Home Sweet Home

I just realized recently that I had not even posted a photo of our beautiful Rasht Valley. I love this place to the core of my being. Don't know if I can even explain it articulately or poetically, or any other way, but it is now in my marrow. The picture on the top is the town I live in, Gharm, and the one on the bottom is looking up the valley towards Kyrgyzstan.

Bee-ware

I finally had my first meeting with 10 honey producers to discuss the merits of starting a honey cooperative. This will be my first foray into this world of business and I may just end up stumbling blindly through each process until and unless a number of angel helpers step in to guide my way. I am excited beyond measure or words. I think the potential for our success is enormous. Rasht Valley honey is, beyond a doubt in my mind, some of the BEST HONEY IN THE WORLD. And, according to a honey report I read today, "Demand continues to outweigh supply for honey in the world market. Prices remain very strong for all the available honey." Bee-ware world, here we come.

The Golden Light

Sometimes life feels like this picture - a dark ominous cloud hanging over head, following us around like a little ship on the wide expansive sea. But, there's this golden lining here - the light. We have to reach for the light and keep reaching, stretching out of the darkness. Focus on the light. Focus. On. The. Light.

I have a tendency towards purple or hues thereof. Speaking with my Spanish colleague Emma one lazy day, we were discussing this bold visual blast. Emma states, "I don't like the color purple" in her sweet but sassy Spanish-accented English. I look at her and state emphatically, "Emma, purple ain't a color, it's an attitude!"

Fire on the Mountain

On top of the mountain with my horse, Fire. Sun is shining gloriously. Spent the night under the gazillions of stars. Fasting from sunup til sundown. No food. No water. Drinking in the sunshine and eating up the views communing with God in nature.

Tapestries

All the myriad paths we take add to the tapestried map of our lives; the multi-colored, multi-textured, multi-layered and patterned weaves of cultures, languages, ideas, people, emotions, beliefs, humors, loves gained, loves lost, hearts broken, bad decisions, good intentions, wild adventures, and on and on and on. In the end, if I were to die tomorrow, I'd say it's been a good ride - a wild ride and not one without radical ebbs and flows and ups and downs and vicious circles and tender memories. I'd like to share it all some day. Perhaps I'll start soon.

Little Girls of Garm

Although they live in an insecure environment, their lives remain fairly predictable - at 17 they will be married and will move into the households of their husbands and become the worker bees for their in-laws. There may be two or three keling (daughters-in-law) in one household to split chores. That would certainly be my preference. I would not make a good keling by their definition, unless I was only allowed to work the garden.