Sheath of feeling. Words groping to touch air.
Friday, June 20, 2008
A Lion Tale...
Irresistible! As an animal lover, this touches me and if you are, wonderful...
Also I spent ages 2-6 1/2 in Kafue National Park in Zambia living in mud huts with all the wild animals about and the lion who I called "blond," and who I told to "Stop roaring all night, you're keeping Mummy awake!"
A hug like that...
Animals who love people.
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tell us more about what took you to zambia, please.
ReplyDeletethe video is wonderful! thanks for sharing.
Africa is dotted throughout - here's a bio page that should be updated at my art website:
ReplyDeleteAnd here's a link to Horizon After Horizon of Singing Bowls, a prose poem of my life in sections, part scrapbook, part travelogue, an immigrant poem of the always arriving with its tracings of memories of the singing bowls of horizons traversed, maps the journey across continents...
(that should be moved to Flickr with larger images, oh on the list...) :)
thank you so much for the links. i am simply stunned at the life you have lived, wondering immediately how moving from place to place affects a child so young. i didn't even want my parents to sell the home i had lived in from birth in order to move to a bigger home 15 miles away when i was a teenager! leaving friends seemed devastating. we were glad they waited until we were in college to do it.
ReplyDeleteit all seems rich and exciting in one way yet chaotic and difficult in another. i am sure you learned flexibility and impermanence, elements of life of which our understanding only enhances adulthood. the remarkable experiences you've had, the exposure to so many parts of the natural world, to different cultures, to an expansive world must have been enormous adventures in so many ways. but, how hard is it for a child who might need the familiar, a sense of belonging, a friend to count on for life, a foundation for feeling rooted, a father who is part of the day to day life she lives with her family - how hard is it to move and leave behind all that she knows, over and over and over? like everything else in life these experiences brought forth both sides of the coin, i imagine. i hope you were left feeling positive about the journey. i hope adulthood has not been too difficult as a result of the missed securities. life is always an exchange of sorts, isn't it? we give up one thing to have something else. and in the end it is simply "our life," plain and simple, the only one of which we have intimate knowledge.
you don't mention your mother often in the autobiographical pieces. was she happy? did she bring you the security you needed? is she in toronto? your father died at a rather young age, and i was curious about that - curious if he were in another country, etc. so many qts., so much to wonder about as i read the fascinating stories you told.
again, thanks for sharing all of this, brenda. :)
Sky, so much insight you have! I've never thought of my life in the ways you've described - or considered that it could have been any other way. Yes, our childhoods must shape us in ways we probably can't fully comprehend. While I lived in the house I owned in Toronto for nearly 20 years, and my immediate family is here, as are many friends gathered from over the years, I am able to live with uncertainty in ways that surely were shaped by the continual movement through countries of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, yes, my mother does live in a suburb of Toronto, on her own still, she's 85; I have two brothers who live here as well as some nieces and a nephew. My two children, 17 and 21, both live with me. My father died in 1984, awhile back now.
And how about you, dear Sky? Where did you grow up, and do you have any brothers or sisters, and are your parents still living where you grew up?
You speak of stabilities and the coherencies of stability and I like to find the coherencies of uncertainty. They're both profound dances.
xo
I grew up in Georgia, remained in the hot and humid south all my adult life until relocating to Seattle with my husband. We love this place of temperate climate, 2 mountain ranges, Puget Sound, and urban lakes, with its small leap from the Pacific Ocean. Since you were once in Vancouver you are familiar with the geography of which I speak.
ReplyDeleteMy parents are both alive, in their early 80s, and still in GA. My only sister, a teacher of young children, is on the GA coast about 4 hours from my parents and less than an hour from Florida. She is an extraordinary teacher with a waiting list for her classes. What a blessing she is in my life keeping an eye on our parents while I am 3,000 miles away. She is also my confidante and dear friend. Her 2 girls are in Atlanta, one is finishing her doctorate in Clinical Psychology and is getting married on Saturday; the other is an industrial engineer for a global company headquartered there and travels internationally and domestically for them. We have no children, a choice I sometimes regret and other times recognize as a freedom to live our life with regard to no one but each other and self. It is a mixed bag, another example of giving up one thing for another.
I am living a life I never dreamed possible. I am married to an extraordinary man who has brought such love and light into my life, who takes gentle care of me and my feelings by showing me respect and by nurturing and supporting me to be my best self. My father knew NOTHING about these personal gifts, is difficult on so many levels, and in many ways has been emotionally abusive. Imagine my delight to find a man who embodies sensitivity, integrity, and kindness in all that he is.
I taught English after college but quickly went into the social work profession, my area of major academic study. I stayed in the field until we moved to Seattle, long enough for an early retirement. Now I am a woman of leisure, owning my time and enjoying it very much. I must admit to being a bit lazy, however. Many days I run around in my lounging clothes well into the afternoon!
We love gardening, as you can see, and spend much of our time in the gardens with our partially tame wild birds and our squirrels. We frequently see deer strolling by, encouraged by a lake a block away and green belts everywhere. I want to see a black bear very much. One is usually spotted each spring within a mile or 2 of our home, but we have yet to spot one. We see both the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges as we travel about the area doing our shopping and running errands. Lovely landscapes abound, hang-gliders fill the skies with colorful "wings" in summer, and the geography is ripe for day trips to the islands or weekends at the sea.
Thanks for your reply to my qts. It has been nice learning more about you. :)