There are many roads to take in life. I happen to be on an open road, that has no walls. It has no lines painted down the center and that allows me to swerve to the left in the last moment, or if I feel like it drift zig zag, and flow from one side to the other. We are in a maze and the sooner we realize that there are no rules to follow which path, the better. I sometimes go full speed, other times I like to meander. This is my life……many roads, no end in site.
I haven’t been everywhere, has anybody? This big world of ours has so many hidden treasures. I thought at one point I would go around the world….kids and a husband came into my life instead. It’s funny how your life takes twists and turns. I was living and working in a hostel in Amsterdam and had to come home for an earlier car accident court appearance. Little did I know some good looking surfer would drive his convertible VW right into my heart…..but he did.
Keep your options open ladies….
This little Auntie sells the best Malasadas in Honolulu (Philipine like doghnuts) little cream filled bombs that are so divine, and addictive. The sugar rush you get from one of these is going to the moon monumental. To top it off, she has purple hair, no shit, she is so adorable, I want to take her home.
O.K. So it is “First Friday” in Honolulu. The first Friday of the month where the Galleries and restaurants, shops, etc stay open down in Chinatown. Suppose to, well, being billed as the best art night in Hawaii! I’m excited now.
I need a diversion. I take the bus from Waikiki about 7pm…..it’s raining, kind of a dreary night, but I’m hopeful. I meet Will and Rachel on the bus going to the “First Friday” also. They’re adorable Korean tourists with leis on, obviously just arrived, and about 28/30 yrs. old. She confesses she wants to be an artist, and Will says he wants to make music, although he’s not too good at playing the guitar. They both now work in an office to make make daily living costs in Korea…..their dream is to create freely some day. I wonder how many people are stuck in office jobs their whole life wanting to break free and “create”….probably a hell of a lot .
So, at this point we are off the bus and I have taken them under my momma bird wing to walk them thru the dark bum pee streets of back alley Chinatown. There are a lot of homeless people on the back streets of Chinatown, and even with all of the rain in Hawaii, it still reeks of bum pee…..my kids named the smell years ago. I’m sad when Rachel says there are a lot of homeless people in the US…..yes, I admit it is not nice, I feel so bad for them laying on the streets in nooks and crannies and in the rain. Every shred of human dignity dissolved in the muddy streets of Chinatown. I’m seeing this thru the young eyes of a Korean tourist who just 4 hours ago arrived in Hawaii for the first time……..it is rather shocking in an affluent society.
So we are on the look out for art. I really feel like some great art tonight.
Sclock.
That’s all we get.
Are you kidding? THIS is the gallery scene I’ve been hearing about? The first store is a soap and fu-fu trendy little something on the corner. The only thing good about it is the smell.
Then we come across the bubbling mermaid. She is in a kiddy pool, shooting a corner full spectators with soapy water that sprays in fine lines from her fingertips. The people are so starved for art she is making quite a hit on the street corner.
We then found a small gallery with a “reduce, reuse” kind of theme going on. The only thing there that was interesting was a grouping of crayons remelted into beautiful colorful orbs tossed around all of the crayon wrappers in the center, standing upright, but empty in their sleeves…..I guess you had to be there for that one.
THEN……we found the PHOTO BOOTH! It was in a gallery…gallery, is that what I call it? ugh.
There were photos hung way too close to each other….actually stretched, very poorly I might add, saggy, giclees of some Lomo shot photos. I was embarrassed for the artist, and the so called gallery.
The only thing good about it was the PHOTO BOOTH! I will post these pics as soon as Rachel sends them to me. We had a really fun time in the photo booth, I’m no small chicken but we scrunched in there and suddenly became 8 years old when the camera started to flash…….so funny we laughed and laughed…..it was one of those moments, since my brain aneurysm, that I sit back and view my life….I call them my golden life moments………
I am in a photo booth with 2 complete strangers having an amazing life experience, and laughing so hard. Life I am reminded now is precious, every stupid damn moment of it, even amidst the bum pee.
Thanks Will and Rachel I hope your life is filled with golden moments in time.
There’s just something about Hawaii…the people, sites, feeling, it’s got soul. No it’s the Aloha Spirit passed down thru generations. People of all colors, it really is the melting pot. I have been here a month this time, and of course I have the dizzy feeling I always get acclamating I guess, just the sinus’s going nuts. Yesterday I walked around snorting Vicks all day, it helps….
So, out the other evening walking down Kalakaua Ave. Waikiki. I come across a parade, not just a regular parade, it’s karate studios in hawaii…..so friggin funny! Who knows what these people are doing, theres all these different marchers. The last float…the BIGGIE, the final Shabam, there are Japenese karate guys standing on top of a 20 foot something HOLDING these insane big fireworks things shooting them out at the crowd! Craziest, wackey thing I have seen in awhile. They are actually shooting the sparks all over the crowds below watching the parade! Haaaa AND the Japanese tourists are all screaming , going crazy, laughing….I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole into another world!
So today I started to think about how vulnerable we are as human beings.
I started to think about this when hearing that a tornado touched down in kailua and kaneohe in Hawaii.
I started thinking about it actually the other night laying on my foam bed on the floor right next to the open doors as a storm raged outside. The thunder and lightning was insane. Scary loud boomings bouncing off of all the high rises around us in Waikiki. Lightning actually hit 2 buildings , I found out later, and severely damaged a wall.
Then I thought, wow, I bet a normal large rain has devastating effects on animals. Think of a deluge on an ant colony or a fire on forest wildlife. We really are all vulnerable when it comes to the weather. It seems to me to be getting weirder and stronger and more erratic.
I guess living on this ever changing planet is really a test of our endurance as a species. It has gone on for many years without us, and maybe one day will start all over. Who knows…..?
So this is the Santa Monica Pier. Zola, my husbands grandmother was the Fortune Teller (gypsy) here for many years. Too bad she couldn’t tell us to hold onto that piece of property, woops city block she owned right across from the pier. It must be somewheres in the region of hmmmmm 500 million right about now. Oh well…..
The Santa Monica Pier is one of the last remaining wood piers on the Calif. coast. I remember going there as a kid, playing carnival games, hot dog in hand watching the people fish off of the pier, when I was very little. Then, one summer I took junior lifeguards. I will never forget that for our final test we had to jump off the end of the pier with a life saver floating device and pretend to save someone. I was only like 12 yrs. old and shaking in my boots! We get down to the end of the pier where the water is at it’s deepest and I’m watching very carefully, not saying a word, as all of the kids go before me diving and saving people. I’m gaining strength from each of their success, I think I just might just be able to do this…..THEN, I’m in line, next girl up…… The tension is palpable…… I watch intently as the chubby girl in front of my jumps off AND SUDDENLY her rope line gets snagged on a pier piling….SHE IS SCREAMING! YIKES OH MY GOD! THIS is HORRENDOUS! Her shrieks of absolute terror fill the air!
Everyone dashes over, leaning over the wood railing, to see her swinging back and forth, under the pier, about 10 feet above the ocean water dangling from the end of the rope. The rope is now cutting into her skin, she’s bleeding as she dangles and moves she also screams….Oh My Gosh! This is terrible stuff happening right before my eyes. This is happening, my fears coming true.
She is finally pulled up and bloody and crying, this is not a great Saturday for me or her. BUT mind you we had to do this and accomplish this task to get our final Junior Life Guard badges, certificates and become REAL LifeGuards! The teacher turns to me…..”OK Deb you’re up” Do I throw up, poop myself, cry and run screaming down the pier to safety….or what….
No….I
DIVE!
The twinkling eyes of Osho. I love this photo, he looks so mischievious, like he has probably just ripped someone wide open with one statement exposing their soul to the Universe.
Check out what programs are available this winter at www.Osho.com
If you cannot get to India, read a book, or listen to a discourse.
I guarantee it will change your life, no kidding.
Osho is one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century, and the least known.
