busy day – Today was incredibly busy so I grabbed a pic of the ceiling at First Pres after the Thanksgiving service tonight. Check out my awesome flare, over-exposed, grainy and contrasty pic of the day. Woot!

Topic: Millet Noodles

A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world’s most popular foods, scientists reported today. It also suggests an Asian—not Italian—origin for the staple dish.

The beautifully preserved, long, thin yellow noodles were found inside an overturned sealed bowl at the Lajia archaeological site in northwestern China. The bowl was buried under ten feet (three meters) of sediment

“This is the earliest empirical evidence of noodles ever found,” Houyuan Lu of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an e-mail interview.

Lu and colleagues report the find tomorrow in the science journal Nature.

The scientists determined the noodles were made from two kinds of millet, a grain indigenous to China and widely cultivated there 7,000 years ago. Modern North American and European noodles are usually made with wheat.

Archaeochemist Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia said that if the date for the noodles is correct, the find is “quite amazing.”

Even today, he said, deft skills are required to make long, thin noodles like those found at Lajia.

“This shows a fairly high level of food processing and culinary sophistication,” he said.

Noodle History

Noodles have been a staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2,000 years, though whether the modern version of the stringy pasta was first invented by the Chinese, Italians, or Arabs is debatable.

Prior to the discovery of noodles at the Lajia archaeological site, the earliest record of noodles appears in a book written during China’s East Han Dynasty sometime between A.D. 25 and 220, Lu said.

Other theories suggest noodles were first made in the Middle East and introduced to Italy by the Arabs. Italians are widely credited for popularizing the food in Europe and spreading it around the world.

Additional evidence is needed to prove that the noodles found at Lajia are the ancestor of either Asian noodles or Italian pasta. “But in any case, the latter is only documented two millennia later,” Lu said.

Gary Crawford, an archaeologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga in Canada, said finding 4,000-year-old noodles in China is not a surprise.

“It fits with what we’ve generally known—that noodles have a long and important history in China,” he said.

Ingredient Sleuthing

To determine what the noodles were made from, Lu and colleagues compared the shape and patterning of the starch grains and seed husks in the noodle bowl with modern crops.

The team concluded the noodles were made from two kinds of millet—broomcorn millet and foxtail millet. The grain was ground into flour to make dough, which was then likely pulled and stretched into shape.

Foxtail millet alone, the researchers say, lacks the stickiness required to allow the dough to be pulled and stretched into strings.

While archaeological evidence suggests wheat was present in China 4,000 years ago, it was not widely cultivated until the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 to 907), Lu said.

According to Crawford, the fact that the noodles were made of millet is not surprising. His own research at a similarly dated site in northern China shows ample millet and rice but very little wheat.

However, he added, the discovery of well-preserved millet noodles helps explain the lack of grain seeds found at some archaeological sites.

“One suspicion is grain seeds were made into a type of food through boiling and flour production. That would not necessarily leave much in the way of grains to be … recovered,” he said. ” … and if they were making noodles, that would explain it.”

According to Lu, in poor, rural areas of northwestern China, millet is still used to make noodles.

“These modern millet noodles have a harder texture than the wheat noodles, so they are commonly called iron-wire noodles,” he said.

Original article:

Working the Quern

Grating and Grinding

Yesterday at Howell Living History Farm, I was at the hearth with many hands helping!  This was a day of shelling corn, using a quern for grinding, sieving the flour, mashing pumpkin and grating and grinding spices.  The pumpkin corn cakes (a flatbread) were then fried in butter in a spider.  The quern is one of several programs that I do with school groups.   Visit my website at www.hearttohearthcookery.com

Our latest addition to the iTunes App Store, MonoPhix Monochrome App for iPhone is getting an update within the next weeks. It’s the first of the -Phix apps that will be updated to version v2.0. But MonoPhix carries this tag with pride bringing a total of 15 changes and new features.

In MonoPhix 2.0, iphoneographers will be able to control the output of their Monochrome pictures completely. Where other apps only enable you to change the contrast settings, MonoPhix v2.0 will enable you to set highlights and shadow intensity. In this way you can make simple grayscale images with incredibly bright clear parts or adjust the sliders to make beautiful Monochrome images of pictures taken in all conditions. All changes can be previewed using a thumbnail.

Another major change is the absence of the Hard Mono and normal Grayscale features, these can now be accomplished by setting the slider in the right position with or without a little help from 4 preset settings. The missing buttons have been replaced by buttons to enable Sepia and Antique filters using the same depth and sliders which you use to make monochrome images.

Other changes include a significantly smaller filesize, a more logical save dialog and faster Monochrome filters provided by a major upgrade to the MonoCore engine.

But pictures say more than 1000 words (here are some pictures edited with MonoPhix v2.0 Release Candidate 1) :

MonoPhix v2.0 Monochrome example

Another MonoPhix Monochrome example - "Light at the end of the tunnel"

MonoPhix v2.0 Sepia example - Antique Fields

Another Sepia example which shows the right grain balance - Scratched Snow

Final example : Sepia - Monaco Train Station

Screenshots will be posted at release, MonoPhix v2.0 will be submitted to the App Store when all Beta testers approve of its quality.

A beautiful pastured chicken from Growing Things Farm. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Celebrated an intimate Thanksgiving dinner this week with just a few family members and/or friends? Don’t need a huge turkey, or just don’t want turkey? Do what I’ve done on more than a few Thanksgivings: roast a local chicken from Growing Things Farm. These happy, pastured chickens are better tasting than any chicken I’ve ever gotten from a grocery store, and they are just the right size for a smaller dinner.

Speaking of local (like I am ever not speaking of local, right?), Chef Shannon Galusha, from neighboring Bastille restaurant, will be performing a cooking demonstration today at noon in the middle of the Market as part of the Eat Local For Thanksgiving campaign. Come get some great recipe ideas for your Thanksgiving table, and click on “chef recipes” in the right-hand menu for some simple Thanksgiving recipe ideas from local chefs.

Three kinds of mustard greens from Red Barn Farm. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

You’ll want some nice greens as a lovely side on your table this Thursday.  How about some of these gorgeous mustard greens from Red Barn Farm? Mustard greens vary in flavor and spiciness depending on the variety. Ask Julie about them. She’s a wealth of information.

Oh, and Nash’s Organic Produce is bringing freshly milled hard red wheat flour for the first time today, just in time of all those holiday baking needs. From a variety of wheat called “Hank,” it makes a flour that weighs in at 14% protein that is high in gluten for excellent rising.

Butter from Golden Glen Creamery. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Everything is better with butter, especially on Thanksgiving. Be sure to stock up on it at Golden Glen Creamery, our only local butter maker.

Viking purple potatoes from Olsen Farms. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Viking purple potatoes from Olsen Farms are the perfect mashing potato for Ballardites. They have a creamery white flesh that mashes wonderfully and takes well to butter, and they are named “Viking” and are grown by people named Olsen. (Or course, Olsen grows more than 20 varieties of potatoes, so ask them about their other kinds, too.)

Black trumpet mushrooms from Foraged & Found Edibles. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Whether it is stuffing, a nice dish with grain, or gravy, you’ll need mushrooms. Foraged & Found Edibles always has great, local wild mushrooms, like these black trumpet mushrooms. And they should have fresh cranberries this week, too.

Beautiful November bouquets from The Old Farmer. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

The flower bouquets that our local Hmong farmers bring to the Market every week never cease to amaze me. Just look at these magnificent November arrangements from The Old Farmer. No matter the season, they always present us with spectacular foliage that surprises and delights us. Brighten up your holiday table with one of their creations this week.

Monogrammed sour dough bread from Tall Grass Bakery. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

An excellent vehicle for that Golden Glen butter, for sopping up gravy, or for making turkey sandwiches is this sour dough bread from Tall Grass Bakery. But there remains some debate over whether the monogrammed “TG” on the loaf stands for “Tall Grass” or Thanksgiving.”

Sausage from Skagit River Ranch. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

What? You don’t get what sausage has to do with Thanksgiving dinner?!? Oh, pity you! Think sausage stuffing. Or sausage gravy. Or sausage with kale or collard greens. Heck, sausage should really start with a “b”, so it can fall into the “everything’s better with” category of b’s, which includes, or course, butter, bacon, bourbon and beer. In any case, Skagit River Ranch is your sausage connection. A frustrated ex-pat New Yorker, when it comes to Italian sausage out here, I am a particular fan of their sweet Italian sausage.

Deborah, and her pies. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Pie. You’ll need pie! Thankfully, Deborah’s Homemade Pies has a great selection of pies, from classic pecan or the best chocolate decadence I’ve ever tasted (and it’s gluten-free!), to various fruit pies made from local ingredients, let Deborah take a little pressure off of you.

Samish Bay Cheese makes a variety of delicious farmstead cheeses. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

How do you keep your guests out of your way in the kitchen while you are putting the perfect finishing touches on a spectacular Thanksgiving feast? Easy. Lay out a spread of fresh, delicious local cheeses on some platters, like these from Samish Bay Cheese, and plunk them down in the general proximity of the Lions/Packers football game, maybe with a little Loki Fish Company’s smoked halibut on the side.

Smoked halibut from Loki Fish Company. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

And while you are stocking up on all these Market delicacies for the coming week’s trough, don’t forget that the gift-giving holidays are just around the corner. Take Black Friday off and go for a walk or relax with family. Instead, pick up handcrafted local gifts from the artists who created them, today or next Sunday, right here at Ballard Farmers Market. For example, Lizanne Fisk, of Edith & Wallis, makes lovely felt bowls, boxes, acorn, pumpkins and more to liven up your home or brighten a dear friend’s day.

Lizanne Fisk and the lovely felt creations of her Edith & Wallis. Photo copyright 2009 by Zachary D. Lyons.

Sorry I am posting this puppy so late, or more accurately, so early. My keyboard, WordPress and my internet connection all went on strike during much of the day Saturday. But heck, you kids weren’t gonna read it until morning anyway, right? But please forgive me if I am stupid with fatigue (stupider than usual, that is) during the cooking demonstration today.

And remember, really, everything you need for the most extraordinary Thanksgiving dinner you and your guests have ever had, save, perhaps, the salt and pepper, you will find today at your Ballard Farmers Market. Eating local for Thanksgiving couldn’t be simpler. For a fuller accounting of everything you’ll find today, click on “What’s Fresh Now!” in the right-hand menu, and we’ll see you today at your Ballard Farmers Market! (I’m going to bed now, for a couple of hours.)

Photography is all about light.  Three controls affect the amount of light reaching the camera’s sensor: aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity. Each one also has a creative impact on the image.

And now for the fun bit.  Some smart folks have divided each of these three controls into “stops” as shown in the following table. Each stop up doubles the light. Each stop down halves the light. This allows the photographer to change the creative effects while maintaining equivalent exposures.

The following four images have equivalent exposures.

With the above tools and some knowledge of artistic composition, you are on your way to great photos. Now go and have some fun!

Its a two Batch day, I’m doing 12 litres a piece and actually taking my time over it. I decided to Mash then Sparge and collect, then Mash then Sparge and collect followed by 2 boils.

AG#13 – Bloody Nelson

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 2090g
Wheat Malt 260g
German Cara Red 260g

Hops:
Nelson Sauvin 60 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10g (FWH)
Nelson Sauvin 15 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10g
Nelson Sauvin 0 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 20g (I’ve doubled this from 10g as the hops were smelling good)

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.7% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 6.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 34 EBU
Colour: 15 EBC

The Grains, golden promise pale malt, wheat malt, carared malt, 1 tsp gypsum:

New toy with little Brewing calculator on it, mashed in @ 67.7c:

FWH & 1 Tsp Gypsum:

Floaters:

12g of Nottingham Yeast:

20min steep of flame Out hops:

Rehydrated Notts yeast within 1 degree of my wort temp:

All put to bed now, lots of yeast for the 12L length, should get going pretty quick.
I’m not too sure if the CaraRed Malt has done its stuff, looked a bit straw-like in the boiler, will see better at bottling.
Near as damn it hit my OG just a point or two out.

AG#14 – Black Promise

Fermentables:
Golden Promise 1880g
Wheat Malt 260g
Black Malt 100g
Crystal Malt 100g

Hops:
Northdown 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Whitbread Golding 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Fuggle 60 mins 5g (FWH)
Whitbread Golding 20 mins 20g
Home Grown Fuggle 10 mins 21g

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.044
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 18.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 5.9 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 86 EBC

Grain weighed out, golden promise pale malt, black malt, crystal malt, wheat malt, 1 tsp gypsum, 1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride:

New toy with little Brewing calculator on it, mashed in @ 66c:

Good deep colour, though tastes a bit mild I was hoping for more of the Black malt flavours:

FWH:

WGV going in!:

Home grown Fuggles going in:

Near enough for me:

All done, I just hope the Black malt comes through with the flavour as well as the colour.

What an awesome and orderly God!!  God’s accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.  For example:

• The  eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
• Those of the canary in 14 days;
• Those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;
• The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
• Those of the mallard in 35 days;
• The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.

Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!

The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life.  Only the One who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end.

God’s wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant.  The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction.  No other quadruped is so made.  God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs.  For this reason He gave it fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily. 

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.  A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.  How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!

God’s wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains. 

• Each watermellon has an even number of strips on it’s rind.
• Each orange has an even number of segments.
• Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
• Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
• Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.
• The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.
• All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold – all even numbers.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence.  Only the God-planned safe life is successful.  Only the life given over to the care of the Lord is fulfilled.

www.bibledonate.org and www.fivesimplesteps.org

Words are more powerful than you think. You may already think they’re pretty powerful. Maybe you don’t think they’re as powerful as images. And you most certainly don’t think words and images together are more powerful than words alone (hence the name-brand soda currently residing in your fridge). I was working on my latest project (click here) and came across this fascinating passage from the Book of Genesis in the Bible.

In this passage, Isaac is certain he is about to die, so he tells his son, Esau, to go hunting and prepare him a meal from what he kills. Then he plans to give Esau his blessing. But before Esau returns, his younger brother, Jacob, prepares a meal, sneaks in and pretends to be Esau, so he can get the blessing instead. And this is the blessing Isaac gives to Jacob (from Genesis 27:28-29 NIV):

“May God give you of heaven’s dew and of earth’s richness–an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”

Now notice this. Isaac blesses Jacob with blessings from God – food, wine, rulership over nations, rulership of his family and the power of blessing and cursing. But Isaac did not physically give Jacob any of this from his own hand. He didn’t turn around and give Jacob some grain. He didn’t give him a kingdom. He didn’t even give him any money. But he expected that when he spoke this blessing out of his mouth, his son would blessed by God just as he had said. Now that’s faith, folks.

When Esau came back from hunting and discovered his brother had deceived their father and taken the blessing, he was pretty ticked off. In fact, he wanted Jacob dead. But I ask you this: Why? Jacob had no more stuff than he had an hour before. All he had was a promise. We, with our Western minds, probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought. “He got the blessing, big whoop.”

Perhaps they understood something about blessing that we don’t grasp very well. When the blessing of God comes upon your life, it is just as real as having the goods and abundance in your hand right now. Esau understood this. No wonder he was so ticked off. Jacob understood it too. He deceived his own father to get the blessing.

Now for us, consider all the words written in the Bible – the blessings of God open to any person or people who will receive them. These blessings are real and available right now, and anyone (including you) can be of the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through the rescuing power of Jesus Christ. So see, words are more powerful than you think.

In my last post, I attempted both to recommend Food Inc., and to criticize what I saw as the overly facile closing message (“vote with your fork”).  There was more to the event, here at the American Academy in Rome, and there is a positive alternative to the dark suggestion of the film that Monsanto may well take over the world.  Briefly, these follow-ups/upsides have to do with braised pork and grass-roots.

Let’s start with grass-roots.  Since the screening, I’ve talked with a lot of people about how depressing the film is.  It seems to offer only the meager solutions of “voting with your fork” and waiting for policy change to adjust the prices of food.  Obviously, more needs to be done and can be done.  One of the people I’ve talked with a lot about these issues is Mona Talbott, the executive chef here.  She is passionate not only about great cooking but also about reforming American food culture through cooking education.  An over-reliance on convenient but unhealthy fast-food is in part a consequence of a general lack of cooking skills and knowledge.  Another part of the problem is the misconception that fast food is cheaper than home-cooked food.  This doesn’t have to be the case.  The Rome Sustainable Food Project works on a tight budget to provide nutritious, delicious, and sufficient food for all of us.  Mona points out that the world’s oldest traditional diets, like that in Italy, have had such long histories of sustaining people in part because they can sustain—with complete nutrition—the most people.  In other words, traditional diets are complete, and they are poor people’s diets.  The basis of the Italian diet is the lowly triumvirate of beans, grains, and greens.  These are affordable. Pasta is cheap.  The cheapest cuts of meat are delicious when cooked slowly.

But cooking, which often isn’t learned in the family anymore, needs to be learned if families are to be fed on these inexpensive foods rather than on fast food.  Actually, many people don’t know anything about food anymore, much less cooking!  If you take a look at my friend Sharyn’s comment on my last post, you’ll see what I’m talking about. She teaches in a university, and her students don’t know about the seasonality of any foods.

Several things need to, and can, happen, with a grass-roots effort. More communities can take on the reform of school lunch on their own, and even put in edible schoolyards (playground gardens) and teaching kitchens.  Children, then, can teach their parents about seasonality and cooking.  Or they can learn about food and cooking by asking their grandparents, as their doing with the help of Bioversity’s campaign Diversity for Life.  Cooking schools can teach home cooking.  Institutional kitchens—like the one here, with its unpaid interns—can double as educational kitchens.   Old routines, like canning parties, can be revived.  (Mona mentioned this today, and you might recall one of my recent posts about the biodiversity scientist I met recently, Stephan, who has fond memories of tomato-canning parties in a neighbor’s garage.)  Children can be taught the basics of cooking, and along with those, the comforts and thrills of cooking, by being included in the process of growing and making food.  With the encouragement of children and community-based campaigns, working parents can be convinced to plan ahead and find the time to put together a healthy meal—even if it’s just rice, beans, and something green.

Mona, who has cooked for the best restaurants and wealthiest people, wants to devote herself to this grass-roots cooking re-education effort when her tenure as the head of the Rome Sustainable Food Project ends.  She’s a real inspiration.

*        *        *        *        *        *        *

Immediately after the film screening on Saturday, we participated in a panel discussion with two of the farmers who sell their organic foods to the Rome Sustainable Food Project: Enzo Foi, who came with Filippo da Sole, from the farm and agriturismo destination Lo Spicchio; and Giuseppe Brandizzi, from the organic dairy Biola.  The audience had many questions about organic agriculture (agricoltura biologica) in Italy, food politics in Italy, and the differences between the U.S. and Italy on these matters. Enzo told us, without the wish to romanticize Italy for the mostly American audience, that the main difference between the U.S. and Italy, in terms of industrial agriculture, is scale.  Here, as in the U.S., there is a large industrial-farm lobby that shapes the politics; synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are used (although the European Union has outlawed GMOs and rBST); small-scale farmers are going out of business.  But, also as in the U.S., there is a movement to expand sustainable agriculture, and to encourage buying locally produced food, and some politicians are helping to promote these causes.  (There are, of course, differences.  Italians know how to eat and have a culture of food, for one!)

More important than the help of politicians, though, is the grass-roots movement exemplified by these men and their families, who are educators and cooks as much as they are farmers.  They farm and cook and eat the way they do because they want to preserve the land, foods, and traditions that have sustained people for centuries and that could—if not cared for—be lost to oblivion.  If you’ve seen Food Inc., consider the proud strut of this rooster compared to the falling-down factory chickens:

Lo Spicchio gallo

After the film and discussion—and in spite of the revolting images of factory farming we’d just seen—we all eagerly went upstairs to the dining room to eat a meal prepared with the ingredients from Enzo’s and Giuseppe’s (and a few others’) farms.  We ate Lo Spicchio pork braised in Biola’s whole raw milk; cardoons roasted with lemon and buttery breadcrumbs; polenta; local red wine; and the most flavorful “blondies” I can imagine. (We eat a lot of braised meat here, in part because Mona and Chris like to cook the whole, traditional, foods of everyday Italians.  The braising cuts are the cheapest cuts.  The other night, Chris and the interns cooked up an amazing meal of braised lamb with harissa, chickpeas with greens, and cous cous.  Simple. Complete. Delicious.)

Ce vidéo est une exclusivité Booska-P. Grain 2 Caf remix sa negronomie.

Jyväskylä, Finland, 15.11.2009

Re: Dear Abby:

The following biographical sketch is extracted from Wikipedia:

Pauline Phillips (born July 4, 1918 as Pauline “Popo” Esther Friedman) is an advice columnist and radio show host who founded the “Dear Abby” column in 1956. The current Dear Abby is her first-born child and only daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now writes under the pen name of Abigail Van Buren, which was also used by Pauline. She also has a son, Edward Jay Phillips.

Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips was an identical twin; her sister, Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer, wrote the Ann Landers column until her death from multiple myeloma in 2002, at age 83. As children, the two grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and went by the nicknames “Popo” and “Eppie,” respectively. Both are alumnae of Morningside College and both wrote for the college newspaper. They were so close then that they had a joint wedding in 1939 when both women were 21 years old. They were both Jewish.

The poem below appeared in the San Antonio, Texas Express-News daily on Sunday, July 11, 1993, in Dear Abby’s column. It’s a moving message, from one and all who, as voiced by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, have shuffled off this mortal coil, and is for us a solemn reminder of our own mortality.

These are the words of Hamlet:

“For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause.”

This is the letter I sent to my sister following the death of her husband:

July 11, 1993

Dear Sis,

It’s Sunday morning here and I just finished wading my way through the Sunday issue of San Antonio’s Express-News. This poem was in Dear Abby. I know it’s very sad, and I know it won’t be easy for you to read. But I’ve read it over and over and I found that, at least for me, it became more uplifting and less sad with each reading. It was untitled, so I guess we are supposed to furnish our own title.

Nice touch, that. We can simply leave it untitled, or we can dedicate it to someone or something we’ve loved and lost, whether it be a person or pet or place or idea. Or we can title it “We are not dead“ and attribute the poem to all those we’ve loved and lost. Whether the voice of one or the voices of all, and regardless of the title, the poem must give us pause:

Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow;

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain;

I am the gentle autumn’s rain.

When you awake in the morning’s hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft star that shines at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

Photographed by cláudia gabriela marques vieira

inspired by mario giacomelli

– License

Photographed by bricolage.108

Olympus XA2 + Kodak Ektachrome 400 (Expired August 1982) + redscale
film technique

– License

Photographed by bricolage.108

Olympus XA2 + Kodak Ektachrome 400 (Expired August 1982) + redscale
film technique

– License

le soleil couchant
sur ses pieds :
grains de sable

°

d.(19/9/09)