The Missing Years

  Almost a decade has passed since I first started writing for eyes other than my own.  Truth is I've felt compelled to write since I first learned how.  Putting pen to paper served as a release for the many thoughts running through my mind, a surrender of the strong emotions coursing through my body that refused to dissipate on their own.

   Although it has been nine years since I last posted to my blog I continued to write in the years in between. Not with conscious intent but as particular ideas or long forgotten memories bubbled to the surface I would scribble them on whatever was at hand - napkins, scraps of paper, on the back of envelopes or in the margins of a newspaper or magazine I meant to read later.  I write these things down simply because something inside me still compels me to do so.

    I have boxes full of the words I've written over decades now.  There is probably an even greater number that found their way into recycle bins or were buried underground at city dump sites.  Reminds of an old technology  saying "garbage in, garbage out." I can only imagine the content of all the words I let go, taking care to remember that words are only symbols for things and not the things themselves.

     So, what has happened in these intervening years?  I went to work in another corporate environment.  A global wine company with vineyards in dozens of countries and well known brands that strives to become Number One in the industry.  Like many large companies their mission statement contains all the right buzz words of the times (sustainable practices, community involvement, etc.) that sound good but have little in common with daily operations.  More on this topic later.

   On the personal side, sprinkled between the mundane were many large and significant events.  I saw my daughter married, the other engaged, lost my brother and gained a grand-daughter.

    On the world stage, regimes rose and fell, wars raged, the rich grew richer and the poor grew poorer.  Beyond a plethora of man-made tragedies there were also those caused by nature - raging fires, devastating earthquakes, massive flooding, and destructive hurricanes.  Time marches on.

Life is a tapestry with threads of every color woven iin.  There are many of us who still have the audacity to hope for a better, kinder world.  My goals today are much the same as those I articulated several years ago.  I hope to provide my readers with an interesting array of topics,inspirational quotes, an occasional poem, philosophical musings, intuitive insights and observations along with those things that arise in the heart before they come to mind.  Thanks for reading?