Weighty Matters - 11 - 15 - 2002 to 11 - 22

November 15, 2002
"A Touch Of Magic"

Not all the changes in life are the big kind. Some are small and pleasant, of which we've been happy to have this evening. Julia has had a badly cracked nail, and she wanted it fixed. A friend of ours has just opened a nail shop, and magical things have now been done to those nails.
The cracked one was given a 'shield', and then the beautification began. The work is done a special way with no bad odors, and the materials used make a flexible, lightweight nail.

Julia's Elegant Nails!

a close-up

She's so happy and feeling so pretty, which she is, of course!
(For those of you in our area, Julia's nails were done by Joanna at 'A Touch Of Magic'.)

November 18, 2002
"Another Touch Of Magic"

A most mundane Monday this was, until after work. Julia and I went to the post office, and returning from getting the mail, I stopped to look at the flowers on the bushes along side the post office wall. Small peach trumpets, they were, and to the close observer, they revealed a linear pentacle at their inner base. It, like Robert Frost's crow, gave ''. . . my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.''
My eye, pleased with that bit of natural magic, had another such bit later. When I had reached home, the slant of sunlight coming through the bedroom window angled itself through my nearly clear quartz crystal, creating a prism effect:

I am quite pleased the camera eye could capture it.

November 19, 2002
"Possible Magic?"

Crickets this morning? Isn't it too cold for crickets? Loud choir, maybe it will inspire me. This morning, I who wish to make magic with my words, cast a spell, create power, CHANGE things for the better - or at least gather some small bit of joy, passion and beauty to comfort the world, what will I get?
Hungry the body, but better hungry the mind, and better I should go a seeking after what will fill it. Not the empty and tawdry. No, there is better mind food. Perhaps I can make some. After all, I could be a magician of my own reckoning.
There is that class of character in Everquest who can summon among other things, FOOD. Ah, the CLERICS summon food, as well, those healers, of which sometimes it is what those they wish to heal need. Would my words, then, be HEALING as well? They could have that sort of magic.
But I must have enough of the games, and be still enough to listen. How can I be a scribe if I don't listen? Every moment could be a magic moment, a moment of transformation. Even if I don't think it could be, those moments of seeming dreck, with icky pains and deep pains, and irritations both small and great, even those, point to some lesson that I need to learn.
Well, on with the lessons, oh Fate of mine! I'll be a better pupil if I listen better, I know that. Clean out the ear, lose those distractions, oh, I know that. Who knows what I could create if I but TOOK THE TIME?
Aye, everything in this mortal life is fixed to TIME, tiny partitions of it, parsed out just so. Let me then take my 'tiny partitions' and use them wisely, oh Spirit that rules the wise ones. So mote it be.

And could there be another 'possible magic'? Look at yesterday's picture! The shadow of the Atana Potiniya goddess statue (statue itself not in this photo) has a magical thing of its own. It appears as a pregnant woman, full of breast and full of magical life! As there are many ways to be 'pregnant', is this an omen signifying greater creativity? I like to think so.

November 20, 2002
"Filled"

This lovely quote was from my Writer's Daily Quote list:

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
--Ray Bradbury
While that could apply to many other things than just writing, it certainly does apply to the writing life.
I've been FILLED with fantasy lately. Actually, that's nothing new to me, as my mind is often somewhere FAR from my actual physical body. Oh no, it's in a fantasy body, somewhere far away.
However, some fantasies do start off with an approximation of 'me' 'here and now', and then wildly diverge into a fantasical future. Such is the grist for my current writing project. As might be suspected, it DOES feature VAMPIRES.
''No, really?'' you aren't asking. ''Of course, what else but? Common humans are too boring for you. Your characters have to be Dark Elves or SOMEthing perverse.''
But it's perversity what makes life INTERESTING!
I've scratched up an outline and will work from there.

November 21, 2002 - A
"Mysterious"

As I was looking back through old entries, seeking an old picture I'd drawn in 1972 (for possible 're-vamping' as a Michael illustration), I came across an observation of July 30, 2000. I'd noted back then, ''There seems to be a curious cyclical pattern to the way things happen. Julia made an interesting observation. It was the end of July when she first joined us back in 1994. It was the end of July when she first started working for Pinal country. And it is the end of July that we have just spent our first night in the new house.''
And it was THE END OF JULY when Laura passed away! So much for the 'curious cyclical patterns' of life. Quite eerie, really.
That there are such cycles may be a mysterious part of life. But now I want to share the 'revamped' (or should I simply say VAMPED?) picture:

As yet 'mysterious' ''Michael''

November 21, 2002 - B
"On This Day..."

An interesting tidbit of news came to my mailbox this evening. ''On this day in gay history,'' it began. On this day, back in 1999, Quentin Crisp died. I've devoted more than one entry over the years to Crisp, one of my favorite authors. His death was certainly noted, and that entry has links to the other items I have on him. He had wit, style and stubborness, in an age when all of those qualities, in particular the STUBBORNESS, were most necessary. Not only that, no one else could have made a better Queen Elizabeth I, as he did in a big screen adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel 'Orlando' than the 'Queen' of England!
Moving ahead into this present era, On THIS DAY today, I have finished the THE FIRST CHAPTER of my vamp novel. Ooooh, I'm having fun with it!
''Bite me, Michael!'' But first he has to figure out what to do with his fangs! He's got EATING figured out well enough, so far.

November 22, 2002
"Playing With Posies"

I let 'Michael' sleep this evening, while I played with posies. Some of those trumpet shaped flowers I saw at the Post Office Monday took leave of their bushes and were scattered on the ground below. I picked a few up in hopes of getting a picture of their pentacles.
With Julia's help, I succeeded somewhat, as you can see in the photo above. Then I wanted to capture the lovely trumpet shape and the way the petals twirled around so. One thing led to another, I hadn't intended to make a mandala, but a mandala is what I have.
'Michael' will be awakened tomorrow. He needed the sleep, anyway. He's been through a lot!