Beltane and the Shadow Mountain Moon
Thursday gratefuls: Rabbi Jamie. Marilyn. MVP. Cool nights. Allergens. Yellow outlines on the puddles in my driveway. Alan. Rich. Ron. Susan. More rain. Green Valleys and Mountainsides, full Mountain Streams. Wild Neighbors. Home insurance. Jon Bailey who detailed the inside of Ruby. Vince, gutters and grass. Hayim Herring. Israel. Einav. The Sadot Hotel. Tel Aviv. Jerusalem. Israeli breakfasts. Korea. Osan. Seoul. Incheon. Busan. Gwangju. The Bliss. Travel. Roaming the World. Mother Earth.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Rabbi Jamie
One brief shining: My travel genes have begun to chitter and chatter, getting excited, making preparations, excited about new and unfamiliar places, languages, food, remembering my first time in Siem Reap, Washington, D.C., Williamsburg, Bogota, Manta, Valparaiso, Hwarden, Inverness, Rome, Vienna, Singapore, Bangkok, Beijing and vibrating pulsing bringing color to my days.
Getting hotel spots locked down in Israel. Have folks identifying places to eat, don’t miss places in Jerusalem. Excited to see my son and his wife. Murdoch. Travel Korea. See Seoul. See the DMZ. Villages and towns. Maybe Jeju Island. I love to go as much as my brother and sister. Glad to get out and about like they have their whole lives.
Not sure what travel is for. Really. For me it’s always been at least about being a stranger, a neophyte, one out of place. Breaking myself out of the routine, the habituated. Realizing that there are so many ways to solve the puzzle of living a human life, to decide what ingredients go together for edible food, to design and build homes and buildings, to speak to each other. To govern and create law and order.
Also about leaving my home which I know so well and living in temporary spots, eating in different places, discovering odd bits of culture. I think here about a place Mary and I happened on in Singapore which sold transparent glass objects, many of them animals. All for gaining the best feng shui in your home or business. Backlit and, well, just strange. Or, when Kate and I visited, also in Singapore the two building, multi-story columbarium Nirvana. We got a tour. That small village off a busy Bangkok thoroughfare where the residents made the traditional monk’s begging bowl, each home specializing in one step of the elaborate process. Or that tartan mill in Inverness where our guide was the person who put the spools of yarn on a large wall of pegs. He had to remember the order in which to place the colors so the looms would produce the correct clan tartan. Or the several holer marble toilet off the main street of the ancient city of Ephesus.
I worry a bit about the climate change effects of air travel. Yet I’m also aware that I’m in this window of time at 76 where I’m healthy and able to get out of town and go faraway. This window won’t last. As we all know. I’ve also spent the last five years unable to travel due to sick dogs and Kate’s long illness. And it’s such a big world. Eh?
