Gateway Peace March

http://www.millionface.com/l/mumbai-india-gateway-peace-march-dec-3rd/

Blast

It's taken me a little time to digest what happened in Mumbai. I still have a perpetual sinking feeling thatI know is related to a prolonged reaction to the stream of news and updates throughout thanksgiving. I have heard news from or of most people I care for. The others I prayed for on mutiple visits to the temple ( unusual for me) and my own personal send up daily. I felt unnerved mostly because i had been to most of th eplaces where explosions and violence occurred, some place many times. Also I thought of when the blasts occurred and I did not feel endangered, but had my folks in a tail spin about my safety because some of those blasts occurred on the line I took to and from work. K watched the footage and followed the news online too. He is thankful that we are not in Mumbai dealing with the madness of the events. I feel differently. I still love that city despite all of its harassing factors. I really hope there isn't a huge backlash in India because of these events. I also hope that India and Pakistan handle the issues at hand civilly. If terrorists do exist, then a feud between the two countries would divert their focus and leave room for more insidious acts of violence.

Found some hills in the flatland

So in the past 10 days I have made some progress in learning to love the flatland. We now receive the local paper daily. This is a big step for us. Usually I read the A section for the days news, the front page of the B section for city news and the obituaries. Recently I read a very interesting obit about Rosella Hightower. Apparently our local obit editor thought it was important also as it was taken of the wire from Oklahoma City. She was a native american and a ballerina. In 1997 five native american allerinas were reunited when they were deemed ohlahoma treasures. the other ballerinas were Maria Tallchief, her sister Marjorie Tallchief, Moscelyne Larkin, and Yvonne Chouteau. I know that Louise Erdrich usually focuses on the ojibwe, but i could see a really lovely book about any of these women or intertwining their stories. These are very accomplished women. Maria Tallchief worked with George Balanchine and Hightower opened her own now prestigious dance school in Cannes, France after dancing to critical acclaim in New York, Paris and other european cities. I can also see a documentary in this.

The flatland is growing on me a bit. I have met a few people that I find engaging. That's a step toward better ,right?

I also did find a hill in a town close to the flatland. It was a beautiful fall drive.

another version

Turf
Walk-in closet
Adding, piling, fighting
Rebel clutter never retreats
Turf

Turf Wars

So lately in my household the state of a walk-in closet has been the subject of some heated discussion. I relieve my stress with a cinquain:


Closet
Clothing piled
Loathing, Staring, Cleaning
Rebel clutter never retreats
Closet

I started thinking about poetry again, because a classmate wrote a sestina to present the theory of evolution as relevant to child development for a psych/ed class we take. It was quite brilliant and motivated me to go back to my roots and favorite escape- tinkering with the cogs of imagination through writing.

wall decals

I love them!!! I used them to decorate our main bathroom and now I am searching for one for our dining room and another for our bedroom. This latest design trend sings to my often fickle heart. You can find them everywhere, even at Target. Some of my favorite sites are Adzif, dVider, and Zozo living. A friedn told me that 3M makes some cool graphic prints, but i haven't found them yet.

The decals are removable ( great for apartment living) and cheaper than buying framed artwork just to match your decor. Since we've moved to Cleveland for the time being we have moved into an apartment that doesn't have much character. So the wall art satiates my need to spice up this place and high-fives hands my lazy, noncommittal side over not having to paint ( and possibly repaint) all of the walls.

it's been almost a year

tidbit: after i came home from india last summer i went to see my gp for a check up. at that time she told me that my hemoglobin level was higher than the normal range. she said such a phenomenon was possible due to prolonged exposure to pollution and often occurred in smokers. a few weeks ago she retested my hemoglobin level and found that it is now in the normal range. the only major change being a drastic improvement in the pollution level. I am mildly shocked that mumbai was so polluted as to catalyze a physical reaction. I spoke to k about my the reaction and he said hemoglobin levels increase when your body is not getting enough oxygen.

it's also been a year since the death. i think about her daily. i was afraid to go to india and be in the spaces she had inhabited. i went to india for a wedding for about 48 hours ( travelling mishaps shortened the trip considerably). I slept in her room for four hours. the energy in the room brought to mind peace and vitality- the feeling i have when i watch the ocean for hours. i slept peacefully as she bid goodnight and blessings to me and my sister.