NEW YEAR'S TO-DO

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OOPS! That's supposed to read "Take a road trip" and "Try not to cry when," not tak and whe! I was rushing to finish this one up before heading to San Antone this morning.

HOT PITS

OK, I admit it. Maybe I was a little disgruntled about the 6 different airport runs we had to make this Thanksgiving - four to Austin and two to San Antonio. But now I'm ever so grateful to Mikey for booking their flight into San Antonio. If he hadn't, then I never would have done that double-take as we were zooming past New Braunfels, on our way to pick them up - the one that caused me to say "Uh, John? Was it my imagination, or did I just see a sign advertising Cooper's Old Time Pit Barbecue back there?"

Cooper's, in Llano, was a regular stop for both John and big brother Mike, in the years when they were traveling back and forth between Odessa and UT. I always figured they were exaggerating when they bragged that it was the best barbecue in the world, but they eventually converted both me and the kids to their way of thinking. Many times since buying this place in the Hill Country, we have thought about driving over there for dinner, but though Llano is considered to be in the Hill Country, it's still a couple hours drive from here (No, I'm not kidding - Texas really is so large that it takes about three hours just to traverse the small central portion known as the Hill Country). And, since Cooper's is pretty much Llano's only claim to fame, we just never have got around to making the visit.

However, discovering that there is now a Cooper's in New Braunfels, just 45 minutes away? Why, that's worth any number of extra airport runs! So thanks a million, Mike. We owe you one.

AND THE WINNER IS...

JESSICA! I swear on my Girl Scout's Honor, John was half asleep when I made him stick his hand in the hat to draw a name, so there is no way we showed any favoritism - it just pays to comment often!

Never were any truer words spoken than "You can't please everyone," but that certainly hasn't stopped most of us from trying, and failing, over and over and over. The first and most important step along the path towards good-lifeitude is recognizing the futility of being a "people pleaser" and determining instead to live an "authentic" life - to uncover all the talents and passions you have been gifted with, and to nurture and revel in them, in order to become the wonderfully unique person that God, in all his wisdom, created you to be - even if that means upsetting the status quo.

I was brought up to believe that going off to "find yourself" was just a copout for pathetic losers (and maybe it is if you feel you have to dessert your loved ones to do it!). It wasn't until I read Simple Abundance (the book I gave away last month) in my 40's, that I gave myself permission to start the search, and ended up a much better wife, mother, and friend for having done it. Not only did that book teach me what it means to live authentically, it also introduced me to many shining examples of those who have achieved authenticity in their own right.

First and foremost was artist Tasha Tudor. The name didn't ring a bell when I first came across it, but as soon as I saw her paintings, I recognized an old and dear friend, for Tasha had illustrated many of the classic books that I treasured as a child, including The Secret Garden. That talent alone would have been quite enough to rest her laurels upon, but that was just the icing on the cake, when it comes to the wonder that is Tasha! You see, Tasha always felt that she was born to live the life of a Victorian farm wife, so that is what she created for herself at her home, Corgi Cottage, in Vermont. She wrote and illustrated more than seventy-five children's books, many based on her life there with her children, animals, and her beloved Welsh Corgi pups. Her favorite spot to work from was a cozy corner of her woodstove-heated kitchen, which she referred to as her "chipmunk's nest."

She was born into Boston society in 1914. Her family entertained the likes of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain and Albert Einstein. However, Tasha felt from a very early age that she had lived before, in the 1830's, and things such as threading a loom, growing flax, spinning and milking cows just came naturally to her. The life she chose was not an easy one, and her husband later decided it wasn't the one for him, so the books and illustrations were a way for her to support her kids and continue on her path. She also made fabulous puppets and marionettes to entertain them, and they sometimes earned extra money by traveling around to put on shows with them.

But wait, there's more! There was the amazing garden that she designed and tended herself, right up through her 80's, wearing her trademark homespun dresses, aprons and caps, usually barefoot. There was the menagerie she tended, in addition to her corgies, that included Nubian goats which she milked twice a day, cats, chickens, doves, cockatiels, canaries, finches and parrots. In her spare time she amassed a noteworthy collection of antique clothing, which her children and grandchildren modeled for her book illustrations, mastered spinning and weaving her own linen, and became adept at cooking on a woodstove with nineteenth-century utensils. She continued on this path, always learning, creating, and ever keeping her sense of joy and wonder, until she passed away not long ago, somewhere in her 90's, having lived a most authentic life!

And so, Jessica, the book I am sending to you is The Private World of Tasha Tudor, by Tasha Tudor and Richard Brown. I hope you will treasure it, find inspiration, and refer to it often, as I have done. Congratulations!

P.S. Many thanks to independent.co.uk for the above image.

GOING, GOING...

Just a reminder, I'm pulling a name out of the hat first thing tomorrow morning, so leave a comment tonight if you wish to be included in this months prize drawing!

GOOD-LIFEITUDE

I've been thinking about my blog a lot lately, reminding myself why I started it, asking myself where I want it to go. More specifically, I've been asking myself exactly what it was that I learned from each of those books about people who were "living the good life," and it occurred to me that although I use that term constantly, I may never have explained to you what it means. How does one know if one is on the path to good-lifeitude? So I sat down and made a list (of course - Becky and her lists!) of commonalities I found in the good-lifers I have read about, and realized that I had ended up with a list of topics that I will want to delve into further on this blog. Here are my top 13:

• Mining your authentic self
• Seasonality
  
• Right-livelihood
• Living your passions, making time for them
• Your soul-mate
• Raising your kids to be their own authentic selves, and the traits they absorb from us
• Being good earth stewards, and the legacy we pass along
• A room of one's own, and time for noodling
• Forms of meditation
• What we eat, and where it comes from
• Health and exercise, why it's necessary
• Getting ones hands in the dirt
• Discovering and nurturing the creativity that is in us all

What does "living the good life" mean to you? Are there any important requirements that I have left off of my list, that perhaps we should talk about as well? I would dearly love your input, and if you would be so kind as to leave a comment, you will be rewarded by being included in this month's "Year of Reading Dangerously" book give-away (and this month's book just happens to be about the poster child for #1 on my list, mining one's authentic self)!

LOOKING BACK, AND AHEAD

I got an email recently from someone I hadn't talked to in ages. She asked me how things were going with my book. Book? What book? Then it came to me with a jolt, "Ah yes, the book!"

You see, when I first started writing my "letters from Wimberley," I thought I could just stick them all together and call them a memoir. So what did happen with that? Well, let's say I learned just enough to discover how much I've yet to learn! Now the question is, if I don't have a book to show for it, how can I justify quitting my job in Houston and moving up here full-time to write?

I allowed myself a few hours of wallowing in guilt, then I decided to make a list of those things that I have accomplished this year - things that would have been impossible if I were still working at Buchanan's - and here it is:

• Joined Story Circle Network, attended their biannual conference in Austin, found a wonderful mentor in Susan Albert, and reviewed some great books for their website.
• Met the Muses - inspiring friends who constantly pull me out of my comfort zone, causing me to expand my horizons.
• Honed my writing skills by starting this blog, and learned so much by reading others - not just about writing, but also about living.
• Joined the board of The Bountiful Sprout, and helped give birth to something amazing.
• Took an art class that helped me overcome my fear of drawing, and an on-line writing class that honed my skills even further.
• Wrote some articles I am quite proud of, had a few published, and even got paid for one, at last!
• Finally got around to landscaping the beds around the main entry to our house.
• Grew a bit of my own food, including some awesome Romano beans.
  
• Learned to balance my days, and to live on half of what I did before.

OK, when I look at it like this, I don't feel so bad. Maybe the year wasn't wasted after all! But now what? Well, I think one of the reasons I am having trouble building up my blog readership is that I still haven't zeroed in on my blog identity, and thus, don't know my target audience. It would be so much easier if I was just a foodie blog, or a gardening blog, or a green blog, or a moving-to-another-country blog. If I were, I could join one of the hundreds of blog co-ops that are forming these days, and we could piggyback off of one another's success. But mine is a blog about living the good life, and that involves some of all those things, so how do I define and reach my target audience? I haven't the foggiest idea, but my goal for this year is to figure it out!

FALLING IN LOVE

Someone is going to be veddy, veddy sad when our grandpuppy Guinness leaves to go home tomorrow!

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment (up to one a day) before Sunday evening, if you wish to be included in this month's give-away.