Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Portland, Oregon for the very first time and take an unexpected “side trip” about 90 minutes north to a town called Jefferson – which is located in the Willamette Valley. To the hipster-come-borgeois bohemian “metro area” dwellers (not unlike myself), the Willamette Valley is the place where “those awesome Pinot Noir’s” come from. A haven for wine lovers.
To my friend E and her family – it’s home. That place she grew up playing in the blackberry bush brambles, living in a kid-paradise of both tamed and untamed nature and watching her Mother tend to the many plants and flowers in her greenhouse while her father worked alongside roofing repair minneapolis for their home roofing.
If you are planning to put up your dream house, you shall be considering every part of the house. The roofing is a major part of the home as it covers and protects the house from the environment, since if they’re not using the right materials and care they could get problems as termites and then need to use pest control from sites as http://www.accuratetermite.com/. Aside from having a roof that could last a lifetime, you would want it to also have a good design from professionals like roofing company naples fl. You would want to be using the right type of shingle that compliments all the other parts of the house. Know more about designer shingles!
E puts together a living as an Artist who does freelance design work. She is an introvert by nature but you can tell she is retaining an intense light no doubt nurtured by the natural beauty she grew up in and parents who took great pride raising all kinds of living things – from plants and flowers to children – to bloom bright in whatever way nature intended.
E’s mother passed about 4 months ago; several months after E had moved back out there from the East Coast with her partner to care for her in her final battle with Cancer.
When I arrived in Portland for my conference (The World Domination Summit – which will absolutely be featured in another blog entry) – I got in touch to see if it was possible to get together while I was in town. As it turned out – E’s entire family (all the brothers and sisters and aunts and cousins) would be arriving in just a few days for a planned Celebration of Life that Sunday to honor her Mother. They hadn’t had a memorial service and – as it turns out, in the true spirit of her family – the preferred method of commemoration was that of a joyful gathering in the place and with the people her Mother loved most.
E and her partner extended an invitation for me to join them Saturday afternoon and evening for a family BBQ in advance of the big Sunday celebration – to let the Anthropologist in me see some more of Oregon and experience ” the native way of life”. I think she actually used that term. 🙂 But I was just happy to see my friend and also secretly excited to see E’s Dad’s farm – where he has been growing organic medical marijuana among his other crops. I had never seen anything like that except for on television and my curiosity was beyond peaked. I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to the subject matter of anything related to deviance (i even got a degree in it – of sorts and even if Marijuana is now technically Legal in Oregon and therefore no longer defined as “deviant” by law).
What I experienced that night was nothing off-the charts on an “indigenous ritual” scale. Just a collection of loved ones grilling dinner and catching up – enjoying the comfort and discomfort of family interaction in anticipation of what would surely be an emotional day to follow. But I did experience off-the-charts love oozing out of every person I encountered. They welcomed me – a stranger for all intents and purposes – in to their home with so much warmth during a very special and private time in their family’s journey together.
I am grateful for the reminder of my love for humankind and the reason why I chose this calling of observing, capturing and trying to make sense of the human experience. Over the years I have learned that despite our many differences based on geography, demography, ethnicity, etc. that we have so much more in common than we know.
So I would like to share a celebration of life via a photo journal of E’s family’s big heart-space in a relatively small part of the world. As a gesture of gratitude to Honor E’s mother and the love in all of us, here are some captured images and moments from my “native experience” in Jefferson, Oregon:
The Narcissistic (American) Anthropologist 
Edited from original post just slightly. I almost forgot my favorite image – which is now added at the end of the post.