--TAKE ME OUT WITH THE WASTE

…This morning there’s a semi-thick layer of fog on the lake, as if God sneezed and the sneeze froze into something resembling cement-colored air.

There are already three fishing boats lurking in the hazy soup.  Like an old song that triggers a memory, I remember standing before the Hong Kong harbor in awe, age 24, high rise after high rise shouldering me from behind, the air oppressively humid and profuse with a stew of odors—brine, fish, car exhaust, persimmon—while tinny transistor radios played stutter-stop songs with harpsichords and reedy-voiced Cantonese singers wailing as if at a wake.

It’s beautiful, all of this—the actual and the remembered.

I wish you could see it.

…"We are all refugees from our childhoods.  As so we turn, among other things, to stories." Mohsin Hamid

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." Albert Einstein

"We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind with a tender heart." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Our injuries are our gifts." Kate Cantrill

"Don't get too lost in your emotions today. While you can definitely get swept up in your feelings, you'd be better off doing something that makes you feel grounded. That could be as simple as picking a flower, sitting down and consciously breathing, or savoring a cup of lavender-infused green tea. Indulge in a few sensual delights to bring yourself back down to earth." -Alison Burkhart