the journey of life

today: starting the day with a morning jog.
today: language/place #6 online. such a fabulous journey.
today: browsing photo files.
today: sketching a rough plan for the coming week.
today: going on a sunday drive
today: adding the next day to my 100 day project.

and this: rembemering that quote about the journey of life and challenge and cruiseships. that was the key word that made me find it, and with it, another journey/life advice.

Life is a journey, but Earth is not a cruise ship. The most fulfilling events in life don't come with a planned itinerary. Keep your agenda flexible enough to accommodate unexpected opportunities. The trip seems long but will be over before you know it, so make the best of every situation.
- Kimberly Dawn Wells, in: The Journey of Life (full version)

The Race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself.
- Mary Schmich in: Advice, like youth, probaly just wasted on the young (full version)

fire, water, earth

today: packing bags and files.
tomorrow: liftoff to Lanzarote island.

the image above is from last year, from the flight home. the white spot in the sky is indeed the moon. the image, i think i never posted it, and when i revisted it yesterday, i thought: that's an image to put online now, before this trip.

in perfect unexpected timing, i received a mail today, from Counterexample Poetics. earlier this year, Daniela Elza and i had worked together in a collaboration, and created a series of visual named "Small Voices". Here's a line from our notes:

How to listen to small voices? We make noise, create things that make loud noises. All too quickly forget to listen to the very quiet, to silences, which speak to us in numerous ways. This theme encompasses both artists' work: the many ways earth/mind thinks, speaks. The invitation: Listen.

3 of the visuals are now up in Counterexample:
Fire Whispers
Listen Rocks
Earth Not Equal Moon



yes, moon. what a good coincidence. and fire, too. Lanzarote is a fire island, created and shaped by vulcanoes that are still active. raw lava stones, red sand, black beaches, blue water. that's Lanzarote in some places. a good place to listen.

[will be back in December, but should have wifi, and will blog from the island]

circles

today, it's buzzard day.
they keep browsing the blue sky in wide circles, on and on.

there were 5 of them, now it's 2 pairs, both claiming the sky.

~

new yorker butterfly saturday

saturday. in the garden: butterflies. and me. reading Lorrie Moore's short story "Childcare". which is featured in The New Yorker. and actually is an excerpt of her upcoming new novel, "Gate at the Stairs". so now i know a book to wish for in September.

here is some of it:

“Well,” Sarah said as we both got into her car. “That was, for all intents and purposes, a complete disaster.” She started up the engine. “You know?” she continued. “I always do the wrong thing. I do the wrong thing so much that the times I actually do the right thing stand out so brightly in my memory that I forget I always do the wrong thing.”

and here, the story link: Childcare, and more about Lorrie Moore.

~

6.12

6.12 sunrise sky detail.

so good, to start the day with looking out of the window, and being amazed.

milan on monday

he never ceases to amaze me. the milan. the way he appears from the wilderness, circles the gardens here, then disappears again. like something from another world.

sky, 2

it seems to be a week of sky moments.
this one happened almost right in front of the doorstep. so good that i had my camera with me, and looked up.

transition

back home. arrived in the afternoon, and now downloaded the pictures i took during the flight. the start was rainy, and first it looked like it would be a cloudy flight without any views. but then the clouds faded, and a bit later, the Alps came closer, the mountain tops still covered in snow.

beyond

upside down. that's how things feel since 2 days. all chilly winter long, i somehow managed to avoid getting a real cold. and even with the pollen-clouds of the last weeks, i was on the okay side. thinking - just some days, then i am in the fresh air of Mallorca, then i can breathe freely.
well. wrong i was. since 2 days, i have a cold. and an allergy. "the pine pollen is bad this year, many people have problems," the woman in the Farmacia said to me, when i went there to get some medication.
right now, it feels, the free breathing is like a bird in the sky: out of reach. and i wonder, why now? why this pain now in this place of beauty? when i had all winter to be ill at home?

sunday morning sky view

the birds were up already when we left
on the road, morning fog
and an hour later, from the plane,
a landscape that looked both familiar and obscure:
home, seen from the sky.

garden guest

the Hausrotschwanz-bird visited this morning again. and for once, i was quick enough to catch a photo. i really would like to be able to talk to this bird, and ask where it has spent winter - Italy? Croatia? somewhere southern, somewhere beyond the Alps, beyond the snow, that's all i know.

wings, steps

snow again, in the night.

and this morning, a surprise: tiny footsteps, all over the terrace and the snowed-in-lawn. and the imprint of a wing, there, next to the steps.

the snow even moved into one of my dreams: in it, i stepped into the garden, and found the snow was gone in some spots. that's where orange and lilac crocus stood now, flowering.