il bel far niente

Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, Sausalito, California
(c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

Which means, in Italian, "The art of doing nothing." Today was one of those days. Well at least part of the morning. No I don't speak Italian, but I read that phrase today in Eat, Pray, Love which I'm reading for the third time. Yes, three times now I've read that delicious book. Well technically the first time I "listened" to it. Anyway, it's been a rough couple days on the emotional front, so I got up, meditated 20 minutes instead of ten, prayed, had some breakfast, then went back to my bed and snuggled up with my cozy red blanket and my down comforter and read The Bridges of Madison County. The whole thing.

It was my second time reading it. I came upon it at the library, which sells used books for like 50 cents so I picked it up. The first time I read it the person I was with got so offended that I adored this book. He thought it "glorified adultery" and I guess felt so threatened by that not only didn't like the book but despised me for liking it. I felt it was lyrical and poetic and magical. I'm drawn to tales of deep and true love like a magnet, always have been. Always have been searching for that one love that will take my breath away and make my heart stop and include passion so intense it makes you weak in the knees. I have experienced that love. But Francesca and Robert only spent 4 days together... what would have happened had they tried to make their relationship work? It's not always so easy. But I suppose nothing worth having is ever easy.

Robert being all "the last cowboy" and this certain breed of man that is disappearing and quickly becoming obsolete in this technological modern world also struck a chord. A gypsy, an intellectual, a passionate who follows his own way, marches to a different drummer. I know why I was drawn to this story initially and I loved it all the more the second time.

In other news, I went picking blueberries with my friend Amy the other evening. There aren't that many berries this year. Some years they grow huge and just explode all over the bushes. We really had to get inside those bushes to get some this year, and being that it's been raining every day we got soaking wet. But they are absolutely delicious!