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home. om shanti om. exstasis. ajna daff-ff-odil, ff-ing fff-freezing!
a beautiful morning, the river ouse outside the window perfectly calm… the moment when the flood of fresh water downstream is matched by the incoming tide. pivot
ebb balances flow… cusp. this sense of poise.
there is serenity even during spring, this season of both burgeoning possibility and hectic bustle.
equinox full hurtle, solstice stasis.
our moon blooming towards full
euphoria and stupour… tranquility and transience, all arise from each other, a pendulum swing
the complex interaction of cycles, a force which which conjures the universe, feel it flowing through ourselves
duality… polarity… step back, ‘transcend’… everything must change, is changing. the forever flux
even as i stumble to a puzzled mumble halt, as if doctor who were dabbling and gabbling with ganja, ha
it’s a joy to try to voice the obvious… go on give it a go for yourself!
singing along to krishna das as i type, breath of the heart, baba hanuman, luscious and full. deep resonant earthy tones, matching the hoover wheeze drone of the harmonium…
bagpipes! hoovers! harmoniums! oh the life giving drone of prana
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been back a week or so now, such an amazing adventure! a fortunate fellow.
being back has been kinda fun too. once you endure the bamboozlement and exhaustion of jet lag
family! a few friends… ecstatic dance, singing, moshing down the front at franz ferdinand, kirtan, country strolls, bashing about on the bike, sorting the house, yawning at code, pondering dosh, all da usual xx

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i do love a selfie! you may have noticed… crown chakra pineapple… i mean whose ever purchased a pineapple and not tried it on their head? x

palenque

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swimming in a pool in the rain
duck dive, a few powerful dolphin kicks, deep within and beneath the turquoise, channeling my inner ‘man from atlantis’
break the surface, air gulp, flip over onto back, lily pad float
the torrential rain pummels and pelts, pooling in eye sockets, cleansing, baptismal
ricocheting, with some force, off my third eye
lotus lotus, om mani padme om, jewell in the lotus lotus
i am part bing crosby, part one of those 1930’s synchronised swimmers… a solo synchronised swimmer?
curiously ungainly on land, in the water i am slee-eeek, creature of grace and flow
next, with a whoop, it’s up and down the water slide, a deceptive hurtle!!!
the waiter comes out to smile, i am the days only customer… earlier, camaraderie, both staring mournful aghast at the continual downpour
trees, awnings, almost everything drips and ripples, a constant kerplonk
mucho juvia… deluge
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yep hotel kin ha, palenque, halfway along the road to las ruinas
actually a motel, think whams club tropicana meets crossroads. i the love child twixt andrew ridgley and benny?
really like it here… a huge sprawling site, littered with concrete faux mayan sculptures, half the huts derelict, mildewed and overgrown, a solemn recognition that one day, one day soon, the jungle will take back everything
these weird baby hippo like creatures scurry by, i guess they are some sort of rodent on steroids? humming birds, as small as butterflies, supping at preposterous blowsy flowers,
parakeets ungainly flap overhead, a terrific screech
oh and howler monkeys, at sunset, their guttural growls competing with, blending into, the cacophony of mexican kids at the on site roller disco… not tonight tho, a different tenure of howl when soggy bedraggled
at tikal i saw toucans!!! TOUCANS!
rain days… days to pause and reflect… out of time, out of place, out of time, out of place… reflect on what? no blooming idea! which, with the soft subtle forgiveness of sunset, I guess, is completely as it should be
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oh and i’m guffawing my way through the audio version of ‘my family and other animals’, not my usual taste, must have read it, and loved it when i was 12… comfortable, soothing for the soul

Tikal

Ruins and Jungle… Parrots, Spider Monkeys, Pisotes (a friendly, funky long nosed Racoon critter), err a psychedelic Turkey… And me… From atop the temples the canopy of trees reaches to the horizon
Tho on reflection, with my 7:00 am face I could be more ancient and stoney than any Mayan carving
34 years (tho only a small slither of a baktun) since I was but an hour away in Flores, yet never made it here… Always good to arrive, however tardy!

Rich P: Remarkable likeness.

I liked the likeness

Yes! Doppelganger for the legendary and benign late classic ruler ‘squinting manatee’

candlelit lunch

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Candlelit Lunch! yes Saturdays in Sussex in January, you too can experience this phenomenon of gloom
outside the Rain is wind swirled into a cold, soggy grey, flannel flurry… allegedly, i haven’t braved it yet.
hiatus, plans scuppered. surrendered… at home, there are certainly worse places to be
photo: #filter … deffo a filter… one of summer spun brightness, just so you can see the plate
was supposed to be about the vegan cheese… i bought up a barrel load of reduced priced festive selection boxes
many of which claim to be superior at melting?… greed and science experiments… hobbies combine
got somewhat swamped by the salad! i know, probably not wise to eat salad in January… but still in a mood of chuck it all in extravaganza!
mango and avocado and tomatoes!
with support from spinach, peppers, olives
walnuts, chia seeds, hemp hearts… lemon, apple cider vinegar, and other motley dressings
yum. instagrin. hodge podge. right…. outside for a stroll

new year

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happy new year. first foot forward
gratitude for the sunlight. for the heave and swell of the ocean. for the miraculous, perfect beauty of our bodies
wishing you all, hmmm: love, wisdom and humorous exuberance for the year to come… trust it will be a good ‘un
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sea swim! it’s not cold. honest injun. and that’s not just bluster and wim hoffery!
winter sea dunks are fine, the water itself is comparatively balmy (march is far colder)
its all the flummery that makes it tricky… usually a biting wind chill when you get out… tho today, warmest new year forever (NOT a good thing)… this morning, as around high tide, was choppier than i’d usually go in
at any rate for warmth, i’m full christmas blubberous, plus a lustrous luxuriance of pelt… perfectly evolved for the vita aquatica!
didn’t manage to swim on christmas day, as too poorly, first year not in forever… boo… so first swim in 6 weeks …. and pedal too! the thrill and joy of movement! hurrah!
blessings and vibes for 2022 x

smile

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‘smile. might never happen’
basgallop, embodying ‘startled’, models a teal turquoise embroidered sparkle scarf sarong
christmas gift from daughter… tho crikey my skin has the colour, texture and probably smell of over-boiled cabbage… blooming winter… have forgotten what the sun looks like!

David R: Your selfies are the best!

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marvelous! thanks, especially coming from such a top notch photographer… i love selfies! fascinating how folk, in all of their myriad, preposterous beauty, choose to represent themselves x

crescendo and chaos

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crescendo and chaos. the sea is a brute
flung up, then smashed down… the froth of pummel and turmoil
bedlam. brouhaha. beneath this late afternoon winters light
the sea, she is cajoled then threatened…sister moon, brother wind.
snarl
volatile… ever the scientist… pour energy into any system, the outcome: BRoiL then fRENZy!
shout into the wind, these your desires and fears….my heart, some sea thing child

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super invigourating! and most deffo not for swimming in today
futile feeble to wave either a mobile phone or these few words! but hey, always we do… an urge to share… testament, to bear witness, to immensity
back to bed, a long dreary convalescence… audiobooks, chocolate and bollywood! mellow twixtmas one and all x

tutu

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‘ha, ha, ha’ (huge booming infectious laughter) ‘i LOVE being loved!’… just listened to desmond tutus desert island discs, immense moral integrity, such a warm engaging character, the cadence of his voice… plus with a ‘desmond’ he even has a level of degree named after him… unique. RIP

here

leaf kerfuffel

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leaf kerfuffle! brown, dowdy but exultant… myriad hued… the autumnal tumble, a last leaf hurrah
scampering about the beech wood, like an exuberant puppy… i caught so so many leaves!… each a wish… one for you
hmmm.. catching leaves should be a ceremonial process… a druidic serenade?
station yourself, slightly downwind, of the oldest most majestic beech spirit within the woods
begin the invocation with a bout of strenous whistling… i favour ‘i am the lord of the dance said he’… place one finger, folk singer style in ear, a la Euan McColl… other hand should nestle, nonchalant, in pocket
‘O mighty Beech, begin the gyre, release your leaves of burnished copper!’… the more operatic the better (always!?)
a wind, weary sweeps through the canopy… the leaves begin their fall
some proceed with orderly haste, others pirrhouette, loop da loop, a melodramatic swan song
focus on one, far aloft, leaf summoner, leaf stalker… feel the quiver as it acknowledges the beckon of gravity
down, down it plummets… pounce! a lunge forward, a frenzy of grasp and clutch, the leaf tickles the fingers, then pancake follops over and … ‘BUNDLE’ chucks itself onto the dingy pile of leaf husks on the ground below
Dratt!
but then, unheralded, another leaf, slaps against my forehead… bill stickering into place… i gently peel it off, cheerfully whooping ‘caught one’
aw people, them PEOPLE, make such a fuss about intention! but half the knack is just to acknowledge, have gratitude for, good fortune when we accidentally blunder stumble over it?
oops i’ve gone all Mills and Boon meets the Beano!
anyway, not the easiest of seasons, stodge despondency and despair… thought i’d written something wise in my morning pages… but it remains an indecipherable scrawl!
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these eclipse hours… schumann resonance? hathor frequency?
stand beneath the trees… respond with stillness… feel the frequency… strident but calm… the one ringing clarion note that underpins being. bliss

Lakshmi

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Diwali New Moon Blessings! light a candle and welcome Sri Lakshmi, Goddess of Prosperity, Beauty and Power
she sits on a pink lotus flower, golden coins endlessly pouring from the vase at her lap, heralded, nay trumpeted, by a pair of white elephants… beauty and abundance
One of the seasons great fire festivals, hey, nearly the cheerful bedlam of Lewes and the 5th!
not my spiritual tradition? well, true, but auspicious to acknowledge the goddess in this bountiful, benign form… gold and pink, pink and gold
the main pic is an impromptu, but long standing (3 years), mini shrine plonked down at one end of the dining table…
my daughter came back from india, a gift of the sticker, a mini buddha and tibetan prayer flags
i leaned lakshmi against a jar full of old pound coins, next to a holey hag stone from the beach and, yep, choula hot sauce(!)…
things tend to flotsam wash up in my life, often to stay

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this morning, up early, a beautiful golden light, a sky of profound blue… so to pedal down to the beach for the first proper winter swim of the year
a calm cold ocean, after the recent turbulence of storms. air which nips! those smoke plumes from the lips… yet a sun replesdent with majesty and warmth
floating on my back, looking shorewards, heave of sea, burnished gold, dappled squirm of liquid, the colour a reflection from the sand honey cliffs above
after, see-ee-the of sea as it sucks back through the plenitude of pebbles, eye follows the snake writhe of wave along the shoreline
this trickster mind, thoughts struggle with the clamour… qualm, hunger, scarcity… yet, ha, we dwell midst might, mystery and … a glut of profound abundance!
lakshmi in sussex! preposterous? yet sipping my flask of Rose petal tea, pondering out to sea…
reflect on the myth of her birth… gods and demons tug of war churning the sea of ambrosia, lakshmi arising full formed, beautiful from the waves
the birth of venus, likewise emerging from shell and the sea… lawks with sun sign, mercury and venus, all in cancer, i’m bound to be somewhat curious of the ocean
at pompeii, astonishingly, they discovered a statue of lakshmi, the Romans traded with India, academics postulate on a syncretic Venus-Lakshmi cult…
Romano-Celts on pebble sussex beaches
deffo nuff waffle! oh and dratt, i never even got around to diwali in mysore in the late 80’s

The Attenborough is from hove lawns… lots of postman paste ups on the yellow bins, many fitting the rigid gold and pink hegemony

https://thepostmanart.com/

As a nerd youth (quelle suprise) i was intrigued by Alexander the Great… obviously by dint of brute conquest, such the mores of teh ancient world… but imagine an empire that, just about, spanned vedic india to ancient egypt!!
knowledge fusion of the highest order… there are statues of buddha sculpted in a classical greek style! i’d probs have been a temple dancer tho

Botticelli: Birth of Venus