Poetry Thursday

i go to this window

just as day dissolves
when it is twilight(and
looking up in fear

i see the new moon
thinner than a hair)

making me feel
how myself has been coarse and dull
compared with you, silently who are
and cling
to my mind always

But now she sharpens and becomes crisper
until i smile with knowing
--and all about
herself
the sprouting largest final air

plunges
inward with hurled
downward thousands of enormous dreams

-- ee cummings

This is this week's Poetry Thursday submission. I've been savoring it and trying to feel it's meaning. I was going to put on another ee cummings poem, but that one was very racy. And I'm always discovering that new people are reading this blog -- P's mom, P's ex, my mom, my exes, co-workers, etc. I guess some discretion is necessary at times.

This holiday week has been rather focused on weddings. We wrote out a guest list on Tuesday. Yesterday I went to look for dresses ... again. At first all the dresses I tried on seemed beautiful and perfect and my problem was that I couldn't decide which to pick. Now all the dresses seem wrong and I can't find anything that's quite right. I'm waiting for the magic moment when I put on the dress and the tears form in my eyes because I KNOW this is THE perfect dress. Soon. I think I'm just about over dress shopping.

Felices Fiestas!

"Heap on the wood! - the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still."
- Sir Walter Scott

Season's Greetings to all!

I had a wonderful Christmas/Hannukah filled to the brim with parties. On Friday night I had two parties. There was a dinner party at my house for the family. My sister-in-law Lisa's grandparents were in town, so we had a dinner party in their honor. All my siblings, P, his kids, and my parents were there. My mother's orthopedist was also there with his wife. I'm not quite sure why he was there, but he's a very nice guy and it was nice to have him. After the dinner P and I went to his sister, B's, house party in Los Feliz. That was a fun little party too, but by midnight I started to turn into a pumpkin.

On Saturday night I went to a Hannukah party. Hannukah was technically over, but it was still great. We had latkes, kugel, and vegetarian chili. I don't think the veggie chili is a traditional Hannukah dish, but our hostess is a vegetarian. We rounded out the night with a fiesty game of dreidel. Though I once made a dreidel out of clay (really!), this was my first time playing. Fun times. We also had a really great conversation about politics and the war. Two of the guests were former military -- army and air force. It was very interesting to talk about these issues while hearing their perspectives. It was also nice to have this type of conversation in Los Angeles. I love it here, but you're much much more likely to talk about television or movies here than politics or world affairs. Oh well. At least the weather is beautiful here.

Sunday night we had our Christmas Eve extravaganza. The party traditionally starts after midnight mass. This year it went a little earlier and most guests had arrived by 11:00 p.m. We had mom's traditional soup, hot chocolate, and Haitian pates and then played a rousing game of Secret Santa. I ended up with some onion relish. :(

Christmas Day we went to my brother Marc's house. We had another rousing game of Secret Santa (this one was better because we had a $25 gift price tag) and then opened all our other presents. After that we feasted and feasted and feasted some more. Several people napped after the enormous meal. I just stayed up, half-comatose, and chatted with P's sister and other guests.

Following the Christmas Day feast at Marc's we went to another party at C&J's. This was quite a shindig! Catered, valet parking, magician, singers, and Santa Clause. If I hadn't been utterly exhausted from the rest of my parties I would have really had fun. It was a merry Christmas for all, but for me I was all about a good night... good night's sleep.

Poetry Thursday and a word on old friends

Here is my Poetry Thursday submission. I'm not quite sure what it is about these 13th Century Persian mystical poets, but their poems just grab my heart.

If God Invited You To A Party
by Hafiz

If God
Invited you to a party
And said,

'Everyone
In the ballroom tonight
Will be my special
Guest...'

How would you then treat them
When you
Arrived?

Indeed, indeed!

And I know
There is no one in this world

Who
Is not upon
His Jeweled Dance
Floor


In other news, I've been spending lots of time catching up with old friends who I hadn't seen in quite a while. On Sunday night I had dinner with Cornelia, Monday I had lunch with Mary. Tuesday night P and I hosted Rob and Corinne for dinner. Last night I had my book club meeting (we hadn't met in quite a few months). It always feels so good to re-establish ties with good friends. Seeing how effortless it is to reconnect always reminds me of why we're friends in the first place.

Friends

"Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends"
-John Lennon/Paul McCartney from "With a Little Help From My Friends

I want y'all to check out my friend Jeff's great new website ecouragement.com. It's a very positive new website and has all sorts of great information on ways to improve your life ... from your health, to work, to family, to charity (he has an article on the NPI Project you should check out). Also, if you'd like to be charitable this holiday season, please consider donating to the NPI Project. Any amount is appreciated.

Send your tax deductible donations to:
NPI Renovation/Healing Project
PO Box 691941
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Checks should to made payable to: UC Regents
On the memo line please reference: NPI Renovation/Healing project

In other news, my friends came to help me out on Friday night. We had a little tree trimming party. The tree looks beautiful and it was great to catch up with folks over some egg nog and holiday treats. I'll try to post some pics from the party later.

Poetry Thursday

I decided to share another Poetry Thursday poem from my favorite poet. This one is especially poignant since I'm not drinking wine at the moment. Sigh.

Ode To Wine -- Pablo Neruda

Day-colored wine,
night-colored wine,
wine with purple feet
or wine with topaz blood,
wine,
starry child
of earth,
wine, smooth
as a golden sword,
soft
as lascivious velvet,
wine, spiral-seashelled
and full of wonder,
amorous,
marine;
never has one goblet contained you,
one song, one man,
you are choral, gregarious,
at the least, you must be shared.
At times
you feed on mortal
memories;
your wave carries us
from tomb to tomb,
stonecutter of icy sepulchers,
and we weep
transitory tears;
your
glorious
spring dress
is different,
blood rises through the shoots,
wind incites the day,
nothing is left
of your immutable soul.
Wine
stirs the spring, happiness
bursts through the earth like a plant,
walls crumble,
and rocky cliffs,
chasms close,
as song is born.
A jug of wine, and thou beside me
in the wilderness,
sang the ancient poet.
Let the wine pitcher
add to the kiss of love its own.
My darling, suddenly
the line of your hip
becomes the brimming curve
of the wine goblet,
your breast is the grape cluster,
your nipples are the grapes,
the gleam of spirits lights your hair,
and your navel is a chaste seal
stamped on the vessel of your belly,
your love an inexhaustible
cascade of wine,
light that illuminates my senses,
the earthly splendor of life.
But you are more than love,
the fiery kiss,
the heat of fire,
more than the wine of life;
you are
the community of man,
translucency,
chorus of discipline,
abundance of flowers.
I like on the table,
when we're speaking,
the light of a bottle
of intelligent wine.
Drink it,
and remember in every
drop of gold,
in every topaz glass,
in every purple ladle,
that autumn labored
to fill the vessel with wine;
and in the ritual of his office,
let the simple man remember
to think of the soil and of his duty,
to propagate the canticle of the wine.

Update

"We are all of us from birth to death guests at a table which we did not spread. The sun, the earth, love, friends, our very breath are parts of this banquet..."
Rebecca Harding Davis, 1831-1910
American Author and Journalist

I decided to share some updates about my life with you guys.

Work: I've officially started my own mediation practice. You can check out my mediation website. I LOVE the practice so much. It feels very good to be making money doing something you love so much you'd do it for free. Oh yeah!

And for my other business -- if you'd like some beautiful Hip Girlz pieces to give as Christmas gifts, check them out at my jewelry website. You can also go to a lovely little boutique called Pinky Rose , on Pico (just east of Fairfax). They're stocking some of my goods and they also have beautiful (and affordable!) pieces. The customer service is also divine.

Lastly (gosh I wear many hats!) I've recently become a reiki master. Friends, please contact me if you're interested in some reiki or in being able to do reiki yourself. Phew! That's enough for my plugs. In other news...

Wedding: It's happening. We've picked our officiant, we've picked our country, and we've picked our attendants. Our major goal right now is to book the venue. More to come. I'll just say that it's definitely shaping up to be my dream ... and it looks like I'm going to be getting married in a palace!

Triathlon: I'm back on the path of the Half-Ironman goal. This time my sights are set on the Lone Star Half on April 1. Why this particular one? One of my best friends set this as her bachelorette party. Now talk about hard core!

Life is good, but life is busy. I'm just trying to feast on this banquet of life and am enjoying every moment. Happy Holidays!

"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'"
– Maya Angelou

Things have been very good. That last hockey game was outstanding ... we won in the final shootout. It was an action-packed game all the way and our seats were unbelievable.

On Saturday night we took advantage of some other free tickets and went to see the Nutcracker at the Shrine Auditorium. It was staged by the Universal Ballet which is based in Seoul, Korea. It was SOOO good! Clara was unbelievably outstanding and the sets were like nothing I've ever seen. I had a blast. Who invited us? P's ex-wife. She invited me, my mom, P, and the kids. Talk about a functioning extended family! I think it's great that we can all be friends.

This week is busy with seeing friends. I have three "it's been so long since we've seen one another, let's go out" dinners and a small tree trimming party on Friday. It's all lots of fun, but I wouldn't mind some total downtime.