• Home
  • About
  • Social
  • relationships
  • Political issues
  • Spiritual
  • Book Reviews

From a Perspective of Gratitude…..

~ Social, Spiritual and Political Commentary

From a Perspective of Gratitude…..

Monthly Archives: July 2014

Wop Sauce

18 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by ladonnacontenta in relationships, Social

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Children, Family, love, power of relationships

DSCN1888After Paul and I were married and after my father had told him all the reasons he shouldn’t marry me; I was worthless, couldn’t cook, keep house, clean or even be counted on to make my own bed and take care of my things I made it a point to prove him wrong.

For the first few months we subsisted on cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew and Chef Boy Ar Dee. Finally Paul decided he’d had enough and made what he called “Wop Sauce” one night. It was delicious. I had no Idea pasta sauce could be so heavenly. My mom had always made sauce with catsup and I never thought much of it but then I never thought much about food or eating while I was growing up. It was just a means to an end, necessary to survival.

It took awhile for me to start moving forward on my commitment to show my father I wasn’t a loser. I started with some simple cooking. I experimented with herbs and was excited with the results most of the time. It seemed I had a natural gift for putting flavors together. Paul was delighted and pretty soon we started having guests for supper. I often used the recipe I had begged Paul to write down for me and over the years I embellished it with touches of my own.

I discovered so many gustatory delights during our brief years together. I had never had a mushroom or an artichoke or even asparagus in my life. Salads had always consisted of iceberg lettuce and tomatoes or sometimes a few carrot nickels. I never cared much for salads then. All vegetables had been cooked beyond redemption, all the flavor washed out of them and the only ones we had ever had were green beans, peas, corn and, God forbid, the occasional rutabaga, nasty and bitter. I learned sautéing and steaming. I tried romaine and leaf lettuce with a touch or parmesan or feta and a few olive and maybe some walnuts. I was in heaven and I think Paul was relieved although he never complained and always encouraged me.

My parents were both from rural Wisconsin and my mom had spent most of her later childhood in a orphanage after her parents had divorced. My grandmother couldn’t provide a home for her and her sisters so when the relatives had gotten tired of them they went to the orphanage and she paid what she could so they wouldn’t be adopted out. My mom never had the chance to learn to cook or do the other things women in those days were expert at. She had taught herself to sew and knit and was an amazing housekeeper but cooking never was her gift.

I continued to use that sauce recipe over the years even after Paul was no longer with us. The kids grew up with it and all the beautiful foods he had introduced me to. They are all accomplished cooks, especially my youngest son. Eddie went to culinary arts school after high school but decided that it was an art and not something he wanted to make a living doing.

One Christmas after they were all grown and had their own homes I make a cookbook for them of all their favorite recipes. I found the original copy of the Wop Sauce recipe their dad had written down for me in his own handwriting so many years ago and made copies for each of them. It was yellowed with age and had a few spots of olive oil and tomato on it but was still legible. As I held it a lump in my throat formed and tears stung my eyelids. Paul was my mentor, my best friend and the love of my life. Even after thirty years I missed him terribly, it was like a piece of me was missing.

Last week as we all gathered for a family dinner the menu was the usual, pasta, wop sauce, garlic bread and salad. We each take turns making the sauce and each of the sides. Our dinner tradition has been as frequent as every other week or as seldom as birthdays and holidays. There are now 31 of us with the grandkids and their spouses or partners. So birthdays and other occasions for celebration are frequent. We aren’t always able to have everyone there at one time but it’s usually a house full. The aroma of the sauce pungent with oregano, tomato, anise and parsley fills the air, whets our appetites and mingles with the voices of soft conversation and shouts and squeals of the little ones. I’m sure Paul would be as delighted as I am at how our beautiful family has grown together and shared his gift from so long ago.

Advertisements

Sleepwalking

17 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by ladonnacontenta in mental health, Social, Spiritual

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

dreams, fear & anxiety

The evening was soft and warm, a cool breeze sent a slight shiver across Gianna’s shoulders. It had been too warm in the bed and she had decided to go for a short walk around the park. She wore only a loose night shirt but it could pass for a summer cover up. The moon spread a pale light through the leaves of the trees making it seemed like twilight instead of 2 AM. I hate it when I wake up like this, she thought, but I’ll still have three hours more to sleep when I get back and it’ll be cooler. It had been a hectic week, the clients were asking the impossible and she hadn’t been able to let go.

As she rounded the corner of the block she saw some movement between the houses. Probably just someones dog. The light from a bedroom window caught the glint of something orange, she couldn’t believe her eyes, it looked like a tiger lithely moving out of the shadows. Her heart kicked up a couple of notches and her breath caught in her throat. It was a tiger. She felt so exposed with no wall or fencing separating her from the huge animal. She hoped it hadn’t seen her as she slipped through the gate of the nearest house and moved quickly around to the back. Could it have escaped from the zoo. She hadn’t heard of any warning on the news. There was a screened porch and her hand tried the knob o the door. It opened easy and she ducked inside and closed it firmly behind her.

As she sat huddled in a corner a car pulled into the driveway. The family began to exit the vehicle. She wanted to shout to them to watch out but was afraid to agitate the beast lurking in the shadows. A tall blonde man with glassed and a broad smile made it to the door and opened it for the children giggling and dancing along the path. As they entered, she stood up and quickly went to him and whispered anxiously, “There’s a tiger out there!”

“Oh, okay, it’ll be alright” he said calmly.

“No!” she said urgently, “you don’t understand, there really is a huge tiger hiding in the bushes, it came after me and I found your door unlocked and came in to get away.”

She could see the tiger approaching and coming through the doorway. Her breathing caught in her throat and she crumpled to the floor, sitting there staring at the beast awaiting her fate. The tiger sidled up next to her and lay down at her side, soft and warm. She could feel it’s moist breath on her feet as her heart hammered in her chest. Why was everyone behaving as if it was normal, okay to be there, in this small confined porch with a huge, wild beast?

When Gianna woke up the memory of the dream was still vivid in her mind and she searched for where it had come from. She reviewed her experiences of the day before, what she had seen, read, thought. Nothing out of the ordinary had been a part of the daily experience. Strange she thought, I wonder what it means.

Santa Iwannagetoutahere Patron Saint of Escape

17 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by ladonnacontenta in mental health, Political issues, satire, Social

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

life choices, mental health, stress

I just wanted to disappear, you know, poof and you’re no longer standing there listening to all the whining and looking at all the grief, ugliness and pain of the human condition.

It’s hard enough dealing with my own life and all it’s complications. Then I sit down with friends for coffee and the conversation turns to all the “ain’t it awful” stuff in the world, same thing at work right? and at home? Well enough already, your soon to be favorite patron saint is going to change all that.

Let’s all escape! No I don’t mean leave your friends and family, you’d probably miss them (but maybe not!) We can go to a better place while sitting in the same chair, in the same company. Every time you hear an awful situation (think worldwide increase in childhood obesity) try to think of an aspect of the situation that could be something to be grateful for (think how this problem is helping us find the solution for weight problems that have plagued us for decades) it doesn’t even have to be related to the topic for example I could be grateful for the opportunity discuss this or any other issue with friends, NOT.

Saint Iwannagetoutahere will help you escape. She will introduce you to her brother Saint Idontgivashit and before you know it, WaLa, instant, mindless euphoria like the coma response induced by many hours of mind numbing reality shows on TV. Pretty soon not only will you be able to tune out all those social do gooders but you’ll also be able to ignore the nonsensical blather of the political rhetoric of the day and before long you won’t even be interested in voting. Forget newspapers and magazines, change the channel when PBS comes on and just settle back with your sack from the nearby fast food joint to a relaxing evening of greasing your fingers and your intestines.

In order to maintain this blessed state you must avoid all books, intellectual pursuits, and discussions of social justice issues. When any of these things appear, beat a fast path out of harms way, eliminate stress, the risk of being called on to volunteer or, heaven forbid, contribute to the welfare of your neighbors. Let them fend for themselves, after all, you made it on your own, right?!

Recent Posts

  • Loss and Grief
  • Peace and Understanding
  • Moving Forward in Hope and Gratitude
  • Gratitude
  • Italy, the Agony and Ecstasy

Archives

  • May 2017
  • December 2016
  • October 2016
  • July 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • July 2013
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012

Categories

Advertisements

Share this Blog

Facebook Twitter More...

Goodreads

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 120 other followers

Cancel