California Heart and Soul

California Heart and SoulMy mother once said to me, "If I had but one wish, it would be to be really good at just one thing, anything." We had been coasting along a winding Napa valley highway on our way to my Moms childhood friends 50th wedding anniversary, alternately chatting about lifes priorities and silly anecdotes, as we had done many times on long rides. Gazing lazily through the windshield at the rolling waves of green, milk cow studded slopes and valleys, mesmerized

My mother once said to me, "If I had but one wish, it would be to be really good at just one thing, anything."

We had been coasting along a winding Napa valley highway on our way to my MomÕs childhood friendÕs 50th wedding anniversary, alternately chatting about lifeÕs priorities and silly anecdotes, as we had done many times on long rides. Gazing lazily through the windshield at the rolling waves of green, milk cow studded slopes and valleys, mesmerized by the snaking striped blacktop, I was abruptly knocked back into my seat by my MomÕs seemingly casual comment. I had always thought of my Mom as being really good at many things in life: family, kids, budgeting, cooking and baking, religion, ethics, and coming up with great ideas for Halloween costumes. But most of all, the one thing that I had always thought my Mom to be really good at, better at than anyone else that I knew in life, was at living large_so typical of the California Heart and Soul.