washed in the speechless real

i wish i could say that my reticence has been reflective.
it hasn't.
i am merely tired, and taciturn, and counting the days till march.
and then may.

a walk on the wild side

"there's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic."
- lily tomlin (american actress and comedian, b.1939)

sometimes - confronted with another's frenetic tastes - my innate tameness dismays
me.
and sometimes it doesn't.

tending the tides

i should sail a symbolic sea today, mooring my tale with maritime metaphors, plying port, spinning starboard, veering, steering, but i will simply bob the gentle waves of
this little jubilee.
*
it's been four bright and buoyant years.
i thank you!

the crowd begins to sing

the picture, the words it's worth, the song it sings, the strings it strums: there is pure power in combination and collaboration. i have often wished that i knew how to match the media, to immerse myself, and others, in image, with matter, with music..

rich silfver knows, instinctively, how. he put - as he modestly says - "a small test" together, here:
94114
*
turn the volume UP. LOUD. i do, every time.

all my slings and arrows

january, at first backward glance, looks to be thirty-one days of dithering, and
indecisive darting back and forth. i did, however, accomplish a scattering of worthwhile things:
*i stuck to The Diet...almost.
*i was a good friend.
*i survived a long series of very early shifts, with my alarm coaxing me awake at 4 a.m.
*i won (me! who never wins anything!) one of gayla's prints (i chose this one, which i find sublimely canadian, and which i will give total pride of place).
*i sipped a convivial cup of koffie verkeerd with rachel. it had been far too long.
*i booked a flight to england - to visit someone i love dearly - for the first week of march.
i desperately dislike flying, but the offer offered was too good to refuse. the travelling time (compared to boats and trains) was also too good to refuse, but i knock on wood as i say this, as the airline in question can have serious efficiency issues. i work at an airport. i know these things.
*i found a kitchen i like. perhaps this house will finally shed its plastic panelling and its holly-hobbie wallpaper.
*
i did not update here enough, though.
this, hopefully, will be the first step in the right direction.

made in heaven

"and in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."
- kahlil gibran

this image fills me with joy, as does kahlil gibran's aptness, as did that october
week-in-england, as do the people i love.
i am short on words today, but long on wonder.

that grand old harper

the regal cedar at the back of our garden came excruciatingly close to being firewood during last week's storms.
as i stood, uneasy, at the steamy window, feeling the creaks, and watching the world gone wild, its twin - at the back of the neighbours' garden - did.
i love a crackling hearth; i always have.
but i love living trees more.

feathers and flights

"an aim in life is the only fortune worth finding."
- robert louis stevenson (scottish essayist, poet and author, 1850-1894)

my daughter - in nova scotia six months today - is still standing strong, despite a few stumbles into frustration and despair. she is more resilient than she realises.
and more missed than she suspects.

with greater ease

middle-aged waists don't whittle willingly, so i have surrendered myself - following the gastronomic abundance of the festive season - to restraint and stringency and moderation.
i was ripe for this personal regime, these rules, at this particular time, i think: the effort feels minimal, and the progress rewardingly swift.
limitations - the self-imposed ones, anyway - can be surprisingly liberating.

apple pie, in the sky

the day after tomorrow, on three kings' day - as is the tradition here - our christmas tree will be carefully bared of its baubles, and the holiday season will be officially over.
the month of december - feast days, full-time work, and the frenzy of daily posting all told - rather exhausted me, but i have high hopes, and splendid plans, for 2007.
i trust you do, too.