El Nino Sunday

My Life On The Road

The book meanders, in part because Steinem has so much life and wisdom to impart in this lean memoir.

My favorite passages are anecdotes from her encounters on the road,

particularly those with cab drivers.

Their dead-on observations are straight from the source, devoid of spin or hidden agendas.

Having lived a long, active life her narratives often come full circle.

Outcomes that were unseen in the moment take on a magical quality in the end.

"The road is messy in the way that real life is messy.
 It leads us out of denial and into reality, out of theory and into practice, out of caution and into action, out of statistics and into stories—in short, out of our heads and into our hearts.”

Gloria Steinem

A Time To Be Born

The Lazy Photographer

Dramatic Desert Sky

The Annenberg Estate

Morning

One of my favorite times of day is early morning

when golden shards from the rising sun flood my living room.

From my bed I watch them tumble down the stairs onto the landing,

spreading amber everywhere.

Fates and Furies

I blame Fates and Furies for my sleepy eyes today.
It was too compelling to put down,
and keep me up way past midnight.

Lauren Groff's praised novel

is about marriage and the dual perspectives
experienced from the same union.

She skillfully explores the interior lives of her leading characters,
and divides the tale into two distinctive books.
The modification in tone and structure
echos the shifting point of view. 

“Great swaths of her life were white space to her husband. What she did not tell him balanced neatly with what she did. Still, there are untruths made of words and untruths made of silences, and Mathilde had only ever lied to Lotto in what she never said.”

Pay Attention

We can't enchant the world, 

which makes its own magic;

but we can enchant ourselves by paying deep attention.

Diane Ackerman

 

Leonard Pelkey

THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY

written and performed by the uber talented
James Lecesne.
Moving, funny, heartfelt, authentic.
A delightful way to end the long weekend.

Added bonus:  hilarious and accurate review by a young critic.

Anantomy of Restlessness

Evolution intended us to be travelers . . . 

Settlement for any length of time,

in cave or castle,

has at best been . . . 

a drop in the ocean of evolutionary time.

Bruce Chatwin

January

I'm always eager to shed the irregularity of December caused by holiday disarray.

Some Januarys drag like a long, foggy hangover,

but this one has gotten off to a quick, productive start.

Winter still has its grasp on Los Angeles

resulting in cozy days working in front of the fire

when I'm not driving to the west side for meetings.

Much needed rainfall has dropped snow on the mountains

and scoured smog from downtown views.

Baby Shower for Julie

Every baby shower needs a 

beaming mother-to-be wearing a silly tiara,

cake,

and champagne cocktails.

 

Gallery Hopping

Spent a rainy Saturday evening

attending gallery openings in DTLA, Boyle Heights and Chinatown.

Spaces are still more impressive than the art,

but I'm optimistic LA will find its way.

Girlfriends

It wasn't until I went on Madwhip's blog

that I noticed we took the same exact photo (at different times during the trip);

a self reflection in Coqui Coqui's door.

Teenage girls often have telltale signs of their friendship;

the clothes they wear, music they listen to, the color stain on their lips.

Ours is a shared passion of photojournaling our lives

and posting the results.

Marcela Diaz

Had the good fortune of meeting Marcela Diaz in Merida.

She started sculpting ten years ago,

after the premature death of her husband.

A conversation at a party lead to a

generous offer to tour her home and studio. 

Her stunning modern casa filled with art 

was like visiting a private museum.

Magical outdoor courtyards and pathways lead to her studio

where she weaves her passionate creations

from bolts of hand dyed local sisal.

"A lone woman stands at the edge, looking down into the abyss that is her life. The night is confidential, with only the stars to bear witness. She carefully opens the box of matches that she has been worrying in her hands for the last several hours. She takes one last sip of the wine that has been both her companion and her fortification on this dark and still night. She strikes the match and watches as her world is engulfed in flame."

"Like a sentinel, the woman stands guard as flames lay waste to her life’s blood, to her grief. Sweat and tears and hundreds of days of solitude are now a funeral pyre of anger and self-loathing. She breathes in the acrid smell of the burning henequen, feeling no remorse over what she has done. This is her penance, her cross to bear. Her beloved no longer walks the earth and it is the burning pit that will release her from her mantle of shame."

"The woman stands at the edge of the smouldering fire, watching as the remnants of her work hang themselves in the sky like stardust. Her body becomes a divining rod, returning to the source of her anguish as if to say, “This too, is the source of your awakening.” With a clarity she has never known, the woman understands this is not the end of her life’s work, this is just the beginning. And it is her beloved who has set her free."

Magical Merida

Travel ignites my curiosity, spikes my creativity. 

The world doesn't just slow down, it is suspended from daily rituals.

It becomes a platform for dreaming.

Hence all travel makes me happy, but this trip soared to superlative status.

It fired on all cylinders.

First of all, I had the best travel companions.

The extremely generous Madwhip and I are very compatible on the road.

Not only do we get to spend hours making up for lost face time,

but there's an ease to the way in which we explore new environments.

Even when GPS lead us astray, as it often did, we embraced the adventure and laughed it off.

Getting to know Swanderia better was a bonus.

It was a delight to experience her old soul wisdom and endless knowledge.

She is a gifted healer, dancer, and artist.

Nightly, we pulled from her deck of tarot cards and pondered their meanings,

ruminating on the year that was, the year that will be. 

Spending time with these two amazing women would have been enough,

but our luxurious accommodations;

a large three bedroom house filled with art and high end furnishings,

kicked the trip up a notch.

Our leisurely mornings spilled into the afternoon

as we mastered the fancy espresso machine like confident barristas.

We lingered at the kitchen table, staving off hunger with eggs and avocados wrapped in tortillas.

We pulled decorative art and cook books from the shelves.

We obsessively photographed the sun's sharp shadows on the thick plaster walls

providing endless images for our Instagram feeds.

We tended to our bodies and souls with massages and healing sessions.

If Merida didn't warrant exploration we would never have left the house.

Our other stroke of luck was renting from a charming property owner, John Powell,

who intermittently texted us with tips on where to eat, or places to check out.

Some mornings he joined us around the kitchen table for an espresso.

Our second night he invited us to a spectacular party

where we mingled with an interesting international crowd.

It is here we met local artist Marcela Diaz

who later in the week gave us an extensive tour of her vast home and studio.

A second invitation was extended for New Years Eve,

 a night that can be fraught with angst, home or away.

The hosts, Cesar and Mima Reyes are art collectors from Puerto Rico.

Their home was designed by a close friend and renown Cuban artist, Jorge Pardo.

An hour into the gathering, the electricity blew transforming the gardens and large colonial house

into a romantic, candle lit setting.

As the new year approached fireworks were lit on the street,

some bursting dangerously close to party guests.

At midnight, a roasted pig was served with ceviche, salads, and chocolate cake.

The slate has been scrubbed from a challenging 2015.

Magical Merida, an auspicious start to 2016!    

FLOURISH

Flour-ish

1. 1 :  to grow luxuriantly :  thrive
2. 2 a :  to achieve success : prosper
   
     b :  to be in a state of activity or production
    c :  to reach a height of development or influence
3. 3 :  to make bold and sweeping gestures

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