"I don't know what I think until I write it down."

Years and years ago, I pulled my car over to the side of the road so I could write down a quote that I'd just heard uttered by Neil Peart while talking to Shelagh Rogers on "The Next Chapter" on CBC Radio. In answer to one of her questions, Neil said, "How do I know what I think about something until I write it down?" I was struck by that so intensely because I thought I was the only person who felt that way. I knew that writing things down often revealed my deepest thoughts that I wasn't aware of until the pen was in my hand. 

It was a few more years before I found out that Neil was paraphrasing Joan Didion, who said, "I don't know what I think until I write it down." Or maybe it was William Faulkner's, "I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it." Or it could have been Flannery O'Connor, who said, "I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say." Regardless, clearly I am NOT the only person who ever felt this way and I’m in pretty stellar company! 

I’ve never had a consistent journaling practice and I’ve never really even tried. I write from time to time when inspired, and things that seem helpful to others sometimes end up on this somewhat self-indulgent blog. I mostly have bits and pieces of draft blogs, jotted here and there, and always with the intent that I’ll get back to it.

So I’m excited to start a disciplined journaling practice for the next three weeks, under the inspired guidance of Catherine Farquharson, Mindset Coach. Catherine actually used the Flannery O'Connor quote in one of her promotional emails. That's how I knew this was for me! And to make this morning practice feel even more luxurious, I scored some great journals (on sale!) at Staples. The book, by Èccolo, is hand-made, the weight is great, and the paper is perfect with my preferred pen. No messing around. I bought the last five the store had left. I’m committed!

Véraison as metaphor

I once wrote, back at the beginning of my career in wine, that I felt like I was at véraison*. My classmates and I had been through an intensive four-month full-time education, and we’d grown and changed. But even as we celebrated our graduation, we weren’t yet ‘ripe’. And I thought that our forthcoming wine careers would be what would ‘ripen’ us.

 

But as I sat at lunch yesterday with one of my teachers from that time - a great mentor and friend - I realized the shortcomings of my véraison metaphor. For one thing, 22 years later, I’m still not ‘ripe’! Because that implies an end, and by no means am I there.

 

In my life, véraison is endless - with continual ‘colour change’ as I reinvent myself, over and over. Before my life in wine, I’d had several reinventions and since, I’ve had a few more. Start ups, marketing, retailing, hospitality, wine events, consulting, social media, and then some.

 

But one career change I didn’t anticipate is probably the one I’m most grateful for. Despite an early love of photography, and a (slightly) later love of wine, I could not have imagined how I would eventually bring my affinity for wine and images together as integral elements of my career.

 

So I’m definitely sitting at véraison again (or still) as photography becomes a larger part of my ‘work’. Somehow it seems fitting that I’m writing this as I sit in a vineyard waiting for the sun to go down a bit so I can take some more véraison shots! 

 

(And to belabour the metaphor just a bit further, I do hope there are a couple of elements of ‘ripening’ that ARE underway within me - I hope my acids are falling and my sweetness is increasing! LOL)

 

* For more on véraison, including a definition, click here. 

Photography Lessons

I had a tough day yesterday and decided towards the end of the day that grabbing my camera and going on a blossom search would be a good way to decompress.

I was racing against incoming weather and loss of light, when I decided to stop at an orchard on Cherry Street in Vineland.

The blossoms had moved beyond the perfect, pristine crispness that is such a joy to see at this time of year. But the slight deterioration was just a reminder that the blossom is only the precursor to the tree’s true purpose - the fruit.

While the blossoms where past perfection, that only served to highlight the underlying ‘support system’ - the tracery of branches is definitely part of the appeal and the beauty of a blossoming orchard.

These blossoms turned out to be a metaphor that was a perfect learning from the day I’d had.

1) Things don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

2) Look beyond the obvious for the beauty and strength beneath.

3) The way we fulfill our purpose is constantly evolving.

Be the America you need to be

To our friend the U.S.: Congratulations. You now have the chance to be the America you need to be. There’s a little backstory here. I knew what I wanted to post today (the day Joe Biden secured the US Presidential election) and I was planning just a text post on Twitter/Facebook because I couldn’t think what photo to put with it. Then Facebook served up the perfect answer!

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The season we've all been waiting for: Autumn!

If you have been following along, you may know that I've done two essays so far for Rick VanSickle's "Wines in Niagara" website, highlighting the vineyard year in Niagara. Well, it's time to post Autumn - the season we've all be waiting for - September 22 to December 21, 2019.

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