It may feel comfortable and soft to walk on, or it may be rocky and painful, but at least you know where you stand. Recently a relationship with a man I loved ended. It was his call, not mine. To our credit, it ended with love and respect. Yes, we had felt some pebbles showing up on our path together. But his decision to end the relationship knocked me off my feet and into the void
When a relationship ends, we are inevitably launched into a void or abyss, where there's nothing solid yet to land on. This is when the emotional rollercoaster goes on overdrive. Falling into the void feels disorienting and we don't know where or when we're going to land on our feet again
Living in the void is a critical time to really dance and flow with our feelings. My own loss of relationship reminds me how powerful our emotions are. We feel the grief, sadness and loss not only of the person, but the dreams we had and the opportunities that were not yet realized
Even those who initiate the break-up are not immune from this, although the degree of their emotional suffering is different than those who were left behind
I was reminded of one of my children's favorite stories when they were young. It was about a family going on a bear hunt. Along their way they encountered obstacles like a swampy marsh or dark forest. Inevitably the conclusion was "You can't go over it, you can't go under it, you can't go around it
A long and rich history greet anyone who learns about Madonna Estate Winery. Since 1922 the Bartolucci family has been producing wine in the Carneros region of California, which falls approximately 45 miles north of the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge
Although the family tradition of winemaking starts in Italy and extends to previously held property in Carneros, the most important history of the family and the winery have come since 1977 when the current vineyard and winery site was purchased
An interesting point on the Carneros American Viniculture Area, it is perhaps the only AVA in the United States that was created in the French model of terrior and not the American model of ownership or political connection
Andrea "Buck" is the current patriarch of the family and oversees current winery production from the vineyard all the way through winemaking. As the third oldest winemaking family in Northern California they have a peculiar appreciation for the need to use sustainable farming practices
Andrea believes that organic farming is much more then not using chemicals, the goal of Madonna Winery is to leave their soil better each year then it was the year before
