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Beautiful Rituals

White Flowers &this to honor

A Friend… losing one’s mother is tough … very tough. Therefore the least I can do is bring some flowers and … a candle light up even a little the darkened feelings of loss. The scent is Magnolia and the wicks are … natural wood that burns without smoke to ash … May we live the kind of life that light up others with spontaneous acts of kindness; emit lovely unassuming scent … then burn off into ashes to return to this earth perhaps to reincarnate as a beautiful being with a crown of magnolia flowers … maybe, just maybe. That would be a life well lived.

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Beautiful People Beautiful Rituals

On Walls of Alhambra

Walls of Alhambra Palace

are covered with intricate elaborate arabesque vines

the way I like to get lost

even to enter from the exit to look for an entrance

Noriko Ibaragi

アランブラ宮の壁の

アランブラ宮の壁の

いりくんだつるくさのように

わたしは迷うことが好きだ

出口から入って入り口をさがすことも

茨木のり子(6/12/1926 – 2/17/2006)

If she were alive she would be 95 now … It’s not easy to translate poems as there’s always a little of a betrayal in finding the language that’s fitting. There are virutally no perfect fit, it’s always an approximate.

February 17th was the 16th anniversary since this Japanese poet passed onto the next world. I am always reminded as February 17th is also my mother’s official birthday … which we “celebrated” over an international phone call and Skype. It’s just not the same as when one sees another in person to transfer and share one’s Life Force, Prana, Chi, Ki, Qui, Energy … much needed at times like this. Yet we also do not want to infect another with a virus to cause a demise – it’s a delicate situation as ever that we learn to navigate.

We are all lost sometimes trying to find our way and get frustrated and irritated but why? Like late Ibaragi Noriko uttered … getting lost in finding our path is not only okay but preferred. Just try all sorts of paths to find a way and yes, sometimes starting from the exit to look for an entrance can give us an epithany so often missing in our daily programmed maze to always start to finish without complexity nor confusion.

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Beautiful Rituals Healthy Food

Happy Lunar New Year !

Peking Duck ? Yes but … same table graces Vegetarian Pizza? (so good, this crust, this cheese, these herbs …it’s from America’s best 🙂 The Japanese in me who used to spend hours Osechi foods making for January first Oshogatsu may roll her eyes but it’s another venue, another time … let’s just be happy with all the international flavor profiles 🙂 Yes – America is a melting pot – there’s Chinese and there’s Italian and there’s … United Nations of tummies to rub with these soul foods – to celebrate this Year of the Tiger. Gratitude… for this luck. With more flexibility, resilience, justice and wisdom, may this new year be a better one for all of us.