A Pleasant Sojourn in Seattle

George and I drove up to Seattle on Saturday, to attend a Cluster 14 Reflection meeting. It was so heart-warming to see so many young people learning about the Institute Process and assuming leadership roles. George shared stories of recent IPG activities in Tacoma.

When we arrived in Seattle, we spent the late morning shopping at the World Spice Market, where I renewed my stash of za 'attar and smoked paprika. That store always has the most wonderful fragrance, which invites the customer to linger and browse the spice jars, many of which contain spices I'm unable to find here in Tacoma.

We also went to Istanbul Imports, where we ordered Turkish coffee prepared for us by the owner. George had a delightful conversation while I browsed through the shop looking at all the carpets, looms, crafts, ceramic dishes, pounded copper-ware, glass teacups, and hand-made jewelry.

Currently I'm enjoying a set of videos on the Silk Road featuring tribal people who weave these colorful, flatwoven, non-pile carpets, called Kilim.
While browsing through the Kilim gallery at Istanbul Imports, I was able to connect my impressions from the videos to actual handwoven carpets and other textiles. It was so enjoyable feeling the wool, looking at the backside of the carpets, and noticing that the patterns were similar to those featured in the film.

We ended the day visiting my daughter Laurel and her husband Mehran at their home in Renton. We dropped in just as they were preparing dinner, but declined their invitation. We'd just finished a wonderful meal prepared by a Persian woman at the Cluster 14 meeting. When I mentioned how much we enjoyed the Persian rice, Mehran taught me how to prepare Baghali Shevid Polow, outlining all the steps - how to diffuse saffron to create fragrance and color, and how to prepare tah-dig potatoes (Flickr photo above). This will be a project for next week.

Music From Seventy-Two Strings: The Santur

The Santur is a three-octave wooden-hammered dulcimer with seventy-two strings arranged on adjustable tuning pegs.

Our friend Enayat played it at our weekly Devotional, gently tapping the strings with two little hammers lined with felt called mezrab. The Guild of American Luthiers offers an interesting Glossary:

English Translation Farsi Pronunciation Farsi A-tuned la kouk لاکوک betel palm foofel فوفل bridge bottom khazineh خزینه bridge cap saachmeh ساچمه bridge kharak خرک frame kalaaf کلاف G-tuned sol kouk سل کوک hammers mezrab مضراب hitch pin seem geer سیم گیر hot hide glue serishom سریشم nine-bridge noh-kharak نه خرک saddle rod maftool مفطول santur santour سنتور shellac lock lock-alkol لاک الکل Siberian elm Choob-e Aazaad چوب آزاد side bridge sheytaanak / zehvaareh شیطانک \ زهواره sound holes gol-e santur گل سنتور strings seem سیم traditional music of Persia sonnati سنتی system of traditional Persion music radeef ردیف building blocks of radeef dastgah دستگاه tuning pin gooshi گوشی tuning wrench kelid کلید

The great Persian craftsman Mehdi Nãzemi, who made santurs, wrote: "

“It was a local custom for rich families in Yazd that when a son was born in a family, a great party would be held. When my brother was born, among those invited to the celebration was an ensemble of the most famous singers and musicians of the region. They played instruments such as the santoor, tãr (Persian long necked lute), kamãnche (Persian spike fiddle) and arabãne (a kind of frame drum), and the famous singer Rezã Boland accompanied them. The santoor player of the ensemble, whose name was Gholãm-Hossein Naghãrechi, most strongly drew my attention. I was a nearly eight years old and hearing the sound of Santoor made me feel very happy. After the end of party I went to Gholãm-Hossein Khãn and asked him to give me a santoor, but I received only a smile. It was my first contact with the santoor and a santoor player”.

POS - Positive Outcomes for Society

This is Lake McDonald in Glacier Park, where I often took my children to swim in the summertime. We revisit every year, and I suspect when I am no longer here, I'll still have family who make a type of Pilgrimage here.

I enjoy reading about cold places in the wintertime, so picked up "In Siberia" by Colin Thubron. It is only through the exquisite richness of Thubron's prose that I can continue to read this narrative, pockmarked with the horrors of the Gulag, Soviet exploitation of natural resources, and the sludge of corrupt, inefficient bureaucracy.

In contrast, there are stories of human compassion and an unshakable desire to believe in hopeful outcomes, despite the miasma of the past, the ever-present struggle, the bored catalepsy of stagnant institutions and their administrators.

It is the old women who remember the prayers of long ago, who rekindle religious traditions of the past, even if the clergy cannot always remember the prayers. With the old babushkas there is an unshakable desire to believe, a hopefulness born of faith. They want to live for the future.

The youth are not similarly inclined. They move forward, hopeful of material security.

I read Thubron during our Baha'i IPG - Intensive Program of Growth. At our IPG we learned what it takes to believe in a process - 'the how and why'; adapting and changing; learning to persevere, straining every fiber to foster altruism and neighborliness, to care about the needs of families, children and youth.

Two words are on my mind - complacency, mentioned at the IPG, and this new word in Thubron's book, catalepsy. The former refers to a feeling of self-satisfaction that can inhibit taking in critical information. And the latter, catalepsy, refers to a trance like state with loss of voluntary motion and failure to react to stimuli. Both conditions sabotage positive outcomes for society.

Thubron listened to an old woman lament, her eyes brimming. She said she hoped for so much better, saying a city was founded. Yet in time schools were demolished, libraries closed down. People lost all belief - faith. She surfed through television channels with discontent, then switched it off saying, "...to think that it's come to this!"

The Pack Forest: Grey

Rain, sun-breaks, solitude; two hour hike Monday morning.

Flickr Images From the Silk Road

Still enjoying rounding out my reading about the Silk Road with photos from Flickr. Bread-baking, market scenes, pulling silk, hotel rooms, cooking, pounding tin, shoeing donkeys...

Tacoma Baha'is Celebrate Martin Luther King Day

Flickr set: Luncheon on MLK day.

Baha'i IPG - Lakewood - Flickr set...

Sunset in the Meadow ~ A Montana Winter

My sister sent me this photograph ~ sure looks tranquil and cold.

Down With a Cold - Time to Sit Down

Down with a cold, so have spent the last few days taking it easy. I made a big kettle of Indian Rasam soup and four loaves of soft cornbread, and hunkered down. No energy for anything.

I spent an hour reading through Turkey's history, from it's initial small villages 8,000 years ago to the present stress to enter the European Union, with the press of Islamic power struggles.

I copied down each successive stage: the Hittites, the Persians, Alexander the Great, Constantine and later the Seljuks, then the Christians during the Crusades; the Mongol invasion, the Ottoman dynasty with Suleiman the Magnificent; and eventually Ataturk, who moved the vision and power away from Turkish/Muslim rule to secular law and the merging of values and culture that prevail now in Turkey. All this reading, just so I could move forward into the recipes of "Turquoise" by Greg and Lucy Malouf!
An experiment, sprouted barley rounds, an ancient flatbread.
Served warm for breakfast, with mango chutney, eggs and chard.

I'm also reading "The Last Secrets of the Silk Roadl" by Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, about four women exploring the old Silk Road. When they were in Kyrgyzstan, I google-earthed some of the locations, to study the terrain. Stunningly beautiful, with little box icons that could be pressed to see photos.

There were little white houses that had open-air second floors covered by a roof - grain was stored up there. I'm finding photos on Flickr to match the writer's text, even down to the meals they cook in that country, the customs and prayers before meals (Namaz). I was so curious about the sequencing of gestures and positions of the Namaz that I researched it online, and found a video that shows this Muslim prayer. Just amazing, life in this world.

Also read "Unbound" by Dean King. He writes about Chinese peasants, 30 whom were women, who did the Long March in 1934. These soldiers covered more than four thousand miles on foot through the most unbearable terrain. Under enemy fire, they crossed southern China, battling warlords and mountain tribes, forded the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers, walked along high mountain plateaus, through quicksand marshes and snowy mountain passes.

It was a remarkable survival story of women who forged a sisterhood, wanting equality and better living conditions for their families. They suffered so many unbelievable situations and predicaments - delivering babies while under fire, and leaving the baby on the road for someone to find; walking so cold and exhausted that they had to hold onto horse tails to keep moving. This journey would become one of the most horrific in Chinese history.

I'm also reading, "In Search of My Homeland - a memoir of a Chinese labor camp". Er Tai Gao now lives in Nevada, but spent decades imprisoned by Mao's regime for writing 'subversive thoughts' which were published in a small volume called, "On Beauty". In this, he states that freedom is the most important political stand for an artist, that one must be free to dissent from the dominant ideology, thereby making beauty, both its creation and perception, its ultimate symbol.

And lastly, I finished "Blindsided: Surviving a Grizzly Attack and Still Loving the Great Bear" by Jim Cole. He survived a brutal grizzly attack in Yellowstone Park. He'd been hiking alone, and surprised the bear, who had a cub. Cole didn't have time to reach his bear spray before the bear tore off his face and flattened him. The book was about his recovery, and his desire to safeguard the domain of the grizzly. He eventually went back to the place where he was attacked - this time with a companion, and they made lots of noise! Cole died last July of natural causes at age 60, just a few years after the attack.

Vegetable Cachumber - an Appetizer

Break off pieces of flatbread or pita, dip in dijon mustard, and add the spicy east-Indian relish.

Whole Wheat Flatbread

Potato flour was also used in this flatbread, which was baked, sprayed with olive oil, and seasoned.

Apple Pie - Bottom Crust is Crushed Pecans

Hearty Split Pea Soup and Rice-bean Wraps

BBQ Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Thinking Outside the Box - A Getaway

We were invited to join Ruhiyyih and Matt for a getaway at Cannon Beach, Oregon on New Years. We considered loading up the canoe and joining them, hoping to have some outdoor recreation. But it was too cold for canoeing. In fact it was too cold to do anything outside, even walk on the beach.

The resort where they were staying was $200 a night, way out of our price range. For someone who loves primitive accommodations, a resort with a pool, spa and sauna is not my idea of fun. Improvising - getting down to the basics - is more challenging. I told George to do some research, and come up with a getaway for the weekend.

The Plan: Drive to Port Angeles, a 2 1/2 hour drive northwest of Tacoma; secure a room at the Downtown Hotel for $55 a night; and take the Ferry over to Victoria, B.C. the following morning. We'd spend the day at the Royal BC Museum, savoring the history of British Columbia!

When we went to register at the Hotel, the manager wasn't there - he was enjoying New Year's festivities elsewhere. Since all the doors to the rooms were unlocked, he advised us (over the phone) to put our things in room #8, settle in, and he'd drop by later. We hauled in extra pillows, a comforter, a wool blanket, a coffee-maker, coffee, and dinner, which was in two thermoses. We closed the door, and headed out for a late lunch in the cafe downstairs.

The hotel cafe reminds me of 'The Brick' in Northern Exposure, filled with locals, cheery, and offering the preferred American diet - heavy food layered with sugar, salt, and grease. (For Flitzy Phoebie viewers, I can just hear you say, "Finally, she's featuring a decent meal!") It is a shame it gets such bad press.

Although it was bitterly cold outside, we walked around a local park, and along storefronts. The city was pretty dead, no traffic, just a few youth hanging around a nearby arcade. At the hotel, I think we had the entire second floor to ourselves - not a bad thing when your toilet and shower are down the hall!

I made coffee the next morning at 5:30, and we had a hearty breakfast in the cafe at 6:30. Again, scrumptious heart attack food enjoyed by the locals, one of which could fit four of me inside his overalls.
Then we took the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria.

Once we arrived we headed over to the Empress Hotel, then to the Royal BC Museum, where we'd be spending the day. Admission for adults is normally $14, but it was 'donation only' that day.
We spent the next 5 hours exploring exhibits, galleries and artifacts featuring BC history - fur trading, gold mining, lumber mills, salmon canneries. The First Peoples and Natural History galleries were exceptional, with hands-on projects, a pit lodge, a long house, and walk-through displays.

We spent several hours engaged in wonderful conversation with friends Joe and Gwen on the ferry ride back to Port Angeles. What a pleasant surprise, to end our weekend with close friends!

Before leaving town we stopped at a restaurant that offered 'A Festival of Indian Curries', a banquet of appetizers, chutneys and curries, tandoori chicken and lamb curry, naan, vegetable korma, rice and dessert. After studying this cuisine for over a year, everything was familiar, and I noticed that significant modifications were made to accommodate the American palate.

We arrived home about 9:30 Sunday evening, quite pleased that we'd packed in so many interesting experiences on this first weekend of the New Year. George will post photos in our Flickr account when time is available.

Pappadam and Stuffed Bell Peppers

Spanish rice with cheddar cheese is roasted in the bell peppers. As a side dish, I roasted leeks with onions, carrots, and roasted potato skins left over from double-baked potatoes.

Puzzle Pieces: Learning Ruhi Memorizations