This place is called the Fun Factory and is a favorite of my grandson’s. I’m not in agreement with him on this. I call it soul destroying and a money burner. I wouldn’t tell him this and such, of course, is lost on him anyway.
Home alone, listening to and reading the poems of Han-Shan, Cold Mountain. Thank you Gary Snyder, Red Pine and others.
Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there’s no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn’t melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart’s not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You’d get it and be right here.
Year in books for 2023
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Here are the books I finished reading in 2023. I’m a slow reader, not living in a family of readers (which slows me down more), but I love reading and am happy with this achievement.
🤦 How to not make a cup of coffee…omit the ground coffee. Happy New Year!
Well, I’m heading to bed after seeing in 2024 here in Maui. It’s been a while since I have stayed up to welcome in a New Year. Good company and a lovely fire to sit around, helped.
Good night all, and see you in 2024.
I periodically return to the book One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan translated and introduced by John Stevens. Ryokan’s poems, expressions of simplicity and insight into the essence of life, calm me and help to give me perspective.
This one touched me this morning,
TWILIGHT - smoke rises from the village,
A winter goose cries overhead,
Wind blows through the mountain pines.
Alone, carrying an empty rice bowl,
I return along the path.
New Year’s Eve and a beautiful sunny morning. What a difference after days, weeks of rain. Cold earlier this morning, though.
A sprinkling of white on a tree top. White Egrets sit out the coldness of early morning.
I am not a screenwriter in any shape or form, but thoroughly enjoyed this episode of Script Notes, where John August interviews writer and director Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight Trilogy, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer - on his screen writing process.
I was impressed by the amount of research that he does for his films. In the podcast he spends some time talking about Oppenheimer. While on reflection it might appear obvious to have to do the amount of work that he does do in order to create and accurate and compelling movie, I had simply not considered that before.
One of my personal take aways from the podcast was that Nolan tries to keep to a strict working day in his writing process. Though if inspiration hits him, he looks to get the ideas out of his head there and then, and not leave them until he next sits down to try and capture them, as they’ll be long gone by then.
This morning I had a brief, interesting talk with my acupuncturist about intuition. Experiences of it, and reasons why we might have doubted it when intuition has arisen, only to find that acting on that feeling has been the right way to go. I wonder how often I/we choose not to listen to intuition, choosing instead the rational mind?
💡 Well no sooner do I write, than the power comes back on. And the rain continues to fall. It is wet out there.
🔌 Power outage. We haven’t had one for a while. The lights flickered while I was cooking dinner, but hung in there. Later we were watching one of the streaming services and all suddenly goes dark. Inclement weather can bring on a power outage and it has been wet since mid-afternoon.
As Boxing Day comes to an end, celebrated in my mind if not in the country where I now live, I look back on the beginning and end of yesterday.
That time of year when I go searching for the ghosts of Christmas past, the good ghosts.
Finished reading: Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter. A quirky and resonant meditation on grief. 📚
As I get ready for bed, I remember as a kid going to bed on Christmas night. Once the lights were out and I’d said “good night” to everyone, I would sit and stare out of the window, imagining Santa being somewhere out there, traveling over this sleeping city. And I would hope to catch a glimpse of his sleigh and reindeers, before sleep would get the better of me.
As Christmas night falls here in Hawaii, I wish all those who celebrate, in whatever shape or form, blessings, peace and all good wishes.
Joining in the current online fun. I experimented with a few descriptions and think that this one resulted in the best likeness.
Finished reading: A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas.
I read this each year. My father’s side of the family is from Wales and I lived there for almost 20 years. This year I read it while rain fell outside, the Christmas tree lit up and carols played. I was transported back to Christmas’ of my youth. 📚
I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas last night, something I started doing each year, a few years ago. I think that I enjoy the animation because it shows Christmas through children’s eyes, while at the same time speaking to what is truly important about Christmas, away from the commercialization. That can be the Christmas story or the appreciation of simple things and family and friends.