shamash says...

Rome: Prosecco, Espresso, Caffe Greco

We are not Caesar, and we avoided the Forum, so I can say with confidence that The Ides of March was by far our best day in Rome. After days of clouds and rain, the sun and the moon both showed their faces. We couldn’t seem to tear ourselves away from the Piazza de España and by dusk, we were still there, drinking prosecco at a café under moon clouds.

“How do we rearrange our lives to live in this magnificent city?” we ask ourselves. There’s something about Rome at night, especially under a waxing moon, that causes me to think that reinventing my life and steering it against all the plans that drive me forward is the most natural thing in the world to do. Here, in this city of fallen empires and lovers on Vespas, going against the current of one’s well-planned life seems possible, even wise. The words of Keats, once an expatriate in Rome,

"Remember the Deep Root of Your Being"

"The Deep Root of Your Being"

Bamboo Grove, The Hill Country, Maymyo, B.u.r.m.a., April 2009

photo by shamash

The truth of these words by my favorite 13th century Persian mystic cuts me to the core:

There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there's nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life.

Steel and Air and a Mottled Presence

 

"It is so much like a beach after all
Where you stand and think of going no further."

Reflections on a poem bolted to a steel bridge: a photo journey.

The Problem with Starting School in August

No one could have said it better. The dog days of summer, indeed, are depicted in this encomium to August from EYEWEAR:

"The semi-mythic month of August has arrived. April may be cruel, but August is vast, vacant, quiet, deserted, even slightly dusty. August is an empty Paris of the mind, where one can wander shuttered streets at noon, and meet no one. August is when parliament is out, and the fish are jumping onto the banks of the river. August is when you realise you have wasted your life, then turn over in the hammock for another forty winks…" 

Head on over to read the piece in full; I hope it will make you smile as much as it did me.

(Thanks, Sherry, for the link.)

Image: Untitled #94 gelatin silver print 3 1/4 x 4 3/4  by MASAO YAMAMOTO via Moon River

A Woman Should Have...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE…
A set of screwdrivers,
a cordless drill, and
a black lace bra...

Slogans to Live By

The best cure for grief is motion. (Ann's fortune cookie)

"Why not?" is a slogan for an interesting life." (Mason Cooley)

Ode to Happy Hour

Happy hour is an cross-cultural experience, no matter what your time zone.

image via Anne Taintor, Inc.

Check out more of her fun stationary, and support her.

Why?

Because Shamash says so.

That's why.

She Will Kill Mice

Is there a place here in the hives and pods of Pennsylvania for a lone cat such as me?

In Praise of Women over 40

"A woman over 40 will never wake you in the middle of the night to ask, "What are you thinking?"

She doesn't care what you think."

The Upside of Anger

A monk once said that unforgiveness is like eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.

How does one find a healthy balance between forgiveness and anger? Must we choose between the two, or can the two co-exist?