Had to double check the date on the computer wasn’t April 1st before reading further than this… it smacks of too good to be true though its definitely worth trying out!
“The body can get as much benefit from a short but intensive bursts of exercise lasting ten minutes than it can from ten hours of moderate training. The technique not only takes less time but also involves much less physical effort.” more…
We find out only today that Nujabes died tragically a few weeks ago in a fatal car accident on the Metropolitan Expressway in Tokyo. He was only 36 years old. The news has been kept private for some time. What a huge loss of talent and passion.
Maybe go outside today. Catch a bus. Order a coffee. Visit a bookstore. Or sit on a side-walk. Watch everything around you, life going on with and without you. There is nothing every day about every day life. And you’re still a living part of it.
“Creativity is a nuisance & a curse that will see to it that you piss off all your friends, break appointments, show up late & have this strange bohemian urge, decadent laid-back way of life. The truly creative people never have time to see you, don’t take care of themselves properly & have weird tastes in women/men. They eat disgusting stuff, they are mentally unstable & are absolutely brilliant.”
~ Toke Nygaard
I loved this quote – seen on Lauren’s Facebook wall. Thanks Lauren!
“I guess what I am saying is, I am feeling a bit like it may be time to try to lay some roots. In my ideal world we would have a home base, somewhere wild and remote, preferably in a community but not necessarily, where we could grow a garden and build a cobb house. A place with lots of trees, a pond or stream and a nice sunny, south facing meadow. From there we could travel part of the year in the bus, maybe even leave the bus at times and travel internationally by foot, wagon or boat. So, we are putting that out there in the universe as our prayer, that we find a piece of land someplace wild and full of magic. A place where we can lay some roots and grow a garden, at least for part of the year anyway.
One thing is for certain though, neither Moss nor I could ever settle down permanently. We both have the heart and spirit of a gypsy nomad. I have known since early childhood that I was destined, for better or for worse to spend a good deal of my life wandering, seeking out the dsuty, remote and wind swept corners of the earth.
Gypsy, rolling stone, nomad, wanderer, tinker, hobo… call us what you will, we have been called by many names, but one thing is true, most people who wander relentlessly do tend to feel this call from a young age. You know who you are.more…
So… Initially I planned to meet Joseph and stay for about 2 weeks… yeah right, what was I thinking. It’s been exciting, destiny-altering, and even at times unsettling. Every day I wake up feeling quite a lot different from the last. No regrets.
I ran out of free space on Flickr, so again, here’s a facebook photo diary of my favourite moments and stuff from the last month. I’ll follow this up with a post some time on my impressions of life out here.
“Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no whenever you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here. Believe in kissing.” ~ Eve Ensler
The first feeling that screamed through my head when I first read this was “YAY!!!”. Thanks Melissa! I’m chuffed this had you thinking of me — it’s crazily encouraging and set off a whirlwind of ideas. Actually, thanks for all the great titbits you send my way. We’ve only hung out a few times yet you seem to know me better than almost everyone without even trying. So I reckon if you’re as talented at giving back rubs as you are at baking and sending me awesome stuff, and dressing up for the pizza guy, in the next life you should probably be my girlfriend. I’m just letting you know now so it saves us both time. Hopefully it will all go according to plan and I won’t come back as a cat… or a pancake… or a Starbucks coffee cup lid… yeah, that would be a let down.
Imagine if you could get all the sleep you need in 2 hours and have 22 hours to work and play! If you have a flexible schedule, it’s completely possible! I’m intrigued enough to try this for real.
“The body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.”
~ Buddha
I really love this quote! I stumbled on it while looking for a talented Thai Yoga Massage therapist in Boulder.
I just realised right now, after reading this how much I love my body. Finally. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the media’s imagination, but its mine, it’s taken me all over the world, its allowed me to embrace some truly incredible human beings and it allows me the full range of intense sensations that make me feel like I’m burning with life all the time. It took me a long time to get to this point of loving my outer shell, even liking it. For 10 years, after a disturbance during my teens, I felt completely disconnected from it, most places I lived I didn’t even own a mirror, and when I did see my reflection by accident, like washing my hands at a restaurant, it always surprised me that I had some sort of form… my face particularly was odd to look at… I remember peering at it sometimes shyly like I was embarrassed to stare at someone else, I didn’t expect it to look the way it does… “who’s eyes are those? Who is that? It doesn’t even look like me.” It didn’t feel like me to even have a face. I always felt floaty, like a big ball of spirit not confined to a skin, not wanting to be in a skin at all… more…
Aw… my Dad’s first clothing shop – Frank B Earnest in Gardens Centre, Cape Town. I remember helping to paint that amazing floor when I was a little kiddo. The last time I popped round, over 10 years ago, there was a new store there but they’d kept the beautiful painted floor. Those old leather couches and the Persian rug used to be in our livingroom…
When I was a really teeny weeny he worked for the House of Monatic where he started the Carducci label. I remember spending hours with my brother at the office, scooting wheelie chairs all over the building, up and down the elevators, spinning around and around for hours… sniffing suit fabric swatches, gluing and stapling fabric and paper together into strange things. I remember the office windows were floor to ceiling and the entire building smelled heavily of brand new fabric and carpeting. Now that I think about it I was probably always high on fumes… oh and those permanent markers… and spinning round and round and round… He was always away on business trips. I remember particularly when he went to Italy and Japan and would come back loaded up with crazy toys I’d never seen in South Africa. He was a fun dad and I missed him a lot when he was away. Back then and for years I thought “Overseas” was a country people visited on business trips and rich kids went skiing with their parents, and “South Africa” was where everyone really lived. An entire classroom of laughing kids enlightened me to reality. That happened often. more…
So…… my status was updated yesterday on Facebook to “in a relationship” which means, AWESOME! Over the rainbow, taste the rainbow cheesy happiness. My Little Ponies having hair brushing tea parties under waterfalls. We’ve been together a lot longer than since yesterday but I took some time making it official I guess, after developments from my writing in recent weeks upset some really beloved members of the extended family and I was deciding what on earth to do after that. The whole process of families being torn apart from divorce is incredibly painful for everyone involved and nobody knows where they stand afterwards. My usual gusty spirits were just flattened for a while after it all went down. Though the whole time I have known I need to do what I need to do to move on, to heal completely. So I committed to writing about the whole process a long time ago as part of this… granted it was back when my website was getting 1-2 hits a day and it was more of a journal experiment that nobody cared about, but then I started gaining followers, and then after a few months I hit some serious roadblocks along the way of what I can or cant write because so many people are involved in this process.
I’ve been feeling like I’ve been walking on glass since the upsettedness, so I’m relieved now that it’s finally out there and official — it’s done. After everything he’s put on the line, his complete trust, opening his arms, heart and home to me in every way he knows how, I should have written these lines when it really was official. But at least its been pretty well known where my heart has stood ever since I first wrote about him.
Joseph, I am just so elated to be with you! I CAN’T WAIT to adventure the decades away together!! Today as I sit and heat the Colorado snow off my boots in front of the pellet stove I’m thinking seriously… howabout Hawaii…?
Finally! I have gone through all the photos of my 2 week adventure in Big Bend with Frank and Brett and whittled it down to a mere 83… I don’t have time to put this up on Flicker yet so here’s the link to the Facebook album:
(You’ll need to be a member of the Facebook community to access it)
Btw… if I don’t know you in some way, at least a little through this website, or if we’re not related via family or someone we both know, please dont add me as a friend. Im trying to keep Facebook legit and as unMySpacey as I can.
The first feeling that screamed through my head when I first read this was “YAY!!!”. Thanks Melissa! I’m chuffed this had you thinking of me — it’s crazily encouraging and set off a whirlwind of ideas. Actually, thanks for all the great titbits you send my way. We’ve only hung out a few times yet you seem to know me better than almost everyone without even trying. So I reckon if you’re as talented at giving back rubs as you are at baking and sending me awesome stuff, and dressing up for the pizza guy, in the next life you should probably be my girlfriend. I’m just letting you know now so it saves us both time. Hopefully it will all go according to plan and I won’t come back as a cat… or a pancake… or a Starbucks coffee cup lid… yeah, that would be a let down.
Imagine if you could get all the sleep you need in 2 hours and have 22 hours to work and play! If you have a flexible schedule, it’s completely possible! I’m intrigued enough to try this for real.
