if i could just put all of my wishes and all of my good things and strengths and passions into one big pot, stir them up all together, mince up garlic, ginger, some juicy red onions, thyme and some rosemary, stir and stir, play a little regina in the background, dance a bit while it bubbles, sit in that patch of sun that hits the dining room table just right while it simmers, read a chapter of my book while it boils, and then, just as the sun is setting, while the basilica bells chime seven, i would ladle it out into a white clay bowl (it would be red, like tomato, making stains on the side), and slip in a wide, deep spoon. the first taste would be knowing. i could slip my mouth around the spoon (it might click against my teeth)and pour in the liquid. it wouldn't hit me, it's not too spicy or too rich, it would settle, deep and flavorful, into me. by the end of the bowl i would be scraping up the last drips. i might even set down the spoon and lick the sides of the dish. but it would be enough. i wouldn't go back to the pot and look into the garlic residue, clinging to the shining sides, and wish i had made more. everything in me, every ingredient needed would have gone in, and i would know just what step to take next. i would go out, well stirred, well seasoned, and richly ready for what is to come.

i felt just just like this walking home yesterday.

the sun was so rich and beautiful, but you know if you stop in the shade you'll be cold. i stopped beside the library, where the heat had been swallowed up into the wall and sidewalk. i think that our faces need the sun most of all. there's something just lovely about the sun on anything, but when i turned my face toward it, when i faced into the warmth, all of these grey layers of cold and slush, of frustration and bad ideas just peeled down off of me, over my grubby old boots, and away.



http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

I just came upon this. It's too beautiful.

http://www.barcelonayogaconference.cat/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=96&Itemid=97&lang=en

my blogalog needed a little facelift.

There are some Beautiful Things here...just look.

There are bracelets made of shell
found in a silly jokeshop for a dollar,
and sun in the morning when it's so very cold.
There are promises of friends,
an paint, thick on the end of a trembling brush.

The Whole World Over

I have been reading this year, just like I promised. Well, maybe not just like. I thought I'd be reading a lot more than I am, but I am still reading. This week (and last) I read The Whole World Over by Julia Glass. I picked it up at the Book Thing because of its good reviews and because the main character is a cook.

Julia Glass' writing is rich. The care she takes with her words makes the book a deep, delicious piece of chocolate cake, with hazelnut icing. Or perhaps one of Greenie's famous lemon tarts.

Glass follows four New Yorkers around the city, through their departures and travels, and in and out of old loves, lost memories, and new relationships. Greenie, a feisty baker, Alan, her troubled husband, and Walter, their flamboyant neighbor open the book with frustration and longing. Saga, a city-visitor, after her accident, is constantly struggling to remember words and old kindnesses. She stumbles upon new-old truths throughout.

The book itself was an opening of these doors for me. There are things that I'd forgotten with not-reading. The truth of a one-page conversation's ability to stir me through the rest of my day, a character's rigorous soul-searching way of stirring my own soul to look deeper.

The Whole World Over is no epic novel. The reading is quick and burbling. It turns pages quickly and doesn't force heavy questions upon the reader. The knowing is in the sweet taste of strawberry on just-light-enough angel food cake, the watchfullness of returning memories, and each character's willingness to step out into vulnerability.

New Things

I am learning that there are SO many different kinds of people in the world. Like your supervisor. And mine. And your neighbor. And your mom. And even Me.

Actually, I was thinking the other day that some people are SO crazy and others are so random and scattered and yet can be both sucessful and competent with friends and careers and love lives that being stable and functional just seems silly. I look at them and think, ok, I can be a little bit over the top too, can't I? Uniformity is too much work. Be a wild child! Make people confused!