December 25, 2011.
on criticism, on friendships come & gone, Keats & soul-making.
New York City is asleep although I have been awake for some time.
Silence is that music where we become instruments.
I have never experienced Stillness and silence this grand in New York City as this Sunday.
This is my first Christmas holiday and New Year’s Eve in New York City despite having lived here for over a decade. Usually I have always been “home” this time of the year, whatever that has meant: sometimes Lahore, other times Johannesburg or Durban, most often a farmhouse, my parents’, in California.
Last night I experienced New York City in a whole new manner. I ... read more »
Tagged 2011, choices, keats, life, nyc, process of writing, questions, relating, sublime flux
December 18, 2011.
Herman Hesse’s Demian. “Tug on Anything at all…” A fortune-teller who could tell all but one thing.
It’s not easy to leave New York City. A stranger-friend, an Italian Ph.D. student, must return to Italy tomorrow as her yearlong fellowship is finally over. And she is not ready. I don’t think those who come to New York City for anything but an idea can ever leave that idea behind. At worst we carry that idea that is New York City with us wherever we go. At best, we return again. And again.
Love is a hard idea to give up.
What will she miss the most, I asked her? She held back ... read more »
Tagged choices, herman hesse, life, non-fiction stories, nyc, questions, relating, sublime flux
November 20, 2011.
Still Sundays.
The New York City skyline never gets old.
I am getting older; I like it.
Love too never gets old.
This month is over, this year is over, my obsession with time, truth, and love continues.
What do I want to be when I grow up? A writer? A doctor? A teacher? A lawyer? A writer? This time I get to decide how I want to be, not who based on what.
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People have recurring dreams. I don’t.
My latest obsession is putting into words this “recent” dream: I am in a field of teal colored dragonflies. They are everywhere. The field is on the edge of ... read more »
Tagged dreams, economics, life, politics, questions, relating, sublime flux, viktor frankl
Still Sundays.
November 6th.
No matter how many times I write about New York City it is not enough. Not enough for me and not enough for those who just don’t see what I see.
Rage is a bull and I am a champion rider who neither tires easily nor plans on retiring. At best I can tame the beast with humor. But I find cynicism easy and eventually boring; therefore, I take whatever it is that I don’t understand by the horns: the spleen wants to spit.
That being said I never write when I am angry. I can create a fury of words that can dissolve the deads’ bones, but actually write?—never. I don’t ... read more »
Tagged art, choices, life, marco rojas, questions, relating, social media, toni morrison, twitter, yoga
Still Sundays.
October 23rd.
This Sunday I want to share Stillness with another all day long. I’ll take Stillness in any form but it is some fiesta when there is two (or more) to honor the muchness of nothing but together.
When we were growing up and even now when we all gather at our parents’ farmhouse Stillness serves as a blanket as well as a straw. In the hours of the morning everyone sits in the living room to have meaningless conversations—”No one really wears socks that color with a suit!”—to a profound statement thrown into the living-room air like a boomerang: “One can’t truly articulate actual self-realization.”
It’s as if the morning Stillness over ... read more »
Tagged life, non-fiction stories, questions, relating
