Election 2008

When I slipped my ballot into the machine this morning, I turned to face the voters waiting in line, smiled, and raised my hands in the air, victory-style. Some smiled. Some did not. I thanked the two election officials who stood near the ballot box/machine. They smiled, indeed. Brightly. And I walked out with a bounce in my step. By God, I do love living in this country. What I would love more than anything right now, today, is to find others who feel as happy, grateful, and enthusiastic as do I for having had the opportunity to vote. That's where I am today, right now. I am happy. I feel like celebrating.

Anyone care to join me?

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

...even when they're 24 years old.

You know those email forwards you get from well-meaning friends (or mothers), the "Get to Know You" type that ask random questions, such as, What's your favorite sandwich? Well. A dear friend sent one of those to me, bless her heart. ::winks to TW:: I replied and then sent it to my daughters.

This is my eldest daughter's answer to one of the questions:

Q: What did you want to be when you were little?

A: A twin. But then I figured out that since I didn't already have one, I wasn't going to get one. So I grew up a little and wanted to be a mermaid instead.

Dance!

The best 4 1/2 minutes I've ever spent online:


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Thank you (((Rina))) for sending this to me.

The song is Praan, by Garry Schyman
Lyrics adapted from the poem "Stream of Life" by Rabindranath Tagore.
The poem appears in Tagore's book, Gitanjali (public domain).

Stream of Life

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day

runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth

in numberless blades of grass

and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth

and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

And my pride is from the life-throb of ages

dancing in my blood this moment.

Hellas Photos, 2

Touch

Don Cheadle as Graham Walters
Crash (2004)

Hellas Photos, 1

Just a few of my favorites from among my girls' 1000+ photos. I'll add more later.
















And finally....

Lynnie, this one is for you...






Eh! Why you honk on my goats?

Lefkada, Pt. 2

Lefkada is a rather large island among Greece's thousand islands, and I had no idea which part of island the girls would visit. When I posted the photos of Lefkada in my previous post, I simply chose two of my favorites from among the many Lefkada photos that I viewed.

I just now learned that my daughters & their cousin visited Porto Katsiki on Lefkada, which happens to be the topmost of the two photos I posted previously. Porto Katsiki was voted (I don't know by whom) the 6th best beach in the world.

Lefkada, Pt. 1

Today, the girls are on the island Lefkada, on the western shores of Greece. A little further north, and they could practically throw a stone onto Italy's boot heel. ;)

When they send me text messages telling me where they are, I follow them on Google Maps. These are photos of Lefkada that I nabbed off the web. I'll replace them with my girls' photos after they return.

Artemis & Inkster

I was exploring maps of Artemis, Greece, where two of my daughters and my niece are currently visiting. Until I panned out in Google maps, I had no idea Artemis was so close to the airport in Athens. Seems Artemis is approximately 3 miles from the northeastern corner of the airport.

Inkster, where I grew up and where my parents still live, is about 5-6 miles from the northeast corner of Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Artemis & Inkster -- their people, languages, cultures, climate, landscape -- may have little in common, but take a look at these satellite photos from Google maps. Artemis & Inkster are the red "A" pointers on each map, with Artemis on the left and Inkster on the right:


Click on the photo for a larger view.

Interesting.

En Route to Greece!

No, not me. My two eldest and their cousin. Just the three of them, zooming somewhere over the Atlantic as I type. ::sigh:: Lucky girls. Happy girls. ;) They will be staying with my cousin & his family just half a mile from this...


This is Artemis on the left, and that's the Aegean Sea on the right. O. M. G.

Below is a photo showing possible (or probable) destinations. The bottom arrow points to my cousin's home in Artemis. The center arrow points to my mother's hometown of Volos, and the top arrow points to Florina, my father's hometown, which is too small to appear on this map, so I placed it there.



Click on any of the photos for a larger view.


Update, 10:37pm (Detroit time): Passing Ireland, soon to fly over France, then Italy, then a smooth Athens landing at about 2:00am (Detroit), 09:00 (Athens). Again and with a smile, I sigh.

Καλό σας ταξίδι, χρυσοί μου!

"Namaste" to These Greek Ears

First, the meaning of the Sanskrit namaste as I've heard and read:

Nama = bow
as = I
te = you

Literally, "bow me you," or, "I bow to you."

Namaste is often interpretted as: "The divine in me honors the divine in you," "the Light in me recognizes the Light in you," or, "all that is best and highest in me salutes all that is best and highest in you."

* * *
In Greek:

eimaste (είμαστε) = we are
na eimaste (να είμαστε) = may we be

The first syllable of eimaste is often dropped to make na eimaste into a contraction:

na'maste (να'μαστε) = may we be

In Greek, you wouldn't say na'maste by itself. Na'maste needs another word or phrase:

Na'maste kala = May we be well.
Na'maste mazi = May we be together.
Na'maste eutuchizmenoi  = May we be happy.

When I began to hear people speak the Sanskrit namaste to one another and to me, I had to work at not hearing the Greek word, usually to little avail. I understood what they meant, but to these Greek ears, namaste sounded incomplete, like half a sentence, a half-hearted wish, a fragment of a thought. My brain tried to translate it to "I bow to you," but my soul kept hearing "may we be."

Then I began to think about being, to meditate on the act/non-act of being, the state of being, chewing on and tasting the experience of I am / we are.

The sound of namaste soon took on a new meaning to me, a meaning that isn't incomplete at all, a meaning that isn't so different from "I bow to you" or "the light in me honors the light in you:" May we be.

To these ears, "may we be" no longer sounds like a fragment of a thought. It is not an empty wish or a fleeting hope for the future but is instead a statement that ushers in an experience or state of being that already is unfolding, an experience or state that already is.

I am. We are. Like a brilliant diamond, one and many-sided...

Na'maste.

Springtime in Michigan

What Hump?

Referencing this post, I'm Igor in the "What hump?" scene above. ;)

Disapproving Rabbits

If you're as easily amused as am I, then check out Disapproving Rabbits. I used to have this set up so that you could get to the Disapproving Rabbits website by clicking on the above photo, but the bunny strongly disapproved of being clicked upon.

The test results are in

Guess who aced the skeletal test? One hundred percent, baby.
Happy dance!

First Submission

I submitted four poems to Poetry magazine in February. My first official rejection slip is tacked to the wall above my desk. I love it. I don't care to paper my walls with rejection slips, mind you, but this one gives me cause to smile.