Tag: bravery
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Super
Audrey Kayak can carry provisions, even when swamped. The first excursion proved quite exciting when we rolled in choppy surf. I fell out and quickly stood and grabbed her nose handle, pulling her to shore. The only other thing that escaped the boat was the water bottle, which I rapidly retrieved. After I caught my breath, Rocinto,…
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Make a Splash
Last Sunday, 500 people swam from the mainland, past Habibi, to Deer Island. The annual migration began early, with a rhythmical splash on the portside. Ever vigilant to different noises, I saw a man freestyling by wearing goggles and towing a small bright orange inflatable. “A swimmer!” I thought. “Neato.” Then a panga motored by…
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Coven of Two
Hallowe’en is my favorite holiday. I love costumes, and roaming around at night. When I was thirteen, I dressed as a headless horseman in my mom’s velvet pants tucked into knee-high boots, with a black turtleneck covering my face. I carried a lit jack o’ lantern and strode the streets with my baby brother, tall…
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Flowers
“Is she pretty?” asked Rod Stewart. I’d just delivered a spray of dendrobium orchids to him from a fan across the room. We were in Wall Street, a Hollywood night spot I frequented to sell flowers. I shrugged. Beauty is subjective. He asked me to fetch her, so I walked back to the other side…
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Godspeed
“Godspeed,” wrote a friend recently, wishing me well on my journey. Upon reflection, I realized that the speed of god is not my speed. It is the speed at which things actually happen, whether I like it or not. Impatience is a strong suit: she runs me ragged and belittles self-care. Why aren’t you heading south already? Loser! I hate…
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On the Move
Sometimes you want to do something that scares the feces right out of you. All the meditation in the world cannot help Anxiety, who has taken up residence on your left shoulder and is screaming in your ear. You can barely remember what Calm felt like, and yet you really want to do this thing…
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Cruisin’
When I was a teenager, I had a Plymouth Valiant with a slant-six engine, which made it good for drag-racing. Four on the floor, baby. But my best friend liked to cruise. Slowly. I drove us all over our hometown of Santa Monica, as well as farther afield: Hollywood, Malibu, East L.A. We checked out…
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Hurricane John
Some things you don’t get over. Death of an Irish twin is one. Hours of parallel play. Racing snails. Matching cabooses. Peanut butter on toast. Picking huckleberries. Tying towels around our necks after a bath and flying around singing the Batman theme. The flat track for our tiny cars, with the completely satisfying 3-D gas station…
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No Sweat
The enervating heat is breaking, the nights are longer and cooler. The body is more comfortable more often. I tried to acclimate, but a hundred degrees is a hundred degrees. Heatstroke happened, but only once. A more temperate climate beckons, with several months to sail there. New Zealand? A recent tropical storm dumped a bunch…
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Connection
When you connect with the Divine, you connect with All — the words appeared in my brain a few days ago. We’re always connected to the Divine, of course, but I’m not always aware of it. So I’ve been practicing. Soon after, a woman motors a catamaran into a nearby slip — calm, cool, and collected.…
essays by shé 