Lisa's Culinary Atrocities

Quite an extraordinary weekend.  I see and feel transformation.  Transformation of me, of life, of relationships, of my blog.  While food is certainly the main subject of my blog, I now see that it is time to shift a bit…as I am shifting.  I kinda feel like I am going through my own Eat, Pray, Love.

This was a weekend of great perspective and a new avenue of thought.  New possibilities introduced themselves to my tired and conflicted mind like new colors of paint, waiting for me to dab and brush their never before seen hues on my ever expanding canvas.  Funny that my photos are in black and white :)

Robert and I drove down to Pueblo to visit with a childhood friend of his…a very strong, intelligent, knowledgeable and big-hearted man named Dennis.  He is the Captain of Fire Department Number 8 in Pueblo, as well as a volunteer for the Forestry Service in La Junta.  He took us, and a caravan of 14 cars to Picketwire Canyon, located on the Comanche National Grasslands south of La Junta in SE Colorado.  It is a land of rich history and beauty, known for having the largest known set of dinosaur tracks in North America, Native American rock art, and being a home for early Hispanic settlements. Neat. This is also the home of the Purgatoire River. I found great pleasure in joking about how we were crossing the Purgatoire River on the day of the Rapture. ;)

Being the dichotomous being that I am, I was both jailed in my mind, but eager for the adventure.  The week leading up to the trip I lingered in a small dark space within (umm, i.e. I was down right crabby and introspective.) While I can easily glamorize hot, sweaty, dusty days, I am also really an indoor girl and very at home in the comfort of the city.  That being said, I know myself well enough to know if I plodded through this mind muck, that I would not only enjoy the experience, but I would be proud of myself physically and mentally.  Once there, deep in the beautiful grassland, my perspective opened up and I softened.  I became vast and so very small all at the same time.

I took refuge in my camera—looking rather than thinking, finding peace in the grit and that magic space where time ceases.  All of my internal worries became audible in the warm dusty air, and the immense beauty of such a desolate but historically rich land brought me into my heart.

The incredibly clear blue sky, majestic rocks, dinosaur prints, an old barely there cemetery, an abandoned ranch, sheared rock caves and fields of swaying amber and staunch Whipple Cholla cactus ignited my wanderlust. My thoughts swept the canyon, alongside the warm breath of spring.

Yes, there was food & quite a bit of it—homemade Sri Lanken!  This internal experience was more poignant, however, so I will leave it at that.

Love.