I get up to pee. It’s early still, the house is quiet.
I live alone. What changes from night to day. Is it outside noise—cars, birds, neighbours?
I realize I’m still sitting on the toilet for no reason, just lost in sound and silence.
I live alone, where does the sound come from?
I flush. Onomatopoeically speaking, flush is not particularly accurate. It’s too gentle for such a violent sound—rushing water gulping air, desperate for the return of calm.
I’ve broken the seal, sound floods in. Who says “onomatopoeically speaking” anyway?
I hear the furnace rev up, readying to deliver the day’s warmth. Heat is energy and so is sound. It’s more than just fan noise. In the cold there is silence, in the warmth there is sound.
My body is humming.
As if mocking my reverie, the music visualizer on my laptop is pulsing in an electric light show. Even in the silence there is sound expressed in light and shapes and flashes of darkness. I press the mute button and the sources of the vibrant show suddenly flood my ear canals.
… The Yukon keeps me up all night
Complications seize your best…
Drums punctuate guitar riffs, rolling and stopping, pacing the vibrations as if the drumheads themselves were plucking the strings. Voices exchange words and sometimes interrupt. It is a love song. It’s on repeat and I replay the night before.
The ache returns.
____
Continue reading
I’m reposting a piece I wrote last year about the film The Iron Lady. It seems I’m not alone in my assessment:
Margaret Thatcher died today, but never shall her legacy.
Two square shapes
On one rectangle
Their sides rectangles too.
She reaches out
With her cylinders
And lifts an angle.
Her big circle stills
Her small circles
Rest on the squares.
Repeat.
She puts the sphere
Together
As though it could be taken apart.
Put together
Taken apart
Put together.
All that is left is to
Choose the colour.
This moment is hers
I pause
And this is my reward.
~Anonymous
Live within limits without limiting life
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They’re drifting
I thought they’d stay
I lose more
With each day
Half full
And my heart beats off and on
I pine and wane
Interchangeably
This is my fate
Brought on by me
Half full
And it seems I’m losing steam
We count the like
In the face of stars
It seems so small
But my heart is theirs
Half Full
And a solo is this song
A new beginning
Brought a new end
I have to start
To start again
Half full
And myself I have to blame
All that’s new
Seems permanent
I cannot see
A return again
Half full
And life here is unknown
Late at night
Voices the same
I cannot see
A logic game
Half full
And here I must remain
They said I’d turn
It could be so
I can’t predict
What’s left to show
Half full
And so I plod along
If you see
I’m there today
Please forget
What I might say
Half full
My thoughts are wicked friends
~Anonymous
Live within limits without limiting life
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Atavist facilitates the process from beginning to end, in any digital format:
Likened to Etsy by the NY Times, Atavist is a platform for media craftsmen. It’s a platform that integrates all media formats and adapts to emerging devices, and not just for “serious” writers, this app may very well do for writing what the printing press did for reading and the Internet did for knowing.
I can here the click-click-clicking of your thoughts already!
Check out four other “revolutionary apps for digital storytellers” vetted by the Tyee.
Live within limits without limiting life
Follow me and check out my new blog! Meat Eating Vegans
Have a kid’s birthday coming up?
Already worrying about how to entertain them for the hours that feel like days?
My daughter wanted to go skating at an outdoor rink for her sleepover birthday festivities, but the conundrum is always how to get the kids there. Even if we did own two cars, we wouldn’t have enough seats.
No problem. We walked to the end of our street and filed onto the 232.
Some of the kids had never been on a bus!
To kids, the bus is liberating and daring. No seatbelts. Sometimes you have to stand. You can sit by yourself or curl up next to mom.
They chatted and giggled and sat on their knees to look out. They wondered when the bus would come, how to pay the fare, and how to get off. They wanted to pull the string for our stop and they figured out how to open the back door.
Our bus trip became part of the festivities.
Taking the bus in Vancouver is convenient because it is well-connected, and it is getting easier all of the time. This year, Translink is moving toward a refillable fare card. The “Compass Card” will be a much more convenient means of paying for and validating fares, and the system automatically determines the fare rate based on where you “tap in” and “tap out.” No more guessing which fare applies and what time of day and for how many zones!
In the meanwhile, I keep passes on hand so we can hop on the bus anytime to explore our city! (Without having to hunt for change!)
HOT TIP! Get a transfer when you board the bus. Most transit systems validate fares for 90 minutes. You might be able to get there and back on a single ticket!
Live within limits without limiting life
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