living Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Lisa Colón DeLay

When Your Wine smells like Wet Dog Fur (Wine Series)

Mmm.

Nothing like that wet dog stench!

What might make a wine get this sort of stink?

That answer in a minute.

First, I’ll explain this series…

As you may know I work at Spring Gate Vineyard. In well under a year we went from zero to being the industry leader in central Pennsylvania with our winery, tasting room, and events.

I went from knowing very little about wine to explaining our wines (about 29 as of now) in detail hundreds of times per week. I’m no expert, but I’ve learned a lot.

I think it might be fun to not just share with you some of the ways to better understand, enjoy, and understand wine for yourself, but also tie in some deeper truths about living and life that go along with viticulture, winemaking, wine appreciation, and enjoyment.

Want to ask a question about wine? Ask away!
Use the voice mail feature! (or leave a comment)

Now about that wet fur stuff…

If your glass or bottle of wine ever is a hint “poochy” smelling, then oxygen is to blame. Other stinky smells that come from oxidized wine are wet newspapers, burned marshmallow, or stewed fruit.

Some oxygen brings out the full aroma (bouquet) of the wine when it is first opened. This is called aerating the wine. That’s why people will swirl a small amount of wine in their glass before they sip it. The smell and taste improve with some air.

But, if wine has been opened for more than a few hours it goes stale. You can get about 24 hours of “not too oxidized wine” if the bottle is sealed and the air is pumped out with a wine pump like this inexpensive one that pays for itself after two uses.

Additionally, a bad seal on the cork might be the problem. Either way, the wine is not unsafe to drink, it is however not very enjoyable, no matter how much of a dog lover you are.

• WINE TIP
Don’t drink wine if it’s brown in color and make sure to not store it in a hot place. Most wines need to be kept around 45-60º depending on the variety. Reds can be a little warmer and whites should stay a little cooler to keep their optimal flavor.

The Life Lesson I learned:

I can get a bit “corked” too, sometimes too, right? Have you ever felt like you’ve been overexposed to other people, too much busyness, and negativity? I have. A little interaction can bring out our great aromas (our best selves), but too much will make us go stale and unpleasant. It’s best to seal ourselves off after a bit and recuperate so we can be more enjoyable to friends and family too. :)

How Love is like Lightening

All the most powerful and wondrous things of living and being human cause language to falter and stumble short. The ways of the heart are not a language at all, but a territory. A place, wild and untamed where we find our home in each other and reside, sometimes like beasts and sometimes like flowers.

Enumerations that try to pull back the veil on love are feeble attempts to list mysteries. But, we should do it for each other, nonetheless, to remember what lasts and remember how the happiness of love is had in moments and short fits.

Outside of those moments, we have remembrances to help us map our way back to what is real. What is us.

What’s an “O Antiphon”? (Something for December)

Today, I’m happy to feature a friend of mine, Thomas Turner. If you’ve read this blog over the last few, Thomas and I have been on each other’s blogs. (See his bio at the bottom)

He just created something that will enrich your Advent Season and give your family a deeper based from which to praise, worship and pray to prepare your hearts for the Christ Child this Christmas.

I urge you to get this book (see how to get it free at Noisetrade below) and include the reading of it in your supper time ritual like we are doing in my home.

http://books.noisetrade.com/everydayliturgy/o-antiphons-prayers-for-the-advent

-Thomas

Author Bio

Thomas Turner is the Strategic Partnerships Research Manager at International Justice Mission and curates Everyday Liturgy, a source for worship and liturgical ideas. He is happy to be living back below the Mason-Dixon line again after a lengthy sojourn in the NYC metro area. You can follow Thomas online, on Facebook and on Twitter.

The Religion of Liberation

(Dura Europos - Fresco from 2nd C Synagogue Jews cross the Red Sea pursued by Pharaoh.) — (Dura Europos – Fresco from 2nd C Synagogue Jews cross the Red Sea pursued by Pharaoh.)

The Jewish people have a big event, a central story, that encapsulates what the Jewish (and Judeo-Christian) faith is about:

Crossing a sea: Crossing from slavery to LIBERATION

“Let my people go!”

This is the cry of (the Jewish) God, the Living God, through Moses; and it’s really the cry of freedom in every human heart.

So what do we want to be liberated from?

Oppression.

Yes, of course.

…and oppression takes many forms.

But, we tend to also want liberation from authority…and that’s not what God has in mind. That misses the mark and produces precarious results.

In fact, the best liberation we can have is one that happens internally.

Our heart is liberated from sin and death and then we receive peace and life.

This is no marginal quality of our faith tradition. Liberation is found not in fleeing something (or someone) but in returning.

A homecoming. A reception by the Father for the children he loves.
Liberation must always be about fleeing to someone (the One).

…and that someone isn’t just another warden in a different prison, but One who wants our peace to be fully realized.

It’s about community identity and belonging.
Each brings freedom and saves us from ourselves.

Sometimes we suppose liberation means freedom to act autonomously and unilaterally for our own interests.
True liberation is the antithesis of that.

When I consider, in this very moment, what I hope to be liberated from in my own life, it seems to concern being free from believing lies. Lies about myself, others, and any sorts of ignoble things that imprison my future in a jailhouse of smallness.

A confined place that is missing the grandeur of what it means to be a sentient being enjoying the majesty of creation that a benevolent incomprehendable Being has fashioned.

The Myth about Roots.

My dad told me that trees have roots that go down as far as the tree is tall. That was an impressive statement and it stuck with me for a long time.

It was, of course, untrue.

He didn’t know much about trees. He was, by his own admission, a “city boy”.

I don’t blame him; lots of people think tree roots go deep.

They don’t.

Any photo of a knocked down tree makes it clear.
See? Roots go out not down.
(The mistake about roots becomes pointedly obvious.)

fallen_tree

Tree roots reach out, not down.

Roots aren’t so much much like anchors hold the tree to the ground, but rather more like feet planted in the soil, in all directions, to create stability and nourishment. They can extend nearly as long as a tree is tall.

The California Redwoods seem even more impressive now, don’t they?

Forests are interconnected places where trees stretch out their roots and touch the other trees nearby, below the surface.

A web of root holds a forrest together as if the trees are playing a long game of forest footsie.

The takeaway:

Like the myth of tree roots, the roots of community don’t go down either–in ideal circumstances. Instead, they go out, or the forest dies.

On Sunday, I’ll go back to church for the first time in 2 months. My work schedule has kept me away, but I’m happy to go back and remember everything I need to remember all over again:

• Who I am in God, in community, and in the scope of human history and the Church worldwide and over the course of eons.

Maybe I’ll learn something new about me, or about church (God’s people), or about what sacred ritual does for me.

I haven’t been separated from this weekly occurrence (for this long) in over 20 years. I’m wondering what it’ll be like to go back. (The next post -or a short series- will get into that.)

My thoughts are forming like questions:

• Will I sense the roots of others stretching out to meet me?

• Will my absence have been noticed at all?
(If a tree falls in a forest…er, um, never mind.)

• Will everything be the same or nothing, or will I be the only one who has changed?

• Will I realize how much I’ve missed it, or be surprised that it hasn’t mattered like I thought it would or should?

• Am I really part of a forest, or am I more like a lone tree on a hill?

Whatever happens, I want to be the tree that stretches out into the stream, into the living water, for nourishment and life.

german-305898_640

Jeremiah17:7-8
“Blessed is the [one] who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. “For [s]he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.