That gem of a blog you can’t believe you didn’t know about until this year.
My discovery of Box of Crayons definitely qualifies, I discovered it early in 2009, not sure how I managed before it. Michael Bungay Stanier has rocked my world many, many times. Go Michael, be a bird, not a machine!
Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?
This Fall, prior to heading to NYC for a phenomenal DanceMeditation intensive (I could write a small novel on that one!), I flew to Oaxaca for day of the dead, with the hopes of participating in a fabulous creativity workshop for photographers. When I got there I found that my time in Mexico was not my own, it had a momentum entirely its own and in the final tally, I…
But more importantly, I…
Monte Alban
Above all else, I walked away feeling like I hadn’t missed a single little thing…the feeling of abundance can be a very, very good thing.
Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?
2009 has been a year of consistent and rather awe-inspiring serendipity, a shift from pushing things into existence to an overwhelmingly powerful sense of pulling the universe in, right up against my nose where I can smell it and relish every little morsel.
While I have a long list of gorgeous nights of fun, laughter, meditation and even ecstasy…the first thing I thought of when reading this question was a night just before the warmth of Spring kicked in. I spent a long, cathartic evening with a dear friend, a sister really…letting her hold me close, and watching as things imploded around me.
In the final stages of incubation, the warm embrace of a loved one is exactly what you need to break the eggsshells, once and for all.
Gracias Carla.
What book – fiction or non – touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?
While my favorite Rushdie book is by far, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, I have a special place in my psyche for Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I used it once to ignite a fire under a talented and inspiring friend who, like a stack of dry firewood rife with potential, just needed a little spark to get him going. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, you will find this a rare, highly visual reading experience…just begging to be turned into…a play? A painting? Another story? Something. The theme of silence present in the book is something I struggle with, as both threat and solace…silence like time (as the Sufi saying goes), is a sword.
This little story is dedicated to my friend, rife with potential:
While Rushdie was writing The Satanic Verses his 9 year old son Zafar (who lives with his first wife Clarissa) said it was wrong that he didn’t write books that children could read. Rushdie made a deal that the next book he wrote would be one his son might enjoy reading. The germ of the story was bath-time stories he told Zafar. Rushdie says: “I would have these basic motifs, like the Sea of Stories, but each time I would improvise–not only to please him but to test myself, to see if I could just say something and take it elsewhere.”
He began to write the novel in the summer of 1989, a few months after the fatwa.
I make a point to give away Rushdie, every chance I get!
What’s an article that you read that blew you away?
This is what happens after two very unusually long and taxing days at work…total mind fart. I know only a handful of people who drown their friends with more articles than I do, but right this moment, I am at a loss. So I will cover the one that I spoke about most recently. I get together every month at the full moon with a phenomenal group of wise women…and last night we got into this “thing” that’s in the air, this kind of shift towards a more female oriented paradigm, which prompted a conversation about business and capitalism in general. In came Noreena Hertz and “co-op capitalism”…I tend to agree that there is definitely something in the air, and it smells LOVELY!
Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?
This fall I had a gorgeous, darn near orgasmic dinner with a very inspiring artist and friend at Umi Sake House in Belltown (Seattle). Umi is one of my favorite sushi restaurants. But this evening especially, our dishes were absolutely inspired, and the toro was so fresh and delectable. It’s was truly a thing of beauty. We ate slowly and savored every bite with a sigh. Later, we concluded that I am a hopeless hedonist. A happy, hopeless hedonist, of course. We sipped lychee lemonades and nearly licked the dishes clean. Mostly we sat quietly without much need for meaningless banter, sitting in awe as our mouths watered and enjoyed every last bite.
Phenomenally delicious food, even more delicious company. Yum.
Mine involved DanceMeditation with Dunya.
It was totally unexpected journey to a monastery, in June.
SMM09
It was in upstate New York, it was summer and wet and I met some amazing people, including a little part of myself that had been waiting to be let out.
Scary, lovely…challenging and easy all at once.
