A friend sent me an article from the Boston newspaper about New Orleans and its bohemian denizens – they referred to us as bayou bohos – not bad. If you consider that most of my adult life has fallen into one cliche or another – I gladly accept bayou boho as my moniker – wear it loud, wear it proud.
A friend writes that it has been raining so hard in Atlanta that some areas are flooding bad. In Turkey, the rains were coming for so long a friend writes that it was just like Katrina – a manmade disaster that killed innocent people. In New Orleans, we finished a monsoon week that brought torrential rains nearly every day all day. Right next to my hotel, President Obama will be meeting at the United Nations,…
I was on my way to the airport this morning and went by to see mom. She perked up and smiled when she saw me which made me feel good to see her so alert. My sister was sleeping in the chair next to her and I was happy to see that she was there with mom particularly as I am going to be gone this week. After a while, my sister woke up and…
I have a small photograph of Joseph Esherick holding a wand and taped to the back is a quote by him – in an article a writer said, “A house is built and then it must be maintained.” He wrote “DAMN” over the quote. I love that. The painters are here putting up ladders and painting what was already painted – over and over – it is all about maintaining around here. Joe was the…
As I packed my suitcase last night, trying to think of what I might want to wear three days from now – always a struggle – I thought about the comings and goings around here. We’re travelers, me and T, not vacationers, definitely travelers. While sometimes it is for work and sometimes it is for pleasure, I inherited gypsy blood and my wanderings are what keep me centered rather than the opposite. The pull of…
I like to keep my Tao te Ching beside my bed and pull it out on nights when I am discomforted. I was attempting a meditation on the Tao before Portugal and found that Portugal had the marvelous effect of renewal – just what my soul needed. But before I bring the Tao back to my bedside which I’ve now cleared to only the stack of books I know I will read rather than desire…
My brother and I write letters to each other – he is away, “working for the government” we used to tell people, when actually he’s locked away for something that is still a mystery to most of us. Recently we quit writing letters because they allowed the inmates to start emailing. It has changed the nature of our relationship from catching up to daily talks. My brother has strong faith in god and likes to…
At the River One night that summer my mother decided it was time to tell me about what she referred to as pleasure, though you could see she felt some sort of unease about this ceremony, which she tried to cover up by first taking my hand, as though somebody in the family had just died— she went on holding my hand as she made her speech, which was more like a speech about mechanical engineering…
I couldn’t spend even a minute today crystalizing even one thought. My friends had arrived on a redeye – that was the most I remembered because their visit went by in a blur. I had spent Sunday morning at the hospital listening to a doctor tell me what I already knew about my mother – he was personable, his words filled me with more sadness. I spent Monday like most Monday’s bewilderly busy and wondering…