"What have you done with me monkey-puzzle tree?!"

"Confounded woman my language is most controlled!"

"If I must say so Mrs. Muir, fiddlesticks!"

Siklis, Nepal

I'm editing a promo video for a friend of mine. It's for a documentary concept he's pitching. He lived in Nepal for 7 months and videoed most of his experience there, he speaks Nepali and the local dialect of Siklis. I'm finding it a wonderful experience to pick and choose from the 15 or so hours of footage he has, the culture in Siklis is very religious and based in ritual, something that's so mushed about in the West that it is hard to talk about a culture of America, though we certainly have a general and convoluted one. The basic ceremony that is the focus of the video is the funeral ritual in Siklis, which takes place over 4 days. They celebrate the life of the dead, pay homage to them and show the way to where the spirits reside. They mourn and celebrate. They provide offerings for the spirits and animal companions to join them on their journey. They bless the spirit with dances and music, bright colors and a feast.

All in all, I think it would be more comforting to know that this way is how one's life and death would be celebrated, as opposed to the bleak funeral procession of America, with the black cloaks and silent mourning.

Golly, I feel sick today.

Mandala 2

Just back from Massachusetts and Vermont. Fine times.

Mandala

I just discovered a way to follow my own blog within the blogger dashboard. I wonder if the Universe will collapse...

Dream

Last night I had some intense dreams. In one, I grew a new tooth overnight, it was in the middle of my front teeth, so it pushed them apart. But it was slightly behind, growing from the roof of my mouth. It hurt and there was blood everywhere. It felt loose, but I was nervous to mess with it too much. There was blood all over my shirt. I had slept at someone else's house, so I apologized to him in case blood was all over the pillow, though I wasn't sure if there was any. The tooth felt wiggly and, over time, I messed with it until it came out. I held it in between my thumb and forefinger, all bloody. I don't remember what I did with it. I asked the person who's house I was in, if he thought the gap between my teeth would close back up, he reassured me that he thought it would. He looked like David Bowie. His house was huge and there had been a huge house party there the night before, that I had attended. I remember an orgy of sorts and people who looked like they were inside of photographs. I was cleaning up a large room where a lot of people had been. Somehow, the people had obtained fish, one for each person, while at the party. They left the fish laying around. All the fish were dying, because they were out of water. I was going around the room, filling various containers with water and putting one or two fish in each container. Every time I found a container, it was slightly too small and I worried that the fish would die anyway. I barely put any water in the containers and I was rushing to save all the fish. The fish were beautiful, there were puffer fish--that were blue, purple. There were beta fish, gold fish and tiny squids and octopuses. There was even an underwater spider, but I put it in with a small squid and some other fish and the squid and a puffer fish ripped the spiders head off. Though left out for most of the night, as I retrieved all the fish, none of them were dead, even though some of them seemed to be at first. I explained the circumstance to friends and the David-Bowie-Man as they entered the room while I was rushing about saving fishes.

Going for a run today...Haven't done that in a while, and haven't done it once since moving to NY.

It's going to be niiiiice today!

It's going to be 80 and stormy today.

Went to two libraries in Bed-Stuy today, got my library card. I went to the one on De Kalb and Nostrand and the one on Franklin and Fulton. It was a bit of a sad experience. At first I was excited, because I hadnt been thinking about libraries and a friend brought it up and I went out to get the card. But both libraries had very few books with no psychology section or philosophy, teeny tiny arts section, etc. Primarily they had children's books and fiction. That's tough. The larger building of the two libraries had fewer books and some of the shelves were near empty. Sad.

A certain kind of loneliness can do interesting things to me. Perhaps I'm not overtly lonely enough. I mean, at certain times...

"I ain't never seen no whiskey, the blues got me sloppy drunk."

"Growth has not only rewards and pleasures but also many intrinsic pains and always will have. Each step forward is also a step into the unfamiliar and is possibly dangerous. It also means giving up something familiar and good and satisfying. It frequently means a parting and a separation, even a kind of death prior to rebirth, with consequent nostalgia, fear, loneliness and mourning. It also often means giving up a simpler and easier and less effortful life, in exchange for a more demanding, more responsible, more difficult life. Growth forward is in spite of these losses and therefore requires courage, will, choice, and strength in the individual, as well as protection, permission and encouragement from the environment" - A.H. MASLOW