled into them from seemingly birth. It does not change. They might do other things alongside it, but it's the driving force; and for a lifetime, it will be the same. Some never find the one thing and maybe don't care about it. They are satisfied to just get along and be happy. They don't need a driving force.

For me, at least in one sense, the one thing has changed with my years. I suppose I could say that it was being creative as that has been with me my whole life, but often it took a backseat to other things, and I didn't mind. I didn't have to do it. I just did do it generally with a lot of variety through the years.

I believe for my first twenty years, my one thing was to get to be an adult and be ready for being on my own. It was growing, getting an education, learning how the world worked, finding some friends, experiencing as much as I could to help me figure out what I'd want for the rest of my life. That was my driving force for those first twenty years or so. During that time though I told stories. As a child it was play. When I got older, it was writing down short stories. Even riding in a car, I'd be making up stories in my head, while I was traveling somewhere with my family. For me though, it wasn't a one thing. That was getting myself to being an adult and launched into the world.

Then came a shift and my one thing was raising my children. It became everything to me even though I continued to write, paint, sculpt during their growing up years. Those though were not the one thing for me. They were. Holding my children in my arms, making their lives as good as I could, giving them the experiences I had had growing up, experiences that would help them figure out what they wanted for their lives. That was my one-- maybe even obsessive-- thing. I continued to write down my stories during those years but didn't care if I did anything with them because the obsession was my children. I believe that lasted about thirty years until they were both launched. 

The shift from an obsession can be rough, and they don't call it the empty nest for nothing. In one sense, I was prepared for it if you ever can be. Before I had my first child, I had read Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique. She said  (paraphrased) that your last child had to be your creative work. She didn't call it the one thing but she might as well have. Still, when you see your children launched into independent adults there is both loss and satisfaction. I knew I needed something to replace what had consumed me.

For the years after they left, I think I drifted a bit without a recognizable one thing. I spent several years doing clay sculpture, painting people, and continued to write stories. At that point, I saw none of them as the one thing. As I look back on it now though I see they all revolved around telling a story of life. I kept this work mostly to myself. I did not have a need to have it be seen. I knew some was not exactly societally acceptable. I mean I painted and sculpted nudes, both male and female. As I created each one, always I thought of them as telling a story. Those were also the years I went through my own explorations of the spirit and made huge changes in what I believed spiritually. I explored my femaleness and took photos that I couldn't ever share with the world. (no, not porn but definitely sensual and sometimes daring at least in my thinking). While drifting, I experienced things in life that I never had before. 

 I consider those years of drifting, without a one thing, as very important for what would come next-- when again I would have a one thing, and it was writing-- possibly the underlying story all along for my life. When writing became the one thing, it involved also acknowledging myself as an author by publishing and promoting my work-- the step I'd not taken with earlier creative endeavors. Writing, and all that goes with it, today is the one thing. It took some doing, but I finally accepted it as mine, acknowledged publicly the work, and owned it as being me. 

That doesn't mean I can't do other things like be involved with family and friends. It does mean there are times where the writing is all I do. Then I need to step away to take care of the human part of my reality. A one thing can be an obsession, but it does not have to be 'everything' in a person's life-- at least not in my life.

Some people need a one thing that lasts a lifetime. They will fit their children into it or maybe put off having children for it. They will do whatever they need to do to bring it to fulfillment. Some don't need a one thing at all. Some though will be like me-- the one thing changes with their changes or remains dormant until the right time.

The photos of the lambs are not the one thing for me ;). They are a seasonal reality right now. They illustrate growth, change, and a part of my life. Having them was one of those life goals that got fulfilled-- and incidentally fits nicely into the one thing! 

Finally, I'd be interested in knowing. Do you have a one thing? If you do, was it always there or did it change throughout your life?

2015

In thinking about the coming year, I put together a board, with some photos symbolizing 2015 for me, not about the people in my life but about nature, the farm, the trip we made through Lava Beds, and Arizona. 

To find images, I looked at it seasonally. There were months we took few photos and months when we took hundreds. Cutting them down was tough. 

The clay wagon train represents not only the book I brought out in March, but my growing up. It was always on my parents' wall until they both died and now it's on mine. I am not sure who added the paint to it, but I had a grandmother who painted oils. It could though have been my mother.

It's pretty easy to see, that for me, the big moments are the small ones.

Tis the season

Christmas has changed a lot for me through the years as I suspect it has for us all as we get into old age. We were a child and then we had our own homes and our own child. Then the child was gone and how we celebrate the holidays changes again-- more for some than others, of course.

A few years ago I wrote a Christmas novella about a family living on a ranch and a woman's desire to heal old emotional wounds by bringing to the ranch some estranged members of her husband's family.

While Christmas can be emotionally wonderful for some, for others, it's a reminder of all that has not been right in their lives. My novella delves into some of that and of course, at the heart of this family gathering is the ranch and Montana. 

For the season, until 1/1/16, A Montana Christmas will be on sale for 99¢. It's not as much romance as some of my books and is more a slice of life. Since it follows a novel, From Here to There, with the same characters, you might even call it an extended epilogue as it deals with healing. 

In addition to preparing for Christmas, there is a Solstice celebration using ancient Celtic traditions, which have been brought forth by many today as it is the time when we bring back the light.

A Montana Christmas at Amazon

and

Other sell sites

snow on the farm

We had some snow in our valley with temperatures that dipped below 0ºF. It will lead to loss of shrubs when we figure out what damage was done as it's been over 40 years since it last got that cold here.

The snow did yield some pretty photos. I wasn't out much in it due to a sensitive ear, but Farm Boss had to feed; so got some good photos. I am not much of a snow person anymore. A day or two and I'm ready to see it be gone.

It was Raven's first time to see snow and that was fun to watch. Neither she nor Blackie thought much of such low temperatures for their paws. Their time outside usually was just long enough to turn around and come back in.

Surprisingly she is a cat who likes to watch the television and gets right up there as though trying to figure out from where that image is coming. I don't think she can get up on the TV and knock it over but will be glad when she is less fascinated.

The creek in late summer

Although I call where I live a farm, in reality, it is a small ranch as it only raises livestock. Living on ranches has its ups and downs. You see life and death much closer than most. The work never takes a vacation and some of it is for no monetary reward. I like the life or wouldn't have lived this way most of my life. Pretty much my only years off a farm were spent trying to get back to one even though I know well that it has joy and heartbreak wrapped up together.


The creek, which winds along one border to our property, is, on the other hand, a constant delight. Oh it has some problems when it floods and it definitely is hard on fences, but I appreciate everything about it. It is a blessing to live on a creek.

There is that coolness which makes air conditioning generally not needed at night. I like wading in it, checking on its creatures through the signs they leave behind, like beaver gnawed trees, raccoon paw prints, checking the mussel and crawdad populations. Ours has been fished but mostly has only guppy-sized fish. The flow in it is constant year round but it's not very deep. It provides the irrigation water for our pastures.


Last week-end we waded it, planning a route to take us from one of our gates to another. the creek had other ideas. It turned out there was a big log jam blocking our passage. It was washed there in the last floods and will likely be moved downstream in the next ones.


To inspect the whole creek, we had to wade up, back down, then go to the upper gate, enter and wade both ways. Our survey took twice as long as usual.


Part of our motivation of doing a thorough inspection was to be sure the calf we lost this year hadn't drowned. If it had, the bones would have been in that log jam or along the bank. They weren't. Whatever got that calf took it clear off the place. Whether the predator was human or animal, we likely will never know for sure.


I am along the creek pretty often but only wade its length along our property a few times during the summer. I knew when we bought it that living on a creek would be a gift and it has been over and over.