A Break in the Levees

Quite the useful metaphor for being overwhelmed, right?
We all know what it is to let the pressure build to the point of bursting.
We also talk about constructing walls to protect our hearts
And needed to let people in those walls in order to love
Or some shit.

Maybe we don't need levees and walls.
Perhaps floodgates would be more apt.
We can open them when we need to release a little bit
Or keep them closed at the necessary times.

New metaphors for new frames of mind.
New frames of mind for new times.

A Break in the Leaves

It's the way the light slices down on the porch
In the morning and grows slowly dull
As the earth tries to roll away from it.

It's the droning thud of the smaller rain drops
First announcing and the increasing menace
As the clouds release their cargo.

It's the steadfastness of the dead bird
In the driveway until suddenly there
Are only a few bones and feathers.

It's the single, solitary, lonely gray hair
Who arrives like a vanguard heralding
The arrival of time, age, change.

Monday's Musing on Mortality

(I've always loved Caravaggio)

I've sadly discovered that it's very difficult to get people to talk about Death. For some reason, Death has been taken off the table and placed in the corner with Politics and Religion. Which is terrible because it seems like those are the three most unavoidable things in our lives. Even if you aren't religious, it's likely that you've made a choice not to be so we can replace Religion with Philosophy and that's fine with me.

On to Death, I find that first of all we must admit that we all have it coming; it's the price of playing the game of Life and to ignore its existence, to me, is unfair at least, and infantile at most. This might help:

“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”  -- Good Omens

So this week's assignment is to meditate and ruminate on your own imminent doom without inciting within yourself a paralyzing sense of dread. We'll pick up from there next week.

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

This week's word is not the sexiest sounding but it's one of the sexiest ideas. It's the underlying cause of so much sexiness, albeit unconsciously. You know why we euphemize sex with the phrase "being intimate"? Because that's what sex is, intimate. But sex isn't the only intimate act between two or more humans. One of the most intimate acts is a conversation of confessions. Sitting together in a darkened room, glasses half-full of bitter concoctions, smoke drifting around lazily, perhaps music playing but not being heard, and one of you says something that you've never said aloud. The reactions from the others are key and they know it. They also know you trust them. You just made that connection for them by spilling the beans, letting the cat out of the bag, or DISBOSOMING. 

That's right. If you reveal or confess something, you know, get it off your chest, you DISBOSOM. 

Makes sense to me. Also, bosoms...

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Chthonian is a word that we need more often at night in dark places when the chill bumps start to tingle and the cold breeze comes inexplicably through the warm, humid room.

adj. -- of or pertaining to the deities, spirits, and other beings dwelling under the earth.

Need a little help saying it aloud? I'm here for you, sweetpea.

We start with the lithe and lovely TH with the tongue stuck between the teeth tho thweetly. The O is long enough to let your mouth go around it nicely. We like Ns too and if you sandwich the IA diphthong between them, we're in heaven. Don't stress about this word, my darlings. Once you've got it, you'll be the belle of the ball. Even if that ballroom is a cave filled with bats and eyeless newts and the sounds of water dripping from stalactites. Don't get me started...

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Few lullabies are so instantly recognizable and agreed upon as the gentle lapping, splish-splashing of water. To lie beside the sea and listen to the waves, some large, some smaller, come up to greet the shore with a sudden pop then slowly slide swishingly away is universally desirable.

And sometimes the water is crystal clear, allowing one to see individual grains of sand several feet below the surface but sometimes a deep blue engulfs all light and any small stones one may happen to toss in. The magic of the clarity or the mystery of the darkness holds us in awe.

Then there's the feeling of the salty water on your skin, the slight abrasion as the waves press the grains against you. And the taste of your skin after a refreshing dip, like sweat but fresher.

Thalassic

adj.-- of or relating to seas or oceans. 

Not all voyages are across the globe and not all sirens sit on rocks to lure Odysseus but we can all be sailors in our own ways. We can sing while we scrub and we can glean pleasure from the warmth of the sun upon our faces.  

Wednesday's Sexy Word of the Week

Good Morning, my Lovelies. That silent glow grows on the horizon as our warm friend rises to greet us. Golden arrows shoot towards us over the eastern mountain tops as the sun gains momentum.

Like a body whose beauty is paralyzing and blinding, the radiance emanates from every curve of its landscape and you struggle to take it all in at once. It's easy to parse it up and start at the top of the head sweeping slowly down to the toes, inhaling with your eyes.

Effulgent

The first syllable is like the first half of the word IF, just the ih part. Then the F does the heavy lifting for the stressed second syllable and you know how we do Fs, drag your bottom lip under your front top teeth into the ool, making certain to purse your lips well for the long U sound. And the l should bring your tongue to the roof of your mouth quickly but gently. The final syllable is like the sudden pleasant surprise exclaimed about a rather well-dressed and polite man:  GENT! Except ease the e sound slightly towards a u sound. Not all the way! Just a taste.

adj.-- shining forth brilliantly; radiant

She always was bright...as a matter of fact, she burned my retinas and melted my wings. But I crashed into the ocean with a blind grin on my singed countenance.