I, Onion (extended play)

If I had been feeling clever when I wrote my previous post, I would have included my loss of "a-peel." Instead I was feeling reactive and PMS-y. Writing "Ex-Steps and TCM" had consequences beyond my intention and it's hard not to be reactive. I've had one person who seems to have disappeared and another who decides that this is about them... Do I need to defend my blog? Puleeze, Good People! Breathe! This is about Good News, not anything else.

So there. I said it. Namaste.

I did give myself the opportunity to organically experience an onion. The pantry where we keep them is covered in bits of brown skins; gotta clean that sometime. Of course, I never mastered the whole cutting-the-onion-under-cold-water trick, so cutting it was a stinging, snotty, teary mess. Therapeutic? I guess... once it's over! Did I learn anything? No. And that's my point: onions are messy and they can make you cry. What to do? Clean up the mess and blow your nose because dinner's gonna be good because of that onion.

So there. I said it... again! :-) Namaste

Speaking of organic...
My Aunt Lil sent me a package that arrived the day before my birthday. It was 2 CD's; one of her son, Glenn Moreland, and the other her grandson, Doug. Doug Moreland has enjoyed some success as a recorded musician but I believe this is Glenn's first release. Both albums have the song "End of the Trail" which was played at the graveside of my Uncle Odell, Lil's husband. I had asked her for the song in an email a few weeks after my uncle's funeral last spring. Because of an email fluke, she didn't see my message until recently. The fact that it came so late but in time for my birthday just made the gift all the more magical.

The music is very special, too. Glenn's voice softens my heart and makes me want to go home to Texas. There's a quality that I can't describe because the memory precedes my ability to speak... a warm, quiet, loving comfort. It reminds me to focus on what is good and simple; to evoke memories of knee-high grass and blue skies rather than dwell on swirling emotional chaos. Acceptance and balance instead of distrust and friction. Yum. (I told my Aunt Lil that my husband will either come to love the album or hide it from me!)

To Doug's credit, he has matured quite nicely. I can see myself dancin' it up to a few of his tunes. And "End of the Trail" is a collaboration with his father and that's what makes it so special. Somewhere in the science of genetics, there's just this wonderful, natural "something" that radiates from this bloodline. I feel blessed to be a cousin.

Thank you, Aunt Lil, for loving and accepting all of us, Onions... no matter what.