Reading my pen pal's letter

City Life

Snail Mail

There is something so magical about getting a hand written letter in the mail and this experience simply cannot be matched with email. Email is cool but it only involves couple of my senses and that is sight and touch but when it comes to a handwritten letter, I can see, touch, hear, smell and even taste it if I am so inclined. Reading an email is a kind of sterile endeavor because my computer in surrounded by papers and printers and it is in the middle of my kitchen which by the way , is the most uninteresting room in my cottage(more about that in the future). But when I receive a letter in the mail from one of my pen pals, I immediately want to set the scene for a lush reading of the magic contained inside. All of my victorian age films come to mind and I make a pot of tea, light the fireplace and curl up in a comfortable seat to enhance the total experience of following the adventures of all of my friends that have taken the time out to put pen to paper. I love the feel of the fancy stationary or the beauty captured on a card hand picked for me, I love the sound of turning pages, and the smell of wonder paper. It is truly a wonder filled experience and it should never die as an art/creative form of expression.

Tutankhamun

We finally made it to the Tutankhamun exhibit at the Deyoung Museum in San Francisco and it was fabulous!! The place was packed but at least we did not have to wait in any lines due to our membership which enabled us to enter in the VIP line which you know I loved. That entrance is worth the price of the membership. Once we were inside, it was butt to butt with people but I just walked to the front of every display and took long looks at everything. I really felt a sense of entitlement after all, these are our ancestors. Sometimes, if my children were around, I would start to kick some knowledge to them for all who were in listening distance. I would say that most of the people in the exhibit did not have a clue and most of them walked around with those darn digital recorders to their ears hoping to gain some understanding.

My Personal Style

It is 2am in the morning and I can not sleep so I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about my personal style of dress and the importance of staying true to myself and what makes me happy. There have been times when I have censored or thought of censoring my dress in order not to call too much attention to myself but most of the time, I had a good talk with myself and aborted such a self sacrificing act, but on a few occasions, I doused my light, just a little because of some critical voice in my head. For example, when we first moved to the suburbs, everyone was so plain and bland in their dress, and I stood out because, to date, I have had locs for twenty-seven years and for most of that time, my hair while utterly beautiful to me, was seen as an abomination to others and, I stood out in a crowd. So, in the suburbs, I would wear my jeans and on the weekends when I would always leave my bland environment, I would dress like a colorful butterfly emerging from its cocoon. This actually went on for several years before I saw the damage to my being and put a stop to it. Now, I know that hanging on to my personal sense of style is so important to my well being. I am not interested in following the styles as determined by designers , when I am "doing me" full out, I feel strong, sassy, powerful, beautiful and fly! My motto is "flyness is a must." There are always those that will try to make you get back into line by giggling, asking dumb ass questions or just staring like idiots. When this happens, my walk gets that much sassier and I stomp the runway.

Harnessing Energy

We love to go on energy harnessing adventures.

Me Old

It is funny not so ha ha, when I tell some women my age, and they immediately try to tuck me away into some neat little mama box, or the old lady box, the non-threatening and at least she is no competition box. I have been walking in beauty for 59 years and ever year my bloom gets larger and I find more and more to be excited about in life. It really is impossible for me to ever be old because it simply is not in my nature and if you spend any time around me, you will discover that about me. My husband is the same, forever youthful and together we are having a ball celebrating and experiencing the magical life that we have created. People will try to age you because it makes them feel better and more secure in who they are and where they think they stand but an individualist never concerns themselves with how others see them. So, I am off to a grand start in this last year of my fifth decade on planet earth, and I am dancing my joy all the way into my sixth decade.

A walk in the woods

I went to the woods

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life! To put to rout all that was not life... And not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived... -- Henry David Thoreau

Black and White

I am loving black and white photography the way I love old black and white movies. Some how, they have a lot more depth to them. They invite me in, in a way that color does not. For some reason I want to enter the scenes captured in what I feel is a magical black and white world and maybe that is because it is the world of my childhood. When I was a kid, all of the magical films were in black and white. I hate when hollywood colorizes a old black and white film because it always loses its lushness.

The classics

I finally got my manual typewriter and I love it. In our rush to progress, we have thrown away some pretty cool stuff and typewriters and record players is just two of the classics that we never should have discarded. Today I developed my first black and white 35mm film, 24 exposures and ended up with 7 fairly decent shots and two excellent shots in my opinion. I really don't know what happened to all of the other exposures. At one point, the back of my camera opened so, that probably destroyed all of the other pictures. Some how all of these classic technologies make life more interesting, more magical because you are forced to be more engaged because, like my cannon FTb camera, there is very little that is automatic about them.

Beautiful granddaughter

Beautiful

My birthday!

Muir Woods, ah beautiful, this is the sight that greeted me on my birthday morning. After writing my birthday blog, I became inspired to go out and do some of the things that I said I wanted to do in that blog. This is the beauty of writing, very often after writing something I am compelled to go out and have an adventure. While working on a book , that I have yet to finish, my characters insisted that I actually go to all of the places that I had them go to, and that was a very enlightening year because I visited what has since become some of my favorite places, towns and power spots to hang out in.

Fun day

My family and I had a wonderful time celebrating my birthday yesterday and I plan to continue the party all month!

Today is my Birthday

Yes today is the day that I officially turn 59 years old, wow, I can hardly believe it! Yes, it has been a fantastic journey so far and I have come through in pretty good health. I have managed to avoid the drugs that most people my age have been tricked into taking without questioning but, it is just a matter of time that my body will push back if I don't get my ass into a dance studio or/and get out and do some walking. I will celebrate my life during the month of January and I will take time out to ponder, where I go from here. I would love to live to be one hundred but in order to do that, I have to really guard my health and do the right things. But, more importantly, I have to have a reason to want to live that long and that means I have to continue to create a magical life and continual growth is the way to do that. So, I will strive to capture and keep the title of renaissance woman by continuing to learn to play the guitar, learning spanish, reading, writing, I will paint this year, visit museums, journal in cafes, lay on rocky beaches, stand in redwood forests, take in live performances, visit teahouses, sit in small intimate jazz clubs, visit all of my power spots, visit art galleries, rent cottages in cool locations and always hold on to my joy.

writing life

Thanks to my daughter, Frida is adorning my writing space in my art studio and that should inspire me but, I don't know if it is enough. In 2009, I did not complete one painting, I added to one but did not complete it. I spent a lot of time writing in '09 and that is a good thing but my goal is to earn and keep the title of renaissance woman and in order to do that, I have to do much, much more. So over the next few days, I will explore what it is that I really want and can commit to this year. As far as writing I love it and when I don't write, my brain gets so cluttered up that I really cannot function at my highest level, everything suffers. I will write in my blog often but a lot of that depends on my daily journaling because my topics come from my daily writing practice. I have to prime the pump through my morning pages and cafe journaling in order to find something to blog about. So, it is all connected and has to be done together in order for it to work.