My heavens to murgatroyd philosophy: If I were to exit stage left tomorrow would I want to be doing what I'm doing today?
painting by Andrew Biederman
"The minute you begin to do what you want, it's a different kind of life." Buckminster Fuller
This morning driving back to the docks from across the bridge I was thinking of that Mary Oliver line about her job in this life is to be dazzled. I love that.
I remember a friend visited and was blown away by our life on the water. She asked how I ever got any work done around here. I said, well I just make it my work.
Job requirement: ability to be dazzled. Love that. And it’s enough. Simple is usually best. Yesterday over coffee a friend said I was one of those people who writes everyday and I was thinking sometimes it’s because I have to write.
This morning I thought, actually, it’s because I get to write.
Cap'n Orange
a picture of hope
photo by Dennis Bayer
This morning I made the coffee, fed the cats, watered the plants
Went up to the roof, took 10 deep breaths, practiced qigong, tai chi
and watched the golden sunrise grow milky white.
Downstairs I read Mary Oliver with Capt. Orange purring in
my lap, with some Bukowski chaser, typed these words
sitting in the brown leather chair, the Mac balanced on
the leather arm because it’s the cat who's the laptop.
These mornings before 7:00 fill my day. They say
breakfast is the most important meal. I haven’t
had a bite, but I feel full.
Things I've Seen Float By
- A skiff with a man at the oars and a woman playing accordion
- A heart shaped rose petal
- My neighbor's houseboat being towed out for a bottom job
- A whiskery seal
- A man standing on a paddle board with a dog on the front
- Garden clippings
- A seagull
- A seaplane
- A beer can
- The month of October
Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually.
Maybe the desire to make something beautiful
is the piece of God that is inside each of us.
- Mary Oliver, Blue Horses
photo by Dennis Bayer
Peace Corps memory: a sunset on Lake Atitlan, people drawn towards the shore, alone and in pairs, silently sharing the beauty & wonder of light on the water & across the sky.
Early this morning as the sun rose across the bay I went to the roof and beheld the glow, saw neighbors on their decks, on their roofs sharing in the silent wonder of beauty, the golden joy of light ~
Ricardo & Peter
We lived on 2 acres with a pond. Pierre had the run of the apple orchard, quite the dainty killer back then. Now he's a houseboat kitty and prowls the roof and decks and rooms afloat. This morning a gull flew below the long window where Pierre relaxed in his favorite post following an exhaustive breakfast and instantly the old hunter went into his crouch. Old instincts never die. The gull perched on our piling, surveying the channel. I watched and wrote. Better for all that way.
Winning post by Linda Saldaña
Congratulations to Linda Saldana, winner of the "Six Word Story Contest" based on the above photograph. And thanks to everyone who participated. It was a pleasure to read your words and see where your imaginations took us. As my friend Ken Rodgers said, " Carumba!"
“I don’t use people I know at all. I really value the shorthand, the compression of suggesting a whole life while actually having to render up very little of it. I feel tired of exposition and backstory; the more you can suggest without spelling out, the more you can encompass in the same space. Fiction writing is always about compression and suggestion.” - Jennifer Egan, The Goon Squad
Walking the planks, shadows and light catch my eye and stop me in my tracks for a moment of wonder.
photo by Dennis Bayer
I was reading Facebook, checking email, looking for my morning writer's almanac poem, cup of coffee in one hand and a cat in my lap, having already seen Tu off to her early morning shift at Driver's.
A text came in: The sun right now!
Off went the cat and the mac. I climbed the stairs and beheld this, sharing the wonder with two early risers on the dock below.
I was reading about complementary colors and how they are opposites and it made me think of Chekov's remark - you can write a story about anything, you can write a story about that ashtray for example, as long as it has a north and south pole, a he and a she. I love learning, reaffirming, making discoveries about writing while studying other art, other crafts, and of course, while observing nature herself.
I’ve never been a coupon clipper but when I see a poem or a story or riff, a quote, that I think someone I know or love would like I will send it along; not to teach or admonish or show off or rub anyone’s nose in anything. Just to share. I read a Humans of New York post the other day about a vibrant, active woman in her 90’s. She said she had a boyfriend. She didn’t even know how old he was. But they exchanged books! Maybe that’s an act of love. A spiritual act. An act of kindness and joy. Maybe it’s just what I do. Like this email, which I’ll share with you.
