Eat, Pray, Love at Babette’s Café

One of my favorite Virginia-Highland restaurants is Babette’s Café. For those of you not familiar with the area, Virginia-Highland is a neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, founded in the early 20th century as a streetcar suburb. It is named after the intersection of Virginia Avenue and North Highland Avenue, the heart of a busy commercial district at the center of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is famous for its bungalows and other historic houses from the 1910s-1930s. It has become a destination for people across Atlanta with its eclectic mix of restaurants, bars, and shops.

Chef Marla Adams named her gem, Babette’s Café, after Babette’s Feast, a novel by Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (Isak Dinesen). Gabriel Axel wrote an adaptation of Babette’s Feast, which in 1988, won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Like its namesake, Babette’s Café is also award winning, boasting Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Restaurant of Distinction Award, Best of Citysearch Top 10 Best of Brunch, Zagat rated Very Good to Excellent and ranked second-place for Best Short Wine List on Restaurant Hospitality Magazine’s Best Wine Lists in America.

Since food is one of the central themes of life, it stands to reason that it would make a good theme for the cinema. There is something sensual about a well-crafted movie featuring food. The smells and tastes leap off the screen and make the viewer hungry for more. Inspired by the book and movie, Eat, Pray Love, Babette’s Café is offering a series of Italian specials through Sept. 26. Tropical flowers, candles, and luscious food make for a spiritual evening.

I had the pleasure of dining at Babette’s Cafe on Wednesday for a post birthday celebration with a dear friend. My experience -- spiritual, indeed! The squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta made my tastebuds jump up and down with joy. The Bucatini Amatriciana was THE pasta perfection on this side of Heaven. The wild mushroom risotto with roasted duck and wild mushrooms -- the perfect marriage -- sensual richness meets delicate, woodsy and earthy flavors.

For life’s gastronomic pleasures, dining at Babette’s Café is a cardinal rule! Thank you Chef Marla Adams, for consistently offering an impeccable dining experience.

A Creed by Which to Live

I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday, September 15, by hiking Cloudland Canyon in Rising Fawn, Georgia.  In true “live life to the fullest” form, I refused to let chronic asthma ruin my hike, so with rescue inhaler in hand, the special day’s hike began.  Click here to view photos.

My philosophy on living life is best described by Nancye Sims’ poem, A Creed to Live By, which you may read below:

Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others
It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important.
Only you know what is best for you.

Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart.
Cling to them as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless.

Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living
in the past or for the future.
By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Don’t give up when you still have something to give.
Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don’t be afraid to encounter risks.
It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find.
The quickest way to receive love is to give love.
The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly;
and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don’t dismiss your dreams.
To be without dreams is to be without hope;
to be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don’t run through life so fast
that you forget not only where you’ve been,
but also where you’re going. Life is not a race,
but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

My Solar Return Reflection

As I approach another revolution around the sun, I’ve come to understand that however unwelcome an event may be at the time, it always leads to a positive outcome in the future. I consider friends and acquaintances and how they make me feel … spending my time with those embodying allegorical exuberance, distancing myself from the slightest tenebrosity of envy, resentment and spitefulness.

I share my insights …

• I am ever so grateful that my blog is read worldwide -- six continents, ninety-seven countries!!!
• I love smiles, as a smile can unlock the hardest of hearts.
• I cherish and treasure all of my relationships.
• It is very important to express gratitude and appreciation.
• Say, “I love you” as often as possible.
• The person who possesses the largest bookshelf, not designer fashions, an overflowing wallet or biggest gun, holds true power.
• Always transcend political correctness and strive for human righteousness.
• The truth can hurt and often does, so get over it and move forward.
• Let go of the past or you won’t have room for a future.
• The bigger your challenge, the bigger your lesson.
• Mistakes repeated = lessons not learned.
• When life is stormy, dance in the rain (Believe me, I’ve learned to LOVE dancing in the rain!!!)
• Cold crow is hard to swallow; apologize wholeheartedly, as soon as possible.
• Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of the situation.

May you have enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to realize true happiness.

If Forever Came Tomorrow …

… what would you do today? Would you give attention to the most minor of details and prepare to move slowly and deliberately forward? Would your actions be simple, yet as forceful as that of continuously dripping water wearing away stone? Would you befriend someone who has never known one and never would? Would you look for the quiet corners in your heart instead of looking for the quiet corners of the world? Would you tell your mother she did a good job (and tell daddy, too)? Would you remember that life is not art but living is? Would you ride the currents of a laugh and embrace an intelligent thought? Would you say to those who should have been told it, “You were right and I was wrong”? Would you let others know what it is like to be the most important person in someone else’s life? Would you realize that being in love is not finding a perfect person, but finding an imperfect person perfect?

Because people change and forget to tell each other, if tomorrow was forever what are your actions saying about you today?