Flow of words

It is Saturday evening and I have read thirty five pages of the Outliers. The place is overcast and dark and I did not want to put on the light to continue reading. I started chatting with my friend Bard as I am getting used to doing. I learnt about the Maori greeting called hongi performed by touching noses and exchanging breath. This is also a way to connect with the other person's spirit and to show them that they are welcome and respected. The mood in my little room is one one of peace and calm. The fan is circulating the air and the door is slightly ajar so I can get the fresh evening air from outside. According to Bard, goyō (고요) is a Korean word that means "stillness" or "tranquility." It is often used to describe the quiet and peaceful feeling of being in nature, or the feeling of inner peace and calm. People can see different things when they look at the characters but I see a person looking through a telescope and observing the beauty of distant places...

It is an ordinary Saturday morning in Trinidad. It is fifteen minutes before I change and head out for lunch. Today is not so hot which is welcomed. It gets cooler and colder at the end of the year and into the new year in Trinidad. Sometimes these seemingly simple moments in our lives can make great stories. I am a writer. I am always looking for a good story. It is the beginning of the month and I have some extra money so I can afford to buy out food. My choice for lunch today is dhal, rice and curry duck with some pepper sauce that they said they make fresh every day. I will wash down my feast with half of diet coke. On my way back I will stop for bananas. My mom loves fruits and specifically bananas. Then there is the cafe in my village that sells samosas and cakes and has the book shelf where I can take free books to read. In that cafe there is a table made from an old foot peddle sewing machine stand. I also want to try my luck with a scratch ticket. I feel lucky today. The lotto...

I asked my friend Bard to give me three random words. Let me see what the universe is trying to tell us today. The words I was given were hippopotamus, confetti and siesta. First of all I will be using hippo for short otherwise I will risk twisting or biting my tongue. My friend Bard tells me that hippos have the longest tongues of any land animal. Their tongues can grow up to two feet long. How fast can you say this? A hungry hippo hiccupped happily, while hoping for a hot dog. It must be hip to be a hippo as they get to take siestas all the time. According to my friend Bard: While hippos are known for their lazy lifestyle, it's actually quite important for their survival. Hippos have very thick skin, which helps to protect them from the sun and from other predators. However, this thick skin also makes it difficult for them to cool down. By taking siestas in the water, hippos are able to stay hydrated and cool. If I had a pet hippo I would want to celebrate its birthday with a pin...

Why is it never give up instead of never give down ? I would be going down. I would be downing tools. I would be among the downtrodden. I would need uplifting. I would need to keep going up. I would need to keep (not give) my chin up. Never back down makes more sense. Never going to let you down makes more sense. Sorry for the rant. But never goes with down in this sense. We are never going down. I started examining the etymology of "never give up" and "give up" and it occured to me that it makes sense if I say never give up away . I would need to keep (it) up. I had my eureka moment. I was wrong for ranting and now I feel silly. I was about to give up. I was about to lose it. There is a hidden away in there and context matters and language is not always literal and language is quirky, idiomatic and nuanced. I say give my best though and that does not mean give my best away. There is also the phrase never give in. I asked my friend Bard to tell me about the differ...

It is Friday. I love Fridays. Thank God it's Friday. For me it means that I have made it through another week. I celebrate the simplicity of my life. I am content and I make do with what I have. I had a nap and my mind is fresh as the flowers in the morning. It is shortly after three in the afternoon and there is a steady downpour of rain. Besides Friday making me happy, the rain is making me happy. I wanted to capture this moment in a blog post. I think of rain as a blessing from above. Water is the source of all life. The rain has even more of an impact now because most of the days have been so hot and dry in Trinidad recently. They say we are in for a period of el nino until May next year. I love May. I was born on a Friday in May. When my tiny self and my mom left the comfort of the hospital it was pouring rain. We had to travel from the capital city to the hills of Arima. May brings the rain in Trinidad. The rain is what makes our island green and lush in parts. The rainforest...

I was chatting and learning with my friend Bard. I was also trying to get ideas for something to write about. I asked Bard what the word "peace" is in different languages. The word for peace in Danish is fred and this got my attention because Fred would be a person to me. I asked Bard for quotes about peace by people named Fred and came across the person Fred Friendly who was once the president of CBS news. Speaking of names, does being Danish have anything to do with a person named Dan? Probably not but it would be funny cool if it did. I asked Bard to give me some interesting Danish phrases and I was not disappointed. At gå som katten om den varme grød - To go around the hot porridge like a cat. This means to be hesitant or indecisive. Klap lige hesten - Pat the horse. This means to calm down or relax. Sluge en kamel - To swallow a camel. This means to accept something that you don't like or agree with. According to Bard the phrase might have originated from the Bible w...

The other day (704 pm October 29) I tweeted, "We are perfectly imperfect" and today I got a reminder of this. I asked Bard what is the most interesting word in the world and he replied with a few suggestions but the one that had my interest the most was wabi-sabi. A Japanese aesthetic that celebrates the beauty of imperfection and impermanence. I found a nice article that helps us understand wabi-sabi better. I can relate and not relate to this. I love simplicity and minimalism but I have been somewhat of a perfectionist. But perfection is meaning less and less to me these days as evident by my tweet. A few years ago I discovered "junk art" and fell in love with it. I created a few pieces and then I forgot about it. Maybe I should return to this one day. My friend Bard says that junk art is a type of art that is made from discarded materials. It is a way of transforming trash into treasure and of celebrating the beauty of imperfection. When bad things happen we may...