Free Spirit Days Over?

Today is August 7th. Pretty much 20 days before I embark on my little adventure across the east coast. Two months of cycling awaits me...and I'm sure many many days of back cramps, sweat patches, and rainy clouds hanging over my head. I'm sure these months will also hold amazing vistas, inspiring people...and perhaps a shift of perspective..and a new take on the road ahead? I think so.
Every time I think about the fact that this happening in less than a month my stomach flips a little bit...and I start to think about how I can start waterproofing everything I own.
I said goodbye to my wee "free spirit" vintage bike yesterday...sad party. I really felt like we had a bond considering we were both babes of 1985.
Should I write it a wee poem?...a eulogy?

O, royal blue
I rode you
even when I had the flu
Your spokes and grease
gave me limited peace
now you are back with John
that Slovakian pawn (broker)
Fare thee well
and never do tell
of those secret late night trips
where we found ourselves ill-equipped
to....fall in love with each other...

hmmm...that was less than mediocre.

apologies free spirit.

So, I would love to post photos...but I am missing my camera cord....so as soon as that is found, I will share.

On another note...The Ocean awaits! I'm excited to dip my feet in salty water and smell the Halifax air...

Wendell Berry writes a sweet little poem about the ocean and a farmer...
here is a portion:

The sea always arriving,
hissing in pebbles, is breaking
its edge where the landsman
squats on his rock. The dark
of the earth is familiar to him,
close mystery of his source
and end, always flowering
in the light and always
fading. But the dark of the sea
is perfect and strange,
the absence of any place,
immensity on the loose.
-Wendell Berry

hmmm...wendell...you sweet old man, you.

More to come.

The New Speak.....

The Lipstick of 2008

Random.



Steff the Sauna Builder.



2008.



Lips.



Dancing Heads.



Notice the Delicious Crumb in the Foreground.

The Windy City: II

J and the Dots.




This...



is this!



i want one.



Sean's Art.

The Windy City

spiiiiiral.



neon.



black and white at the museum of contemporary art.



bikes.



chicago fire escapes.



accordian player.



snakes.



oh my! you should eat.



Cashew! Gesundhiet!



Clown Chapeaux



To be Inside a Belly



Lene

Alternative Grounds

I've discovered a place of peace.
Get up.
Stick my head under the tap.
Burn some Uncle Ted's Tasty Poridge.
Listen to news about the Kremlin.
Walk back and forth between the back door, my bedroom, the back door, my bedroom.
Gather up courage to leave the house.
Make my way past the train tracks.
Past the wolf graffiti.
Past the smiling school bus driver.
Get angry with the wind for blowing my head inside out.
Enter favorite coffee shop.
Verb+noun= poetry
Peace.
and Hope.
and a refreshing laugh-er sitting close by.
and pear-ginger juice to be spilled all over my books.
and opportunities for friendship.
One taken.
One feared.
Semi-satisfied smile and exit.
Give those "Hidden Cameras" a second chance.
Smile at the "DrinkWater Hardware" Store.
Wave at the exercisers in the window front.
Get on with life.
as if never inspired or anxious about the future.
thoughts and thoughts and thoughts.
sane and insane.
fall asleep to images of cirque de soliel dancers performing the shape of a bunk bed.
get tossed around by giant waves. crash onto a rocky shore.
dream and dream and dream. and recall. and recite.
and imagination begins in an ending.

the streets of toronto

(This photo: he was walking along University
Ave...singing loudly to himself...his shirt is
decorated with roosters and soccer balls)

Thoughts from my day:
I've been struggling with the concept of 'home' lately. Finding peace and happiness in a city, or house, or community...or any sort of space...is hard to find for me lately.




I feel selfish and restless somedays...and on others Im content and comfortable with this time and place in my life. Im finding inspiring people, friendly people, beige people, awkward people, people who hum mozart on the street, people who want to join the circus, people in motorcycle gangs, drunk people, people who are fulfilling their dreams and just 'doing' (a concept i find hard to implement into my life).


I find myself at York looking at all the potential friends and aquaintences...looking around Bloor Street at all the faces of refugees, fashion gurus, homeless... looking around Symington Ave at the old Portugese women sweeping their driveways, the Persian women watering their gardens, and the Italian men pruning their small backyard vineyards (There is a river of grape juice flowing in my back alley way...remnants from wine making?).


There are so many STORIES and EXPERIENCES and PEOPLE. ---im itching for communion with HUMANITY. I dont really know what this means..but I do know that I want to share my life and my stories. I want to be apart of a universal humanity swap. Does this exist? I hope Im not crazy.


(Comment on the photos: they are randomly placed...interesting things I have seen over the last few weeks)