Every place has a place
Wonder into logs, a grandma, mother and daughter.
A beige truck and tractor helps the inhabitors that won t let go.
A piece of something on the edge of a curving 11.
A place where people tolerate each other s settled tongues.
A place to be onomous without answering questions and letting go.
At last I can maybe forget
All the details are lost in the dark. The majors are magnified.
Majors during China: Sleeping away from a building, sticking to schedule
Majors during depression: Parents, Kingsley, Mary, Kim, Bridget, Kate, Ashley, Holly, John, hiking, walking the river, Ben, ultimate
Majors during tornado: neighbours, family, house, electricity, water, food,
Everything has its place
Rose, lavender and tiny egg’s nest picture in the bathroom
The Wizard of Oz unfolds in an otherwise calm, peaceful, wordsworthrian way
Traffic re-directed, trees up rooted, flattened telephone poles as if a giant hand had pushed them down. Apple tree boxes like building blocks tossed around like a giant baby had been playing. They are strategically placed in the grain field.
Sheets of metal in odd places
Don arthur’s new place with the roof off
Black solid like air
Looking from the basement window at the objects flying around
Hydro trucks working through the night
I was thinking about the Wizard of Oz today. Whether I had dated the scarecrow and lion before and about my tinman.
Kurt’s kids were watching it
We missed it because my parents picked me up in Barrie because I was coming back from Burlington. I stayed in Burlington because Kingsley and I reconciled. Because he was having such a good time he was leaving 3 days late. I was having such a good time I didn’t go down before. Only when I had a ride with Maureen because Shelia’s son and daughter- in law are having a baby. I ended up staying 4 days. 4 wonderful unplanned days. It just happens.
Apple boxes dropped from the heavens and jumbled.
It made me think of China. And about all the clothes I bought in the last couple of days and how they didn’t matter.
It was cold right afterwards…
I keep reading articles in the Globe and Mail about pollution clean-up. There is a critical and far removed tone or point of view to the articles.
Are we not that far behind China? We consume more on an individual basis. We drive, heat and cool our living spaces, shop at stores with 24 hr. energy consumption for stuff we think we need which has been produced in a country whose air quality, as a result, is less than ours, clean ourselves and stuff using large amounts of water and the list goes on.
I think it is great that there is so much pollution for this international event. Will the Western world wake up and see that we are all part of this world and contribute to its health and well being?
Screw freeing Tibet and yeah to a sense of oneness and collective responsibility.
Hi
This post will be less than enthralling than my others…
It is more of an update.
I have been in California for two weeks now.
I am supposed to be flying to Hong Kong tomorrow.
Part of me feels like coming home.
I went to Yosemite Park this weekend on the unique Green Tortoise bus. 35 people manage to sleep lying down on this bus. We grouped camped and cooked, hiked, swam and learned about the geological wonder of the park.
Today I am off to some museums.
I hope you are enjoying the summer…
Love,
Caitlin
I am in San Francisco, California near North Beach which housed the beat poets back in the day.
I am reading Dharma Bums and Not Fade Away to get a sense of it.
I have just read some wonderful birthday messages and emails from friends. Thank you!
I am glad some of you are doing different things and living life..that is what we got to do.
Now I have a feeling when I get a job starting in Sept. my life messages may change..so for now they are inspiring!!
I took a surf lesson in Santa Cruz today. The waves were so calm and sweet and lots of time to relax in between. I had good instructors too. I did a lot of head dives in to waves and only stood up once but boogied some good waves. I want to go back to Santa Cruz.
My friend Eric from Teacher’s College is flying in tomorrow to hang out. I am excited..that I will have a companion from home and that I have inspired someone to get out of Ontario for a bit!! HA HA
I hope you are enjoying July!
Live life in Santa Cruz man…
Love C.
One word: AMAZING!!
So Kingsley and I had been dating for a very short time before I left for China.
Doing the trail together was kind of like our 3rd date. So it was a bit scary but we were feeling positive.
Well until the first night when I had no idea how to put up the tent and couldn’t get to sleep because of mild hypothermia. The hiking actually didn’t scare me. I knew I could do it if I took my time. It was the technical aspect of camping that scared me more: I was inexperienced in camping. I surprised Kingsley a bit because he thought I had done more backpacking. I did one trip in Algonquin in first year university.
Needless to say the 7 days of hiking and camping were amazing. We hiked a trail that was absolutely brilliant. It was an amusement park for naturalists. Each step was different on different terrain. My favourite was ballet dancing through the mud bogs. I would dance from tree root to log while balancing on my hiking poles.
At night Kingsley had planned amazing meals with rice and pasta and spices. He tinkered away at cooking while I would set up the tent and try to find the outhouse. You become quite regular from all that exercise. Sleeping was often interrupted by twisting and turning and one early morning I was almost suffocating because I thought it was a good idea to hang up our socks in the tent to dry…not so much.
The most beautiful moment of the trail for me was our third night. We had a site on the beach in between drift wood. As the fired burned I was snuggled up in Kingsley’s lap and a whale was in the distance hanging out. Is that nirvana? When we arrived at the site, Kingsley was deciding where to set up tent. As he was talking, I saw in the distance, next to his ear, a fin go up. I screamed, “Was that a fin?” and ran towards it. It had been the third day of the hardest portion of the trail so Kingsley was surprised that I had enough in me to sprint. I watched the whale roll around in the distance and felt so calmed by its presence. My heart filled up and a tear reached my eye. In a way I was participating in the whale’s breathing, as it surfaced to blow. It was one of the most calming natural experiences of my life.
Another calming experience was smelling the big cedar trees along the trail. They had fallen over and blocked the trail so a section had been cut out so we could still walk through. I would stop and put my nose and lips up to the center. Have you ever kissed the center of a tree?
WEll I am at Kingsley’s now…July 26, 2008 and we are going camping again. So I have to pack..write more later.
Hello,
I am very behind, if anyone is keeping up to date on my blog…YIKES!
So I have made it to Southern California. I travelled 1600 km this week. I started in Vancouver, BC, Canada on Tuesday and made my way to Portland, ORegon. I had an extreme bus driver who came over the speaker to tell us to be quiet if we spoke above a whisper. It was intense. In Portland I stayed on my friend Mike’s couch. I met him in Emei, China when I was hiking the holy mountain. He is in college and lives with two others so I got to chill with some students. I then took a ride through Craigslist to California. I was trying to make it to Redwood Hostel but it was booked. So I headed to Arcata where my drivers were from. Brylin called around and found my a place to stay….in the back of a small moving van. IT worked..there was a bed and some chairs. It was at his dad’s place so I used the bathroom inside. It was an adventure.
My birthday and July 4th celebrations were experienced in Arcata, which is in Humboldt County. There are a lot of growhouses and supposedly the best weed in the country comes from here. There are a lot of transients in this town so I didn’t feel out of place, but uncomfortable, as it was a different place. However, totally relaxed. There were yoga classes at the community center, co-op natural grocery stores, redwood park, state university etc. I liked the town. So on my birthday I looked around and listened to a local reggae band. I also went for a walk in one of the dunes to see a dune flat with natural vegetation. That night I was offered free tickets to the local theatre (Del Arts).
So this is not the best entry..as there is more to say but internet is expensive!
Today I try surfing!!
