listening to love
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Sand & Sea
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.” —Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays Inching out the back through the impact zone this week, I recognized that I have been in this zone countless times throughout my life, and always—ALWAYS—get through it. Life was never meant to be a straight line, no matter what anybody says. Only always…
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Divine Mystery
“Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And…
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Translations
I looked up a phrase in Spanish recently: Si me toca, se mato. Translation: If you touch me, I kill you. No more sweet and nice with these people who assume they have the right to my time and presence. It’s never worth the stress and irritation. A boatyard guard slides around a corner toward…
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The Cure
“You suppose you are the trouble, but you are the cure.” —Rumi Transitions are tricky. Plate glass tabletops shatter into millions of pieces. The clothesline is dirty, so the sheet is washed again. Canines loudly wonder what you are doing in their ‘hood. The apartment owners may need boundary lessons. On the scarier side, a…
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El Mirador
The viewpoint. It can be different. Fact: The Bod does not like high heat and humidity. Fact: It’s been 90°F at night in the boatyard. Fact: Dry-docked Habibi retains the day’s temperature despite two fans and an air purifier. Fact: A different perspective from the industrial/red light district in which I’ve resided for eleven months…
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Tehani
I still remember the day I clapped eyes on Tehani. I looked up from my desk as she walked into the animation studio behind my boss. There’s my new best friend. Both wise-cracking women with terrible taste in men, we clicked immediately. She was an actor too, and had been on Magnum, P.I. We schemed…
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Frightening & Magical
“There’s something frightening, and magical, about being on the ocean, moving between the heavens and the earth, knowing that you can encounter anything on your journey.” —Lynne Cox, Grayson: a Memoir Anxiety attacked recently, and I finally figured out (it’s hard to think when she’s screaming) that it’s been a year since I left Topolobampo,…
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Swim Friend
“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” —Rumi It was a whale. Beneath me and to the right, similar to where the dolphin had been tracking me in April. I was on my fifth length, speaking a healing mantra as I swam out into the Gulf of California. A small whale,…
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Unleashed
The Little Yellow Dog Gang cares not a wit for leash laws. No collars, no microchips, no fixed address, but heaps of street smarts. Yes, I’ve named them:—Valiente, the leader, male, yellow fur, floppy ears, joyful, the smallest—Beatrice, the biggest, barrel-shaped, dark brown, female, ready to rumble—Emma, shy, fine-boned, black, bat ears, female, youngest All…
words & art by shé 