Originally uploaded by B!.

Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.

Rumi

Grab Your Earplugs

I've been here, what, ten days? That's as long as it took for me to be fully immersed in Asian culture as I was handed a book of songs, microphone and "forced" to sing Karaoke. Yes, "forced" because had I not, it would have been considered rude. Oh, there were so many choices! Do I sing Memories? Yesterday? We've Only Just Begun? After a rendition of "Do Re Me.." with the kids, I was alone with the music. So what did I choose? "Change the World" by Eric Clapton was the only thing I could imagine myself singing and holds a special place in my heart. So I gave it my best two and a half minutes and I think I'm still beet red. This was one hundred percent sober mind you, in a group of virtual strangers-at their house! So I had no bar "atmosphere" to buffer my voice. Consider yourself among the fortunate who were not subjected to my squwaking.

Where have you been Pablo?

Originally uploaded by B!.

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

Originally uploaded by B!.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.
Lao Tzu

Originally uploaded by B!.

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves--there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.

Observations on Taiwan...

Originally uploaded by B!.

Trying to resist humidity by straightening my curly hair is futile! So I'm going with my more natural look similar to the one pictured here.

Originally uploaded by B!.

We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don't think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time.

Art Buchwald

Originally uploaded by B!.

A Ballad of Dreamland

I hid my heart in a nest of roses,
Out of the sun's way, hidden apart;
In a softer bed then the soft white snow's is,
Under the roses I hid my heart.
Why would it sleep not? why should it start,
When never a leaf of the rose-tree stirred?
What made sleep flutter his wings and part?
Only the song of a secret bird.

Lie still, I said, for the wind's wing closes,
And mild leaves muffle the keen sun's dart;
Lie still, for the wind on the warm seas dozes,
And the wind is unquieter yet than thou art.
Does a thought in thee still as a thorn's wound smart?
Does the fang still fret thee of hope deferred?
What bids the lips of thy sleep dispart?
Only the song of a secret bird.

The green land's name that a charm encloses,
It never was writ in the traveller's chart,
And sweet on its trees as the fruit that grows is,
It never was sold in the merchant's mart.
The swallows of dreams through its dim fields dart,
And sleep's are the tunes in its tree-tops heard;
No hound's note wakens the wildwood hart,
Only the song of a secret bird.

ENVOI

In the world of dreams I have chosen my part,
To sleep for a season and hear no word
Of true love's truth or of light love's art,
Only the song of a secret bird.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

party and Hawaii 042
Originally uploaded by B!.

You'd never know our trip started at 4:30 am! We are such troopers!

Hawaii 009
Originally uploaded by B!.

Hangin' Ten! (Or maybe just two)

Hawaii 033
Originally uploaded by B!.

They're called "rashguards" for a reason...Youch!

party and Hawaii 041
Originally uploaded by B!.

My request was that when the nice lady was finished, I looked like Alicia Keys...

Aloha!

Originally uploaded by B!.

How to spend your summer...

Originally uploaded by B!.

"Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations."

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin