December 13: Friday the 13th

I have always considered it lucky when the 13th falls on a Friday. Today was no exception. I went to my beloved Avalon Beach with Robin – who had never been to this particular beach just 11 miles away. Karmalita had no competition for the RV spot from which you an see the ocean. That is special because typically the large parking lot is separated from the water by huge dunes and long boardwalks.

The wind and the waves worked their magic. For a couple of hours, my world was comprised of only sand, shells, the ocean, and the sky. I get cell reception only long enough to play the song, "My Avalon," by Laura Powers. As always, I teared up as I whispered the lyrics (I sing them louder when alone.)

There's a place in-between
My thoughts and my dreams
That touches me deeply
Light, shadows and beams
In shades of blue and green
And I'm lost completely

It's been a part of me always
I've known this forever

Where the sky meets the ocean
Through the mist there, just beyond
In the haven I long for
My Avalon

There's a song from inside
That pulls like the tide
When I'm here alone
From another time and place
A melody of grace
Is calling me home

And I'm filled with the sweet sound
I close my eyes and I follow

Where the sky meets the ocean
Through the mist there, just beyond
In the haven I long for
My Avalon

When we got back home, I whipped up a batch of la cuccia – Sicilian wheat berry and ricotta porridge – the traditional dish eaten once a year on the Feast of Santa Lucia, the 4th-century martyr credited with ending a famine in Sicily by delivering a ship full of wheat to the city of Syracuse. The recipe has many variations. I whipped up the ricotta, added canned wheat berries (no soaking the berries for three days for this nomad), mini chocolate chips, crushed pistachios, and a special container of candied lemon from Sicily. I was asking my grandmother who was born in Syracuse, how she felt about me using precooked wheat berries when I realized I was a grandmother carrying on the tradition.

The almost full moon is kicking!! I watched it coming in my windows in the wee hours of this morning. (I am staring to hear about a 4 o'clock club. I seem to have joined it.)