The Dali Lama said when asked how to raise a child was to teach her to be kind to insects. Today sipping tea on the terrace underneath the bougainvilla and grape arbor, an ant circled my foot – i flicked the ant away and it stumbled a few feet from me and then tried to move away but could not – i watched the ant struggling and thought how horrible i was for flicking that…
So I told T I cannot believe I knew nothing of Croatia, or Eastern Europe for that matter – and she said her friend in Seattle told her what he had learned in school about Yugoslavia is that it is composed of two different ethnic groups – the Yugos and the Slavs. That was more than I learned.
We wake to our muesli and kefir with strong croatian coffee and peaches and plums – then we make our sandwiches from the local cheese and slice tomatoes that we salt and drench in olive oil and toss in a few slices of ham – then we head to the plaza for our beers – we take a boat over to our island to swim all day and sleep under pine trees and before we…
Tomorrow, we are getting ready to leave Hvar and head to another island, Lastovo – we said goodbye to Jerolim just now after we did a semi circle around the island by foot and then swam it as well – the rocks, the curry plants (smilje) give a heady scent in the heat of the day, the sea is like nothing i have ever swam in before – today is our five month anniversary and…
Here on the Croatian coast on our honeymoon we have found matching rings, relaxation and lots of time to be – but like everything in life there is a fleetingness that accompanies each passing moment.
Bam has escaped three times. Arlene was at the vet having thrown up five times. Loca broke through the screen door and dug a hole to China in the backyard. No one came to walk Loca last weekend. Andree is bringing dessert over tonight for my mom. I walk along the seawall in Stari Grad – old town – and feel as if I am in Mr. Hulots Holiday – otherworldly – out of touch…
a couple of dresses, lazy days, and suddenly you find home – or maybe you realize that home is where the heart is and anything else is just another layer – lovely but unnecessary.
Bogdan Bogdanovic writes about the holy essence of the city having lived to witness the almost complete destruction of cities he loves – I have struggled with his essays from the start – his pendantic archi-speak has made me nuts and then at the very end, after he has brought me all around in circles of his definition of the city, he drops the last paragraph like a bomb on me that makes me cry…
I lay on a flat rock, above a high cliff and if I look to my right I see an unencumbered blue sea, and to my immediate left I see hands that are childlike folded onto each other barely touching black coarse hair with a sprinkling of grey – the juxtaposition of the two makes me cry so hard, I have to catch myself before I wake my friends up.
We had a few Lasko in the square of Ston and came home to a homecooked meal then a big thunderclap signalled lights out – with the thunder and lightning coming from the window, we ate by candlelight – when the electricity was turned back on we danced to Duffy’s Mercy!