Ten years ago I was introduced to wine. I didn’t understand wine. It didn’t taste very good, so my husband suggested I try white zin. White zin was a very pretty pink wine, a bit sweet and I fell in love with it. After about five years my husband suggested I branch out. Try white wine he said. Being used to drinking wine now, I acquiesced. Pinot Grigio soon became my wine of choice and stayed that way for another five years.
During this time my husband tried to broaden my wine palate by introducing Chardonnay. We tried that a few times, and I couldn’t do it. What he called the “oakiness” was what I didn’t like. Gradually I fell in love with fruity riesling and spent a year stuck on Relax Riesling. In time I adjusted my palate to include Sauvignon Blanc. That was my new favorite.
Then we discovered Simply Naked wines. The Chardonnay was amazing. Unoaked and I loved it. My days of pink wine were way, way in the past. Pink wine now appears so sweet to me I can’t even look at it.
Then, today, we walked into the wine store to get wine for dinner with friends tonight. I was stopped in my tracks. There sat the most beautiful bottle of pink wine I ever saw. It said Beach House on it and had the best saying on the label: tranquil, cool, rippled sand, driftwood, peaceful, relaxed, ebb, flow, chill – The Beach House. I stopped my husband and said I need this bottle. It describes our house perfectly. I need it for my new office. It’s a piece of art. My husband just looked at the $10 price tag then looked sideways at me. I looked at him and said it’s not the wine. It’s the bottle. I need this. I set it down on the counter and told him I’ll drink pink wine tonight just to get this bottle.
I’m slowly paying attention to the things in drawn to. Shapes. Colors. Words. These things I’m drawn to help draw the map of me. When I assemble them in one spot, I get a snapshot of who I am.
Discovering who you are is not something that only happens at eighteen. You do it again at thirty. Forty you’re too busy to pay attention to who you are. By fifty the kids are gone and you begin to look at yourself again. By the time you reach sixty you have a whole new picture of you.
What are you drawn to? If you put a few things in a pile, what would it say about you?
And so, as another day goes by, sometimes it’s good to drink pink wine, and…I have written.
Leave a Reply