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November 04, 2007

Meme~ing

Stardust

Everything we see, touch, or taste is... stardust. All
of the carbon in our bodies, all of the oxygen in the air,
all of the silicon in the rocks and sand came into
existence inside ancient stars. At the end of their lives,
in explosions of unimaginable ferocity, their debris was
thrown into space. It took billions of years for this
stardust to form new stars and planets under the
influence of gravity.

This excerpt came from an exhibition at the CERN nuclear accelerator in Switzerland where my step-son is now living and doing his doctoral research (more on that later!)

I've been tagged by my new friend Rambler as to five reasons I write. And he already knows me well enough that he guessed correctly that I don't do tags!!!! But I am touched that he would think of me and  honor me in this way and I will answer his tag, but I will not be tagging it on. So if this post does spark you to do the same, let me know and I will gladly add a link here to you!

I had to look up what a meme is. My interpretation is that like a gene that passes on genetic material, blueprints, and all the characteristics that make us human, memes do this in the cultural sense. Ideas, concepts, cultural ideals, are passed on and kept alive by memes.

    1.  I have to write. If I don't, something will explode within me. The feelings, passions, and desires in me have to find expression, a place to be, like a curtain in a window...

    2. Blogging has pushed me over an edge. I am seen. People come and visit and sometimes comment and I have no control over how they perceive, or how they interpret, what I share. This makes me stay honest with what I post. It also makes me feel raw, vulnerable, and humble. I have to know that I am 100 percent behind what I put into cyberspace. And I do not do this annonymously, so the mask I wear here, is very thin...

    3.  If it were not for the computer, I could not write at all. I had sever trauma in my early years  around grammar, sentence structure, etc., as well as dyslexia. The first time I sat down at a computer, it was as if a light came on in a dark room. Because of years of graduate school, thousands of papers and a dissertation, I can now write from a very left brain place. I can proof dry medical reports, but run as far away as I can from that type of structure when I blog. My poetry and images have their own agenda, and it is wonderful and a bit scary at times, to let them take control.

    4.  I love reading and being inspired by other writers. I have found conversations and connections that have become very important to me and dear to my heart. I am sparked by others here in Bloglandia in a way that I never thought possible.

    5.  Over the years I have filled my life with a lot of structure. Blogging has challenged me to let go of some of the many have to's and must do's that roll around in my head. I have found so many unspoken rules that I impose upon myself and my writing that I've had to let them go, one by one, or I would not be able to write or nor have a blog. And as I said in statement "1", I have to write... 

I have to find expression for this stardust that resides in me... and to look in awe at the pinpoints of light that exist around me... and feel this pull of gravity that brings this all into form....

Thank you Rambler...

November 02, 2007

No Chocolate Croissants or Cheesecake

The French do breakfast well
le petit déjeuner...
the little break fast...

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It's our third morning home and there are no
chocolate croissants in the house...
and I have a cold
so it is garlic tea and chicken soup for me...

But I keep dreaming of breakfast crepes
from the Rue de Cler in Paris...

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or cheesecake...

Chessecake you ask?
For breakfast?

That's what they have for breakfast in Provence...

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Just look at these empty plates almost licked clean...

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That lone piece didn't last long either...

Even the bees in Provence eat breakfast well...

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Photos: Petit de'jeuner at our hotel, La Tulipe on Rue Malar, a truly delightful place to stay in the 7th arrondesmont, Paris; breakfast crepes being made on the Rue de Cler (oh for some Nutella right now...); Cheesecake made by Corey's dear friend Cynthia in Corey's kitchen; and a bee on Corey's window sill slurping up chessecake juice from where the hot cheesecakes cooled the night before in the chill of the Provence air.

November 01, 2007

Waking In Paris

We are home...

In the last three weeks
we touched France, Switzerland,
Belgium, the Netherlands, and England...

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And now...
this place of home usually so known,
is the dream...

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and the memories of our travels
linger
and wrap themselves around me,
begging me not to forget....

Like that first lick
of true bliss...

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and the joy
of the freedom to discover,

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walk, and be...

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where ever you want to be...

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Photos: Eiffel Tower; Grand Palace, my French glacé of chocolate, caramel and salt; and Milt with chocolate hazelnut on the Isle St. Louis, Paris.

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