Posting this celebratory day from 3 years in the past seeing that "Name" was back the featured piece on the Aurora Refrain Overseas Adult females's Day Live performance this Sunday. A small crew of expensive neighbors, strong and artistic, loving girls all, sat with me within the entrance row of the live performance, then went down the Portland State Collage Park Blocks to the Interfaith Friendship Backyard and the Stroll of the Heroines to honor the girls whose names are at the wall. The ladies's Research Division on the collage commemorated me via my proto-biography as a fund-elevating reduction, at the celebration of the thirty fifth anniversary of my ordination to the diaconate in 1971 because the first girl to be ordained inside the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. I wasn't ready to stopover at the lawn and wall at the commitment day, however owing to Susan Lind-Kanne's using us downtown for this Sunday tournament, we noticed it at the same time for the primary time. Then we went west several blocks for a shared dinner at Higgin's Eating place on Broadway with all in the community grown delicacies at the menu. I supplied the coowner, Greg Higgins, with a duplicate of The E book of Bliss, consisting of this revision of the poem I wrote which covered the eating place 15 years before.

The 2 Most competitive Foods of My Existence

While the Russian banks collapsed I used to be in St. Petersburg,
and after every week of most effective cabbage borscht, I used to be skinny and hungry.

Out of arduous forex and my traveler’s exams pointless,
I discovered the single location that may take delivery of a mastercard.
Inside the taxi my loved one clutched my hand as our driving force flew us
down Nevsky Prospect to the Grand Motel Europyskaya.

There we have been wrapped in magnificence to rival Paris
or Vienna — Straus waltzes at the violin and grand piano,
peacocks dancing in stained glass and meals all set by means of angels—

Sparkling Norwegian salmon and asparagus Hollandaise,
French wine and later each Greek and Danish cheeses.
The Grand Finale was once a Belgian chocolate raspberry soufflé.

Soul-sated, I paid with my American Show card in Swedish kroner
throughout the Financial institution of Stockholm, the sector at our Russian desk,
this scrumptious foreign ceremonial dinner.

My thoughts drifts to London seven years earlier— prosciutto and honeydew
melon on the desirable ground St. James Eating place of Fortnam and Mason.
My husband and that i held palms, enraptured, ingesting in giddy pleasure—
poached Scottish salmon flown in that morning from the Highlands,
bathed in dilled cucumber sauce with cherry tomatoes. At dinner that night time
inside the formal eating room of the Aldwych Waldorf Motel we held fingers to
the angelic vibrations of harp through candlelight as our rack of lamb turned into served. Then days later, the handiest hen tandoori at an ethnic eating place in Cambridge.

Subsequent I keep in mind a lovely mushroom soup round the corner to Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens on the Plaza Inn in December, in which my aunt and that i basked in individual end result from South United states in watery lighting fixtures and wintery snows of Christmas in Denmark. At breakfast, radiant heat pastries melted in our mouths.

Now a reminiscence floats to intellect from years earlier— shaved darkish chocolate
over orange blossom ice cream on the region eating place, Genoa,
returned dwelling in Portland. Farm Breakfasts on the Columbia Gorge Inn
in Hood River continue to be unforgettable, and sparkling spring pea soup at lunch—
and my buddy LouAnn’s pretty marionberry pie made with love and pleasure.
One morning playing enjoying traveller in my very own urban, I savored a Belgian waffle with 3 varieties of berries and crème fraiche on the Heathman Lodge,
certainly one of quite a few appealing food there in my “downtown eating room”—
a reprise of Mothers’ Day morning on the Stephanie Hotel at Cannon Coastline
after a protracted coastline stroll inside the low tide ocean lightly remembered,
together with all of Mama’s regularly scrumptious wonders— a few inclusive of
red meat Strogonoff from her local Russia—and how every part
her proficient fingers touched became to paintings. . . . On a protracted metropolis stroll later on,
the noontime carillon close the pretty library chimed out the hymn,
“Holy, Holy, Holy,” and my coronary heart full of thank you.

I drifted to a time after i changed into by myself in Paris, and the bliss of a ravishing strawberry jam and butter-stuffed crêpe wrapped in newspaper, which I ate warm from the sidewalk pan on my solution to the ballet, L. a. Bayadère, on the famed Garnier Opera Residence, and the time I left a aircraft filled with dozing passengers
early one summer season morning in the course of a snappy stopover for fuel—
to reserve warm croissants with jam and low at a bar close the gate at Orly,
en path to Rome.

Then to come back to England and roast red meat and greens with Yorkshire pudding, and raspberries in two sorts of meringue with a touch white cake and vanilla whipped cream— a dessert often known as without difficulty, Pavlova— a edition
of boccone dolce, inside the York Inn eating room with its attractive wall
of home windows overlooking May additionally English gardens.

My thoughts keeps to move back— the entire approach to my first plane commute
(to Ny city!) with my father after i was once fifteen years outdated, and
after an entire day on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork close to Principal Park
and a night on Broadway, we have been organized for after-theatre supper
of curried bird salad and Peach Melba on the historical Astor Resort
on Occasions Rectangular wherein we stayed.

As deficient married graduate pupils in Chicago, my husband and that i kept
adequate check from our fellowships to compliment mates to The Bakery
Eating place close to Lincoln Park. Commonly used for bizarre nutrients, they served
a hard and fast worth 4 path dinner for 8 greenbacks. We had been ushered throughout
polished hardwood flooring by way of a maze of vintage timber scroll sponsored
bistro chairs at tables included with white linens, and started the expertise
with a tomato bisque served with orange zest and purple wine, lovingly ladled
into our soup plates with no longer-too tricky thrives from a copper kettle
via waiters in tuxedoes who wore white aprons tied round their waists
and striped white and blue towels folded over their wrists.

The entire tables have been within the lower back close the kitchen. We watched
steam growing from pans and heard the sizzle of excellent issues
within the making, with swoon-beneficial dwelling house-cooking aromas.
Quickly we had been served our red meat Wellington.

Then ahead lower back, I consider Friday lunches and a film
with my husband in Minneapolis. As soon as, for the period of a protracted intermission
in a 4-hour film, I went round the corner to the finest bakery on the town
for a small refreshing raspberry mousse torte dome in a red container,
with napkins and two forks for the remainder of the motion picture. Come nighttime,
we equally feasted on salmon Wellington with paté and wild mushrooms
in a gentle flaky pastry and wild vegetables with herbs in French french dressing,
then profiteroles adopted for dessert at Chez Colette in L’Hotel Sofitel—
Or downtown on the Magic Pan we savored our mushroom, gruyère
and ham or deep fried cheddar and candy mustard crêpes
with Potage St. Germain, sherry and bitter cream at the side—

Or in a similar way, “Swiss Toast,” a creamy wild mushroom and caramelized candy onion Béchamel sauce over ham and asparagus on grilled Pugliese bread at
The Malt Shop— and for dessert, a cantaloupe, vanilla bean ice cream, pecan and drizzled honey sundae in a large amber glass on a stemmed pedestal.

Additionally reminiscences of morel mushrooms well prepared in someone iron skillet
with bird livers and wine, served with crimson candy and bitter cabbage,
chutney and pickles on the Lowell Motel in Stillwater close the St. Croix River,
and for dessert, chilly maple frango or lemon angel pie.

In past due summer season we licked our lips over our small pouches
of tiny scorching Tom Thumb donuts on the Minnesota State Honest and
dreamed approximately them the remainder of the yr.

The focus of our car or truck journeys throughout Canada, after the thrill
of a endure cub on our terrace, turned into the nook bakery in downtown Banff,
in which recent heat French crullers made an impressive breakfast
with espresso and fruit in our woodland chalet inside the woods.

That became to hold us using a hike from Lake Louise as much as Lake Agnes,
in which we loved a modest cream tea inside the small log cabin that made
an enthralling mountain path tea area. From there, we watched glacier ice
melting right into a milky efficient pool, then down and down, streaming clean
to robin’s egg blue during the timber in the direction of the large lake
on the foot of a calving avalanche.

We adopted the watery path parallel to our footpath at the long ago,
arriving in time to look and listen to the crash of a glacial floe hitting water,
like thunder on ice, as we measured the 32nd period
among sight and sound.

At the first of many journeys after we stopped in Livingston, Montana
for the night time, surrounded by way of mountains we determined a shocking
candy potato salad on the Melody Supper Club— off on its own in a clearing
in entrance of thick woods close to the northern front to Yellowstone Park.

After i slept to a creek’s serenade exterior the window,
I skilled visionary, lifestyles-shaping desires.

When we crossed the state border westward, in a window seat
over the Spokane River we had our first ever crème brûlée
at Clinkerdagger, Bickerstaff and Pett’s Public Space
even though traveling my aunt on our manner homestead to Oregon.

For the time of our explorations round the west hills arboretum
and rose gardens someday of the subsequent week, we dined on
duckling in blackberry sauce with cherries jubilee for dessert
at captivating Café des Amis on a quiet Northwest Portland nook.

Then at domicile in our kitchen, the dizzying perfection
of the lemon bars Aunt Letha had despatched dwelling house with us—
or juicy pears true off the tree from our possess small orchard,
or pancakes with wild blackberries we’d simply picked from
over the fence of our unkempt pasture, or alongside the roadside.

Early one nighttime on the Rendezvous Grille in Mt. Hood Country wide Wooded area
I found the therapy for my headache-of-the-day whilst the bartender
served me a steaming bowl of joy— it was once cream of tarragon mushroom
soup, and that i gasped in ecstasy for all to hear— encouraging all people
current to reserve the recent silky bliss for themselves, lovely
with an excellent native Merlot.

Whilst the eating room opened for dinner
we ordered salmon with creamy lemon caper sauce
and artichoke, rivaling my average salmon sautéed in hazelnut butter
on the Tollgate Motel down the mountain.

Even towards house, the neatest lasagna, chook Marsala or
cappuccino ready with the aid of Angelo at his Trattoria, and around the highway
on the Elusive Trout Pub, the fitting Greek Salad with a hazelnut milkshake
for dessert, or at the different facet of the freeway, the neatest homestead fries and
thick juicy hamburger everywhere on the Gateway Pub, Bar and Grille.

Someday prior to all that, a loved chum taught me her recipe
for “orgasm sandwich”~ a thick slice of buttered French bread
with skinny cucumber and tomato slices, a layer of avocado, a layer
of sliced mushrooms, a layer of sharp cheddar, then beneath the broiler
except the cheese became bubbly, served with sprouts and a massive dollop
of bitter cream with recent dill. . . . It positioned the O! in gustatory orgasm.

Many years later at Predominant Avenue Grocery and Wine Save, which used to be actually
a bistro-form eating place in Gresham, I liked to reserve an English pub
sandwich of shredded white cabbage sautéed in apple cider vinegar and
olive oil with celery seeds, layered with apple slices and a wedge of ham
and slice of cheddar on darkish brown rye, grilled.

After Predominant Road Grocery closed, the Black Rabbit Eating place
opened within reach at Edgefield in Troutdale. One November
at our per month get together of friendship, 3 people loved
warm pumpkin gingerbread pudding with hot brandied caramel
sauce and bloodless vanilla whipped cream. It wholly absorbed
each cellular telephone of my frame and thoughts.

As soon as in my cherished metropolis of Portland on the Tivoli Gardens Eating place,
a waiter provided a silver dessert tray to me and at a definite second
in his descriptive narrative he genuflected in homage to a plate graced
through an stunning display screen of red and coral fit to be eaten recent flora round
a thick piece of darkish chocolate with marzipan filling— He delivered it
via asserting, “And this— here is our Sigmund Freud Chocolate Dream Torte.”
In keen quit to my God-given libido I swooned, “I’ll take it!”

But none of those connoisseur reveries extra me highly to the stage of pleasure
I used to be served closing night time, under the influence of alcohol for the 1st time on nutrients, once again in Portland.
I discovered where the place philosophy meets poetry at Higgins Eating place,
going south from downtown on Broadway closer to the college.

Higgins serves healthy bounty of our local Pacific Northwest
waters and farms, with herbs clean from the chef’s possess gardens.
The cuisine turned into so exceptional that I cried.

Watercress salad with eco-friendly apples and toasted completely walnuts
in candy burgundy french dressing, sparkling Alaskan halibut with Oregon wild mushrooms, roasted fingerling potatoes, efficient beans and beets in orange parsley butter served with hot Tuscan bread and Tazo Assam tea after—

For dessert, lemon pudding cake with lime cream
and poached kumquats.

Just one factor was once lacking.
I used to be strolling up Broadway to my automotive wearing
half of my dinner in a field, dreamy-eyed with afterglow,
after i became approached by using yet one more man or woman.

He smiled and talked about, “Good Nighttime, Ma’am.
Are you able to assist me? I simply obtained a role however won’t receives a commission
‘til subsequent Friday. And I’m so hungry.”

First, I gave the gorgeous, skinny, graying center-elderly guy
the container of nonetheless hot and clean dinner— bread, fish
and veggies incorporated.

He inhaled the aromas and well-nigh levitated off the cement,
shopping me inside the eye and asserting, “Oh, that is nice! I admire my meals!”
Tears in his eyes proved his phrases appropriate.

Once i fished in my handbag for the 10 greenback invoice that Powell’s Books
had given me for a publication I’d bought on my solution to dinner and tucked it
into his hand, the man’s radiance confirmed me the type of gratitude
I actually have continuously acknowledged and felt towards others myself in instances of significant desire,
and in a second of mutual attention we spontaneously hugged and
referred to “God bless you!” in unison, precise in every one other’s ear.

I additionally prayed a moment Grace, for inside the sharing of the dinner party,
the meal changed into finished, the superior ever— the full human spouse and children
bonded by means of lively kinship and the blessing of meals on one metropolis boulevard.
________________________

Alla Renée Bozarth
From Unintended Awareness
iUniverse 2003, revised 2015.

Less than are portraits celebrating World Females's Day in my birthplace and place of origin, Portland, Oregon, opening with the earth-shifting and indescribably uplifting "Dare to Be Amazing" live performance through the Aurora Refrain, directed by way of Joan Szymko, whose musical collaborations make Divine Spirit audible. It changed into mighty and an honor to sense my poem, "Name," written at the Eve of the Philadelphia Ordinations for a dinner collecting of my sister ordinands and our ordaining bishops and supporters~ placed to sacred sound in gloriously expressive, wonderful and powerful women folk's voices, with drums sung out with the aid of males and females at the same time in behalf of justice for Mom Earth and the Human Household~ manifested with the aid of males and females running with same possibility for training as college students and academics, and for success in their human talents inside the arts, sciences and governance of all international locations. By their management, they improve the possibility of humanity reaching wholeness of dating in sharing the sacred stewardship of God's holy advent on the planet.
http://allabozarthwordsandimages.blogspot.com/p/the-philade…

Following a sharing of girls's management and repair substances in trade, schooling and the humanities, and lots of joyous conferences and reunions after the live performance, I used to be blessed to accompany associates to the present of Portland State Institution's Ladies's Reviews Branch to all citizens of Portland and its company~ The Interfaith Friendship Backyard and Stroll of the Heroines, wherein we commemorated the lives and contributions of many girls whose names are on a commemorative wall, to be joined via many others who might be nominated via individuals of the general public sooner or later.

https://www.pdx.edu/heroines/talk over with-the-stroll

Graphics: The bouquet introduced to me on the shut of the live performance, proven with Mom Christ/Brother Jesus portray via Julia Barkley inside the Information Area chapel, and likewise proven at my desk of angels beside the birds' eating room exterior the window; and approximately 1/2 our desk of occasion at Higgins' eating place downtown.

Starting up with me underneath the black silhouette of of what's unquestionably a brown timber wall striking of The fairway Guy (representing the all nearby and sparkling foodstuff served), clockwise from my left they may be~retired classical dancer and present businesswoman with Union Financial institution/Elavon Service provider Features Lynda Williams~ appearing artist and shortly-to-be-ordained-an Episcopal deacon Linda Goertz~ encouraged visible and tactile artist and neuromuscular therapist and trainer, Anne Shams~ and carrying on with out of the digicam body are activist/feminist/innovative Democrat and (my) landscaping agency co-proprietor and blueberry farmer along with her husband, Greg, Marcia Brown~around the desk from her, Episcopal priest and Restoration Contact therapist and trainer, in the past the founding father of the Refugee and Immigration Ministry of the Diocese of Massachusetts (additionally in control of coordinating Sanctuary church buildings), Constance Hammond~ proprietor of her personal organizations, SL-Ok Recruiting and gorgeous Undergo Benefits Soul Playing cards, and most appropriate cookie and bread baker, Sue Lind-Kanne~ then returned in body, playwright and filmmaker, in addition to equine therapist and director of a horse healing farm, Phiamma Elias (additionally married to my chiropractor who continues me instantly and de-restless, and mom of 2 proficient musician/composer/poet/singer sons whose tune used to be featured within the transferring movie, "Homeskillet")~ and on my appropriate, liturgical dancer and lengthy-time counselor and promoter of youngsters's and girls's coaching and ladies inside the administrative center, Ann Schneider. I'm so proud to understand and love those proficient and valiant females of continual, every one of them someone with whom I percentage significant background!

We had been in a rollicking, celebratory temper and for a couple of minutes I sat lightly on Phiamma's lap to be in the course of all of us, in preference to on the conclusion, so the tale I needed to inform might possibly be heard inside the noisy eating room. Because the most important persona in her indie movie "Homeskillet," filmed in Portland to polish a light-weight at the dignity and plight of homeless folks, within the turning element of the tale Phiamma is proven analyzing component of a poem aloud from my choice, "The E book of Bliss," and the duvet is seen, appearing an image of me within the get dressed I am donning inside the photos right here and status in my matching coloured rhododendron lawn, that is lovingly cared for through Marcia's and her husband Greg's "Agro Works" landcscaping staff. Greg become just lately in Washington, D.C. attending a club collecting of the Human Rights Committee Board.

Questioning to come back at the reception after the live performance, an unforeseen pleasure changed into that I received to hug and bless and individually thank a lot of the exquisite singers~ the composer/conductor herself on degree, with tears of pleasure and thank you and huge time love~ and afterwards downstairs many greater. One of several singers, Kristan Burkert, mentioned she most of the time heard my title years in the past whilst she became at school at Boston School and Carter Heyward turned into staying in her constructing.

Additionally in the course of the reception, a girl presented herself to me because the President of NOW in South Dakota after i become lecturing there in Brookings on 3 situations inside the past due nineteen seventies. She noted, "You blew us out of our seats and galvanized us into transformation, as girls, as adult males, as a the town. Every thing converted if you got here to light up a brand new manner for us to peer ourselves and to be useful in our international." That turned into throughout the quarter century of my At the Avenue and Up inside the Air ministry as priest-at-good sized, going at any place I used to be often called for a unmarried journey preaching or keynote deal with, or a weekend feminist retreat or workshop with inclusive language liturgy by means of the Awareness Condominium Eucharist, or a Humanities Retreat for college school, or no matter what I'd be requested to do, perpetually requiring press interviews and loads of contexts for talking, giving poetry readings, mingling at honoring sherry/tea/cocktails receptions and dinner situations. In among being priest for my very own interesting, small, feminist/inclusive ecumenical Information Condo group in Minneapolis, I went to such a lot of locations and became with such a lot of organizations and men and women on really no sleep and infrequently fairly sick that they mostly blur in reminiscence, however a few have been of such exceptional that they stand out because of time and all. My 3 times in Brookings meld right into a unmarried reminiscence of exceptional folk, intellectuals, artists, employees of religion, deeply hospitable and type, attentive and in addition completely happy to percentage the reward of laughter liberally. While the previous Brookings player in these hobbies approached me Sunday in Portland, I used to be thrilled. Just about forty years later, I realized from her that my time with that network of folks had a long-lasting have an impact on. Ministry, like parenting, writing and instructing, takes religion at some point. One on no account understands what's going to come of 1's paintings, except once in a while, individual from the earlier reaches out to inform us. It really is an outstanding grace. black tie event

Here is the poem from which Phiamma's movie man or woman learn 4 strains and burst into tears, understanding the complete weight of that means within the means she had selected to name consciousness to homelessness. As I don't forget, the traces she study are from the phrases, "Get ok with the complete choices" in the course of the sentence, "Fall in love with the beauty of now not figuring out." For the reason that Phiamma hadn't informed me whatever thing concerning the tale to organize me formerly giving me the proto-movie, at this factor within the drama I burst into tears additionally!

"Homeskillet" has been proven 5 occasions as a characteristic movie on Oregon Public Broadcasting, and is simply establishing its country wide release. A 12 months in the past with the aid of candlelight within the Know-how Home chapel, Phiamma and that i consecrated the sacred paintings of the movie as bearing witness to these in whose provider Christ promised us we might be serving God in him besides.)
http://www.homeskilletmovie.com/

3 Little Phrases

To be able to be smart,
apply growing to be ask yourself-complete.
Open your Center-thoughts
to the unknowable nature
of Nature, adding your self.
Recall your self satisfied
to be a grain of sand
at the cosmic seaside,
integral in your half
and that's all.
Get happy with all
the probabilities which may
show up whilst you discuss the reality
of those 3 phrases:
I don’t be aware of.
Include the lack of confidence of poser
and its faithfulness additionally.
Fall in love with
the sweetness of now not-understanding.
Fill your self with it.
Then breath out your blessing
into the realm
with a smiling middle.

Alla Renée Bozarth

The Guide of Bliss
iUniverse 2000