Here comes the rain again...

I just love the heavy rains that come down during this season; that is of course when I am safely indoors. This morning I had to come early to the café to cook as we ran out of our special last night, and though it was difficult getting up, heading out in the rain and walking to the restaurant (walking to work is something nearly unheard of here – as is walking anywhere really), now that I am here in this empty space, I feel very peaceful. No need for a soundtrack as the downpour provides is own, reminiscent of a spa nature playlist. Still I cannot help thinking of the folks further up North, some of whom have had to be evacuated because what is a refreshing downpour here is a calamity up there. Though the country is used to such yearly meteorological occurrences, the lack of resources and preparedness makes for a yearly nightmare for some.

The more I think of how closely people in this part of the world are dependent on the weather as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes, the more I understand the way things function. I sometimes have found people I deal with here rather unreliable and wanting in foresight, but I have come to the realization that the number of force majeure events has deeply affected the local mentality into a sort of tropical laissez faire attitude.  It’s one thing to have knowledge of this, but quite another to deal with it on a daily basis. Thus said, be safe everyone! Typhoon season is upon us.

I made it!

… to forty that is. I know that this day and age the life expectancy is around seventy and reaching forty is not a big deal, but I consider each day a gift (that is, when I remember!), not a given. People often ask me what the tattoo on my left arm represents, and I usually just say it has a personal meaning, because it is rather cheesy after all, but now that I am forty, I don’t really care anymore what people think! So here it goes: The tattoo is of a bird atop a human skull. 

Some may regard it as dark and ominous – as does my husband – when as a matter of fact it is a symbol of life and balance for me.  Its original inspiration is taken from the works of Carlos Castaneda, an anthropologist who wrote a series of books in the seventies recounting his experience with a shaman named Don Juan in Mexico (warned you it was cheesy). Aside from all the folklore (there are, after all, eleven volumes), Castaneda explores Don Juan’s philosophy which rests on the assumption that life is a dance with death and that death should be a friend and a ally, and not an enemy to be kept at bay at all costs. Ok so I am resuming eleven volumes plus my interpretation in one sentence. Anyway Carlos for me touched the core of what it means to be human, as did the Buddha and Woody Allen. 

There is a very intense Buddhist practice from Tibet (not sure if this is still in place) where the novice monks are led to a burial ground where they meditate before decaying bodies as these are torn apart by wild dogs. There is no drama, no attachment to the physical form, it is simply the natural passage from one state to the next, a part of life. I know that is a bit extreme but it comes together nicely with Don Juan’s view of death. Oh, as for the bird on the skull, it is a crow, which symbolized Don Juan’s own death; his shadow. The skull is I guess more related to the Buddhist mediation practice on death. Anyway, happy birthday to me!