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Bridget

@bridgetandpaws

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Savor & Wander | Bridget
The art of living well. 🍋
Homemade food, beautiful places & everyday adventures.
Eat beautifully. Move freely. Live fully.

POSTS STORIES REELS

Time slipped. Months and weeks quickly turned into days. Days divided into good and bad. Days turned into hours. Hours turned into this moment.

A lifetime became a collection of moments.

Now they are memories.

You were my protector. My constant companion. The cat herder. The chicken tender. The horse whisperer. My best friend. My greatest teacher.

And now you’re my angel.

My heart is shattered into a million pieces. But mostly what I feel is an overwhelming abundance of gratitude.

For every walk. Every adventure. Every ordinary day I didn’t know I’d one day give anything to have back.

For eleven years of YOU.

Cairo, you will forever be my greatest gift by @bridgetandpaws

Nacho Shepherd by @bridgetandpaws

My favorite kind of meal lately.

Good bread. Good butter. Sardines. Something from the garden.

If I can’t be in Southern Italy, at least my belly can be 😆 by @bridgetandpaws

As I laid there with my eyes closed, I could not shake the intense fear that I was feeling.

Breath through it, I reminded myself.

You are fine, this isn’t real.

My logical mind that had taken over all of my day-to-day life was trying to do its job. One that it had done very well, or so I thought. Put your head down, keep going, you’ll get through this.

You need to…

You should…

This is your job…

Keep pushing…
 Keep going…

You can rest later…

I had spent the better part of ten years doing all of those things.

From the outside, I’m sure it probably looked like it was working. I had been married for 23 years. I owned a successful business. I lived on a little hobby farm I had once dreamed about. Instagram had homemade food and funny cats.
I mean, what more could I possibly want?

But…I’m fine! I’ll keep going and it will be okay. Really, I’m FINE.

I wasn’t fine.

And I REALLY wasn’t fine in that moment.

I asked the medicine to show me what I had become.

At that moment, as my logical brain was trying to tell me I was FINE, I was visualizing my heart turning black and falling out of my chest. Over. And over. And over again.

I’ll solve that problem…I’ll open my eyes! See I’m a problem solver! I do that all day long.

Problem solved…eyes open!

I began looking at a picture we have on our wall. Titled Curiosity, it’s a picture of the upper two third’s of a cat’s face with it’s eyes wide open. Normally, I love this image. A cat looking at the world with such curiosity and wonder.

Except this time when I looked at it, it was looking back at me — almost through me — eyes wide open with shock and disbelief. And, maybe, even judgement?

Okay - I’ll solve this, I’ll just look at the blanket.

The blanket was a knit blanket with cables running down it. As I laid there staring at those cables thinking I had solved my problem, the cables turned into monkeys. It was like they were all in a line moving up and repeating over and over and over and over.

Finally, after what seemed like 400 hours, it wore off. I’m pretty sure it was only about 15 minutes or so, but, my god, did that feel like an eternity in hell.

(Swipe to keep reading 👉)

Just what the by @bridgetandpaws

Cherry tomatoes, homemade (chunky) breadcrumbs, garlic, oregano, olive oil — a little heat and a little time ✨ by @bridgetandpaws

It’s rare that I am at a loss for words — but this moment left me speechless. I was in the center of the cockpit during landing of our flight to JFK.

Wide-eyed and giddy like a child. Pure magic. The most spectacular ending to a trip of dreams ✈️

Only one of us could go — and without hesitation, he chose me. Thank you to the world’s best hubby for letting me have that experience ❤️ by @bridgetandpaws

New beginnings.

The start of a new story. Each year different from the last. The song is never quite the same, but always beautiful in its expression.

There is so much to learn from these grapes. The one that stays with me the most is:

Let it go. Let it be.

Embrace change. Learn to appreciate difficult times just as much as the good moments.

What brings challenges and perceived imperfections may also lead to something truly profound and magical.

Learn to trust and allow what comes.

Only then will life become a beautiful, balanced harmony.

📸 taken at the beautiful @lupaia by @bridgetandpaws

Today was a good day 🚁🏎️💨 by @bridgetandpaws

Somewhere between the speed and the sound, everything else disappears. Finding calm through speed today driving a Ferrari F296 on the track in Modena 🏎️💨 by @bridgetandpaws

It was a dream of mine to go to Osteria Franchescana last year.

To walk through those doors for the second time… I still don’t have the words.

This isn’t just a meal. It’s not just a “fancy dinner.”

It’s art.
It’s love.
It’s passion.

It’s perfect imperfection.
It tells a story and takes you along for the journey.

It is absolute pure creative genius.

And, somehow, even for a second time, it leaves me at a loss for words.

I thought about speeding this reel up. But moments like this aren’t meant to be rushed. They’re meant to be felt.

My wish for you is to find something…anything… that makes your soul sparkle. That makes every part of you come alive.

That’s what this feels like for me. And I’m so, so grateful to be able to experience this and be here 💛. by @bridgetandpaws

The man who reshaped what Italian food could mean without ever losing its soul. The man who inspires so many — including me. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us, @massimobottura 💛! Day one of our trip and I already feel like I’m living in a dream. by @bridgetandpaws

You’ve changed.

No
 You just met the masks

The good girl The quiet girl The one who followed every rule

The one who could read a room and disappear inside it

She wasn’t me
She was protection

“Keep your wings closed It’s safer down here”

Safer? Maybe.

Happier? Never.

The mask didn’t shatter It simply didn’t fit.

It finally loosened. Then slowly fell away.

The wings finally unbound, stretched ever so slowly.

I was finally free to fly
To simply just be me by @bridgetandpaws