Gracie's Story - Part I - How we got Gracie

In the 70's in the early part of our marriage, Mike and I had a dog for a short while and it was an unfortunate experience and we ended up finding her a new home.  It took 20 years before we were ready to consider another dog and it was at the insistence of our daughters, Amanda and Devra.  Devra campaigned vigilantly for a long time for a pet ("If I can't have a dog, I want a frog") so the search was on for the absolute best pet for our family.  We took this very seriously, studying dog traits and going to dog shows and considered little dogs vs big dogs...it went on for a year almost until we finally found our Grace of the Vineyard.  The other night I was going through old papers and discovered an essay that Devra wrote dated November 17, 1997 called "My Dog Gracie!"  Grace is now 14 1/2 and still kicking (although she has become the Gracie Project lately - diabetic, blind, deaf, and still sweet as ever).  I just had to share this with everyone and will continue to post about our Grace of the Vineyard because she has always been such a great teacher and will to the end no doubt.

My Dog Gracie! by Devra Lake    November 17, 1997

Lacie was her original name.  That name didn't fit her.  Her coat was gleaming and blonde not shaggy and bunched up like lace.  Stacie had named her that, and she had a right to.  Stacie was the owner of the two parents of her.  Luke was her father he was jolly and sweet....Jessie, her mother, kept to herself and probably didn't like the litter.  Her brother and sisters were named Mac, Molly, Macie, Tessie, Chewy, and Lacie.

We had been calling and looking for a breeder for 3 months.  The other five months we had been looking for the right kind of dog.  Golden retrievers, Boston Terriers, Beagles, Labs, and Malamutes.  Ahh! all the confusion!  All the breeders were so far away.  Then we found Bruce and Stacie.  The couple down the street.  They had just gotten 6 puppies, 5 girls 1 boy.  We came to visit the most adorable lab puppies in the world!  Their tiny curled tails wagged and their pointed ears flew in the air like bird wings.  Their shiny black eyes looked up at you as if you have known them all their life!  They ran into walls and ran like a stampede.  But one puppy, a golden coated puppy ran straight to us!

At first we thought we were going to get Mac, the boy, but he seemed like a handful.  So, we didn't.  Then we thought of getting Macie, but Stacie and Bruce wanted to keep her.  So then I remembered the little blond puppy running towards me.  "Let's get Lacie Mom!" I told my mother.  "Good idea Dev," she retorted.  So then we had papers to sign but before, we had to name her something else besides Lacie.  So the search was on.

I was watching "Simpsons" and eating chocolate chunk ice cream.  When the show was over, I saw a theater screen with people watching, a certain man was talking, then a woman "hushed" himj.  Then the screen said "Gracie Pictures".  Gracie, I like it said Dad after I got the idea.  So now we could fill out papers and get t he dog! 

Having a dog is alot of responsibilities.

Soaring to 8100 Feet

 I have been home sick for a couple of days and realized it has been almost a year since I posted to my blog and planned to do it tomorrow.  However, I can't sleep so here I am writing the thoughts that keep circling around in my head.

I had a terrible injury to my foot the day after Christmas last year that catapulted me into a very dark place for many months which eventually led me back to me and a deep determination for self-healing.  I have worked very hard since the Spring on improving my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.  I feel happy and have renewed vitality and creativity.

Here I am at the top of Gray Butte in Shasta after hiking up from 6000 feet to 8100 feet last week on my vacation.  The entire hike was a magical and powerful experience for me and I realized how strong I am and that nothing can really hold me back anymore.  Being at the top of the butte was very freeing and I have remained expanded and changed even now that I am back to my every day life.  I remember the soaring and I was touched powerfully by Spirit through nature. 

So now I'm sleepy and there's more to write which I will do soon.  It's good to be writing again.  Here is a photo I took of Mt. Shasta from Panther Meadows.  I'm off to bed.

Road Trip with Judas Prius

So here I am unpacking and putting away all the stuff I lugged along on the road trip to San Luis Obispo this week.  It was really fun, really tiring, revelatory, and therapeutic for me.  I just have this thing about bringing and packing too much stuff everywhere I go.  My mom used to do this on all the family trips we took and on her road trips to visit us.  I guess I inherited from her.  So now the unpacking and putting away must happen and I'm finally in the mood to decorate and get ready for Xmas if there is any time or energy left over. The girls are both going to be here after all and I'm really looking forward to it.  I've had two weeks off since my gallbladder surgery and I've been busy and probably not resting enough and am tired and just puttering today...resting, unpacking, resting...blogging...puttering.  I'm going back to work tomorrow and it will be a light, short week so maybe I'll get some rest.

I have had a penchant for car road trips by myself since I got my driver's license as a teenager.  I would take long exploratory drives all over Marin and Sonoma county, not knowing where I was going and how long I would drive.  I love the sense of freedom it gives me. There's something about the movement, the new places, and the sense of adventure that appeals to the restless part of my nature.  I turn up the music, think, feel, and process.  I wouldn't say I'm a loner but I am very independent and my life has required me to take care of alot of moving, traveling, and other projects on my own.  Lots and lots of road trips by myself - some for fun and some out of necessity.

Judas Prius




I'll never forget the trip by myself to go visit my dad after my mom had died unexpectedly of acute respiratory failure.  Then the awful trip with my family two weeks later when he was killed in a car accident.  I drove up to their place every two weeks for over 2 years to help deal with all their stuff, business and finalizing their estate and life.  The 4 hour road trip each way helped me process all my different emotions and gave me time to decompress as I went back and forth from my busy family life to helping my brother and sister deal with my parent's abundant stuff and the complications of the tragedy of their deaths.

In 2004, Mike's job moved us to San Luis Obispo and it was a huge project for me involving two separate moves and alot of road trips.  Then again in 2007 he had a job change and we moved to Napa which entailed two moves in a year.  Lots and lots of road trips and time by myself.  I wasn't very happy about having to move away from SLO and when we purchased a wonderful 2007 Prius and it became predominantly my car that I would take on all my road trips.  Mike nicknamed it "Judas Prius".  It's a wonderful car and I've put many miles on him up and down from Southern California thru Oregon in the last couple of years going to classes and visiting friends and family and moving.

I started working full-time a year ago and haven't had much opportunity to travel or visit the girls or friends by myself.  I was feeling pretty good and perky after my surgery two weeks ago and really wanted to visit San Luis Obispo, see my daughter Devra, hang out with friends, go bead shopping, see the ocean, and just generally have fun.  I spent most of Wednesday morning packing up my car with luggage and lots of stuff including jewelry that I wanted to give to Devra to sell, and tools and other beady things.  Car was full and on one of my last trips back into the house, I almost slipped on the pavement and instead my big toe jammed into the cement drainage canal in front of my garage really hard.  I'm sure it saved me from going down and it felt really painful but it wasn't bleeding and just looked a little beat up so I stuck a band-aid on it, and hauled down the road.  The drive was really challenging for me because  I discovered that my gallbladder surgery incisions didn't really like the long drive and my toe was hurting and I was exhausted.  So it took an extra hour to get to SLO and then I had dinner at Big Sky with Devra and went to bed.  Thursday was really busy and fun spending time with Devra, then tromping all over Morro Bay with friends having fun, and then dinner with another friend.  I really didn't notice my toe until I got back to Dev's place and realized it was really hurting so I took the bandaid off (finally) and my toe looked ghastly.  I should have changed the bandage and aired it out, etc.  The nail was partially broken off...it was ugly so off to the ER we went.  We went to Sierra hospital in San Luis Obispo at about 10 PM and got right in as soon as they saw the ugly beaten up toe, got triaged, and then got to see the ER doctor.  He looked to be in his late 30's, very tan, fit, and good looking - kinda remined me of Dr. Kildare.  I asked him if he was a surfer and he said yes.

He said the moist bandage had caused the tissues to get soggy, part of my nail needed to be removed and it needed to be cleaned up, x-rayed and rebandaged.  The x-ray showed it wasn't broken...boy did I feel stupid for not taking better care of it.  His young blond tech assistant came in and asked me a bunch of questions and then the doc numbed up my toe (he was more nervous about that part then I was)...it hurt alot!  Once it was numb, he finished treating it and another male nurse came in and bandaged me up.  They were all very professional and attractive.   It helped deal with the pain and mortification of having to be in the ER.  So the moral of the story is that I slowed way down over the next couple of days and was alot more attentive to my body while hanging with my daughter and having fun. My toe is looking 2000% better and I had a wonderful drive home up the coast through Cayucos and then crossed over through the vineyards in West Paso Robles.  Beautiful drive and I'm back to real life in Napa and the sun is out and I'm almost done unpacking and am going to work on Xmas decorating now.

Katherine

Isn't this a great picture I found on the internet of a beautiful rainbow dragon?  In a more whimsical time of my life Rainbow Dragon was one of my many online aliases.  It seems like a really long time ago now even though it was only 6 or 7 years ago.  I love finding deeper meaning and symbolism in life events and have a strong belief that there is a greater unifying spirit, or energy that connects everything and everybody.  I have had many twists and turns and ups and downs in the last few years which have taken me through personal crisis to a new place and the start of a new process where I will be sharing myself more publicly. 

I was reading someone's profile on Facebook recently and under relationship status there was a comment, "it's complicated".  Well, that's how I have felt about choosing a name for my business. Over the years of being in business for myself and being on the internet I have taken delight in coming up with many, many different aliases for email addresses, web page names, user names for online groups, and business names for my bodywork business, coaching business, jewelry business, etc. etc.  Each name has deep symbolism and meaning for me.  I've become very attached to many of them and have been trying to choose what would be the best name for my new endeavor.  There is a rainbow of choices, believe me.

It has been taking up too much mental energy and it is time to choose and move on to making more art and setting my store up, etc.

It is time to get over being wishy washy about this - to not be afraid of making a mistake or waking up thinking "oh, I could have had a V8, dagnabit"

For  my business I choose my name - it's a beautiful name - Katherine Lake.  I'm excited to be able to share myself here and on Facebook and on the internet.  It's time to be seen and share my work, my resources, and my thoughts.

I can still dance

I haven't written much in years and years and I can see that it isn't as easy as my words tumbling off my tongue or my thoughts rambling on in some freeform crazy way.  I don't seem to have "writing standards" either because I've just dropped into .....instead of ending sentences with a period in all my correspondence  .....seems to flow more...more watery...I wish they would create some punctuation that looks like a wave...make the reader relax the jaws, drop their shoulders, and take a deep breath for a few seconds and then carry on with the tasks of the day.

I have reached a critical mass of discontent that requires some serious changes on my part.  It's a different calling then I had in 1983 when I was drawn to a wonderful healing path of discovery through massage and bodywork and having a family.  It's not about quitting my job tomorrow or even starting a new business or making a name for myself ...it's about starting to dance again, to really embrace the synchronicity of the tao and to share it in a new and creative way. 

I've accomplished alot the last few days....got the blog set up and more techno stuff...spent time with my family and home....and found a voice for today...tomorrow maybe I'll dance some