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The habit of art

My cyber friend underwent a cancer scare and stayed away from her writing for a time, but she came back to it, bit by bit. I always think that you have to keep writing every day and through it all will come the nuggets, with the daily practice of your craft. As the saying goes the fool who persist in her folly, grows wise. Or as Flannery O’Connor said, you need to develop the habit…

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Channeling compassion

I showed up at meditation today after a long day that started at the hospital and Aaron wasn’t there to lead the class instead we had a sub and at first, I was saying “harumph” under my breath but it turned out to be this fabulous journey into compassion. For 20 minutes we picked someone who we wanted to heal and remove their troubles, and I picked my sister who must hurt so much physically…

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Zapata y yo

I went in today for my CT scan to have one more test run on my ticker. I swear sometimes the cure is worse than the disease as lying on the plank with my hands above my head, an IV in one arm and a blood pressure cuff on the other arm, as a mechanical voice told me to breath and quit breathing, and then a flush of iodine injected into me which made my…

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Ex-gratia

I went to Gal Holiday’s goodbye party and garage sale and spotted two Christmas tree ornaments with special meaning attached to each. I delivered one the other day and received a thank you that was two gifts in one: a word for the day – ex-gratia and the idea to sign up for the word a day email myself. What a wonderful way to start 2011! I sent a link to three friends so they…

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The default position

I’ve been grappling with the default on all my preferences with my new computer. Everything including my iPhoto defaults to someone’s idea of the best way to set it up, not mine. The other day I was in a restorative yoga meditation class and Aaron was speaking about the default position and we lay on our backs for one hour running a diagnostic test on our body from tippy toes to top of head –…

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$90 for a pair of Uggs

I really hated to see California women wearing Uggs, it made no sense. And it makes NO sense here in New Orleans either, except at the Lala where the cold air just seeps right in through the floorboards where you can almost see down to the ground since the last freeze popped out all the filler between the boards. So I went online to see about getting Tin some Uggs for around the house and…

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WWOZ

Our nanny is still out and her friend came to watch Tin to give us a needed break, not necessarily a desired one. We have loved having him to ourselves even if it has come at the expense of everything else. This morning it’s almost like everyone could sense the change in energy – from domestic harmony to once again BATTLE STATIONS! Loca lunged and growled at a woman who was peacefully walking towards us…

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Too much reality

Tell me, why oh why, just tell me, why we have to endure “the name that can’t be spoken in this here blog” in a reality TV program? Has American audience sunk to the lowest common demoninator? The answer, a resounding yes. I was watching an interview with Ian McEwan where he was asked if he thinks that we are all going to hell in a handbasket and he said that writers like to think…

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Know your priorities

The other day we were walking to a friend’s apartment in the Quarter and we stumbled across a man playing the guitar. Tin stopped, of course, to check him out and the guy let him play with the guitar. Then he played him a down low blues song that came deep from his gut. We gave Tin $5 to give the man and said, “We always pay our musicians.” The guitar man said he liked…

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Cooking the light fantastic

We’ve been on some sort of food jag around here that is more amplified than it usually is – last night for dinner we had kale soaked in coconut milk that was flash fried in a hot skillet so the marinade caramelized the kale and then we had chickpeas with dates and star anise curry to go with it. Yum. We got these recipes from the New York Times magazine last Sunday and they were…

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