These images are a week old. Over the course of a day these rainbows greeted me on the day after my return to Maui. Hawaii is known for its rainbows. Last Wednesday the skies over our corner of the island excelled themselves. 🌈
We watched My Neighbor Totoro a couple of nights ago with one of our grandsons. It was the third or fourth time that I have seen the film. I love this Ghibli movie. I find it beautiful to watch. There are pauses throughout the film, sometimes with some sounds playing, sometimes just silence. The audience is left waiting for what will happen next. It is not suspense, but a pause and unless you know what is going to happen next, one is left not knowing when the pause will end. In this day and age pauses can often be filled with noise. In My Neighbor Totoro we simply have to wait in silence. What will happen next will happen in its own time.
There is not only the lovely Ghibli scenes, but in this animation I love the magic associated with those scenes. While the animistic element might appeal especially to Japanese culture, I believe that it taps into a part of all of us that sees beyond the world that we can see and touch, whether it is something that we chose to name and acknowledge or not.
I look forward to the next time that I watch it.
This morning’s rainbow 🌈
☕ Somethings up, I don’t know what, but I’ve just made my third early morning coffee.
☕ Somethings up, I don’t know what, but I’ve just made my third early morning coffee.
In Gratitude of an AirTag
Sunday, November 10, 2024
“I have never lost a bag,” I proudly and gratefully told my wife as we shuttled from one terminal to another while in transit at Heathrow Airport. We were on a bus, zigzagging around buildings and aircraft, occasionally disappearing underground. Nearing our destination we passed some open doors giving us a glimpse into the maze of conveyor belts which carry passengers’ luggage to and from the aircraft. I’m like a kid in a candy store at airports.
😒 “Oh the joys of jet lag,” he says typing away in the early hours of the morning while wide awake.
😒 “Oh the joys of jet lag,” he says typing away in the early hours of the morning while wide awake.
Finished reading: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa 📚
Heathrow airport on a gloomy afternoon…and a lot of aliens hovering above.
Changing tires.
I love how little kids, totally oblivious to the chaos around them at a busy airport, will play, stop to pull up socks and take their time (as it is so very important to do properly). Meanwhile stressed adults run sweating and read faced, moving from line to line, looking for gates, where next?
Adeus Portugal. Até à próxima. 🇵🇹
Playing with the camera.
Current weather in Lisbon. MAAT
Sometimes I find that for no reason at all, or at least no reason that I can put my finger on, a song gives me a strong sense of empowerment.
This morning I was listening to a random playlist and the song Technicolor Beat by Oh Wonder came on. I was familiar with this song as I have played this playlist before, but I know no more of Oh Wonder’s music.
As I sat there listening, I brought up the lyrics on my phone and quietly sung along. I’m not sure that I was completely engaging with what the lyrics were saying. I could ’hear’ some of the meaning, but I was mainly being carried along by the tempo and beat of the song.
Technicolor Beat finished and I felt uplifted. Any feelings of being downbeat from earlier in the day were erased. Will that feeling stay with me? Probably not, at least as the song fades from my mind. For all of that though, I am pleased that some tunes can take me to that place. I believe that being able to tap into that place is only possible because such states of mind are valid, possible, and exist within us. Being reminded of them makes them a stronger part of me. After all, that is a part of what meditation is about. Reinforcing, familiarizing (what the Tibetan word for meditation, gom, means) ourselves with positive states of mind.
We started watching the second series of The Diplomat on Netflix last night. We managed two episodes before sleep curtailed any further watching. If I had been wider awake, I could have watched more. I’m enjoying it because of great acting and the storyline pulling me in. Where will it go?
I’ve just read that it has been renewed for a third season. I’ll reserve judgement on that decision when I have finished this series, but at this stage I could see myself wanting more.
We went looking for Pink Flamingos this morning. If I understood this page correctly from the Alcácer do Sal municipal website, Pink Flamingos have recently returned to the area. If this is so, we were either unable to see them - the rice fields stretch a long way from the road - or they had moved on.
Of course we could have been looking in the wrong area, but I think not going by previous sightings.
We are back in Alcácer do Sal after two nights in the Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain range in Portugal. I love the mountains and during a brief hike, looking out over these hills, I was reminded of The Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons in South Wales. I use to go hiking in those hills and lived for almost two decades looking out towards The Black Mountains. The mountains of the Serra da Estrela took me back to there.
I could sit and watch this movie all day.
