Things of Life

     On my grandfather's table there was a pile of Christmas cards that were received from friends and relatives during the season, and as a child I liked to go through them and read. I believe every single text featured a good health wish for the year to come, and I remember thinking like this:      "Why are these people so boring and not have anything more fun and exciting to wish for...?"                                                                                                 *   *   *      That was then, when as an overall healthy child I took such aspect for granted, and felt like health was something easily accessible. But as an adult I lea...

     What is so exciting about coyotes screaming in the night?      They either cry desperately, or laugh like mad;      Not really sure, but I take it all in      As a bedtime pill.      Either get cozy under a blanket,      Near the pink light of a salt lamp,       Or run rather, with them through the wild,      And try to catch shooting stars,      In a butterfly net...

     As Young Forest was meditating on the mechanisms of enduring relationships, and how love changes its forms through time, she felt compelled to ask Desert about his ties with Ocean, another giant whom she knew well. She saw their interesting interconnections, sometimes quite intimate, and the woman was rather curious:      "So, how do you get along with Ocean...? I see that you guys hold hands sometimes..."      "It's not easy to be side by side...We are different, but we need each other, and we learned to deal with our differences..."      "You did not mention love..."      "I was telling you about what's inside it... love is like a vessel...You find it at one point, somewhere... unassuming, precious... it comes in various shapes and sizes... like Greek pottery, you know... and you hold it, carry it, putting things inside... Its endurance depends of what you place there...      "Okaaaaaay....a...

     The general pulse that pervades in a supermarket is a good sign that life endures and goes on...But with the exception of some people that work in the store and I occasionally see, there are always different people that walk here when I do. I have no way to know when somebody has departed our world,  and she or he will never come back to the supermarket.      I wait in line to get to the cashier. I hate the feeling of getting bored, so I look around. The man that is ready to pay at the next cashier is extremely skinny for his height. He stands out because most of the people nowadays are overweight or obese.      He is so skinny that--I have to confess--he would make a good model for the study of bones, how they connect...the intricacy of each articulation. (If, by any chance, one might want to get into da Vinci's mindset... ) I only have a back view of him, and his bare upper arms and elbows are so fleshless that I can easily d...

      I keep on procrastinating with work on the soup. I would rather lie down and relax because I am a bit light-headed. But there is no cooked food left in the refrigerator and I really want to eat a soup after all...      So, I chop onions, and carrots, and big leaves of kale and I am mindful of their material consistency that will somewhat become part of my body. Soon. It's a good thing that I have the radio on, right at the classical music station, as I need to mix matter with spirit.       I hear Schubert and Dvorák    and my mood becomes grave, as I meditate on how my starving body fits in a symphony. It shakes a bit with every move, my heart is beating, I feel my blood dripping as it's my fist day; women are generally irritated by such discomfort and mess, but it is also a sense of catharsis. Let it go...this matter...       I   am perfectly conscious of my own physicality but my spirit is ...