Thursday, September 11, 2008

Be still......

I noticed the firetrucks on my way to pick up my daughter. I did not think they had any thing to do with me. I turned the corner and I could smell the burning smell. And then I saw it a smoldering skyline. Dark towers melted from the scorching heat. A community playground had been set aflame. The firemen were still hosing it down. She leaned to the side. It is gone. Dark burnt wood against a periwinkle sky. A mom said it happened around 1pm and the arson team was there. wow, someone actually did that on purpose.
The playground had hardly any shade. The kids had fun. There was a tire swing that my daughter and I spun ourselves on till we felt nauseous even hours after. Well worth it though, to see the puffy clouds and blue umbrella sky spinning. It's like you have anti-gravity or you can fly. Lots of regular swings. Great little cubbies to hide, and steps to climb, tunnel slides and regular slides that burned your ass when the afternoon sun would bake the playground toys.
I cried. I didn't want my daughter to see that when she got off he school bus. The playground was behind her.
The bus came and my daughter was distracted by other things. As we left the area I told them we couldn't go to the playground. In the car ride home we told them the place had been burnt down. My daughter and her friend looked at each other with shock. Dramatic shock at that. Then they went back to whatever they were doing.
Just like that. I was all devastated wondering how dealing with this loss of a play ground would contribute to their sense of blah blah blah.
So the emails are going out and the community that built the playground are going to raise funds and rebuild the playground. The place was built by the people of the city. Who volunteered their time and energy. People donated money.
It will be rebuilt that is the lesson. It sucks that it has to be but it can be because the people are already rallying for it to happen. I will donate time and womanpower when it's needed.
That was on Tuesday.

Story Time-Today I went to storytime. Oh on Monday we went to this musical storytime where the performer has a guitar and she played all the kid classics. She was really lively. It was at a bookstore that was packed. I met a caretaker from Ghana. She said I'm from Ghana, there are no elephants on the streets."
"I come from city just like New York." Children have a misconception of Africa because of the African Jungle Alphabets simplifies Africa. Africa is a huge continent with so many cultures and languages and beliefs and traditions. The nanny found an old friend and they hugged happily. The friends said, "I was thinking about you."

I'm gonna give the story hour by my house another chance. It was so not diverse. There were diverse caretakers, Nannies, one daddy, au pair, grandma's. The lady at the regular story hour forgets the lyrics to the nursery rhymes. Sometimes she doesn't let all the children knock down Humpty Dumpty or throw the pig in the air or hit the tambourine to the syllables of their name.
Overheard, Quote of the day. "Be still and know that I am God." This quote resonates with me because in meditation is where you can have this relationship with god. Through breath and stillness.

I have a two year old now!

In writing: I finally found my memory stick. Trying not to panic I found other missing items that I would not have found if I had not been cleaning up/looking for the memory stick.

I'm back to editing. I'm punking out of writing the new stuff that NEEDS to be written so that I have a finished manuscript but I haven't gotten there. I really like the story I'm working on. But why am I not writing the new stuff? Maybe I need to do some concise chapter summaries or something to get this moving. It's been slow. I'm gonna get back to collaging soon.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Night Owling




I come from a long line of night owls. I am a night owl with early bird responsibilities.

When the house is oh so quiet I sometimes just sit and inhale the silence.
There is nothing else left to do. Everyone is asleep. No one to look after except myself for the moment.
The writing pours out of me. I am glad I can type fast without getting caught up in looking at the keyboard.

Outside my office window, which is usually loud with nature's music, is silent as robins, sparrows, cardinals and wood peckers sleep.


Raccoons bring the party during the night. They screech and fuss at each other. They walk on our roof with raccoon boots. They swing and slide on the neighbor's swing set.

This is the time I write and work on my novel. I catch up on email. I search for that agent. Maybe I'll work on a collage or a new greeting card design. I might catch up on 30 rock or Lost. I can get a bunch of windows open at once on the Mackie Mac. Working on this a little and then work on the next thing.




Haiti

I have to send some blessings and prayers to Haiti. My people who have suffered so many losses when two, three hurricanes hit the island back to back. I ask the universe to please protect my people.







When i was little I lived on the island. There are things I remember very clearly. In the 70's we used an outhouse. The gray brown out house with the terrible poopoo smell and dark foreboding hole where I threw stones and wads of balled up toilet paper.

I remember my mother coming home in a white uniform. I lived in a turquoise house with coral pink walls inside.
I had many cousins and I was free to roam as far as I could. I never got lost. I never went too far. I had two grandmothers and so many aunts ready to feed me, or spank me depending on their moods. I played with dried mango seed which was my doll and played jacks with dried pig knuckles. I never went hungry. I never felt poor.
Bless Haiti who held me in her arms for those two years I lived there where I unlearned American English and renamed my Grandmother "Big". The whole family started calling her that.

An island already devastated now must deal with this. I hope the new administration really gives Haiti some positive attention in the form of money, agricultural assistant, food aid, job production for road building and food growing. Haiti was the first free black nation in the Western Hemisphere. The people fought back against the people that held them as slaves and defeated them! Is this why the island is left to perish. Is there a long held grudge against this tiny island because of Haiti's revolution. Meanwhile children eat dirt cakes to stop the hunger pains.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get a scaled down version of a hurricane.

Peace