Upside Down Kris

Sparrow's Song Once there lived a russet Sparrow who rustled to and fro in the forest carrying messages. She took the croak of a tree frog to a distant tree. She carried the clicks between insects, the whistles and hoots between birds, the sound of breezes ruffling feathers or wings...She was forever flying back and forth between one creature and another–so much so that she had forgotten her own message. One day, tired of all the busy-ness and busybodies, she sat down at home and stayed there. Finally, she had some time to think. She thought and thought. "What is it that I want to say? What?" she wondered. Just as she was sure her thinking was getting somewhere, a squirrel suddenly pushed through the high grass hiding her home. He popped his head over the edge of her nest and a piece of straw tickled his nose making it crinkle. "Sparrow?" he sputtered through a sneeze. She made no answer, nor movement. Squirrel "ah-hemed". Still nothing. So, he decided...

Perception Dependent The way I see it, our world is a hodgepodge of sensations that we have collaged into meaning. It's not that the world is this way or that, nor is it that people "are" this way or that. We make them that way through our perceptions, and everything is quite situation dependent. This is why some people (and philosophers) would argue that reality is arbitrary–what I'm seeing is not necessarily what you're seeing. Maybe we miss details or look at a situation sidelong instead of head on. And let's not forget that our past paints events in shades of memories that slant our vision. Let's take one of my recent experiences as an example. I was in a cafe drawing a literal blank for the word sandwich in Spanish. So, I pointed to what the woman next to me was eating. "Un toast?" asked the server. Well, not exactly, but it was close enough and I loathed the idea of resorting to google translator. Consequently, I nodded yes. However, anot...

Love is in the Air "Love is in the air"...literally, you can feel it wafting about, trying to decide where to land on this lover's day. Of course, love's latches are various: latching onto your dear friends, family, even your pets (who stretch the latches more than one could imagine, becoming a member of the family.) Love is all about bonding, feeling that connection, and sometimes suffering when it's missing.It's about those ties that we create with the surrounding world which support us in the bad and good. In the end, it's that net we rely on, or that safeguard that makes us feel secure. And if in some way it has been subtracted–toxic, not there, or losing it through death or divorce–we find ourselves on a rocky shore unsure of our footing. Recently I attended a Buddhism seminar to find out the Buddhist take on love because Buddhism is based on compassion (yet another type of love). Yoga had led me there and I was curious to know more. I agree with many...

Souvenir It is oh so luxurious to the touch, oh so enticing to the eyes. The suaveness of it, the mauve melding with the fuchsianess of it entrances me even now. There is only one time I remember wearing it, yet I still love it today. I love the feeling as I run my fingers over it, the connection to the totally foreign world from which it comes. Let me go back to the beginning, to the occasion I bought it for and maybe the only time I have and will wear it. We were in China, specifically in Daqing, the oil capital of the country. This was the most eye-opening, significant trip I've ever taken. The juxtaposition of things that boggled my mind (like the oil museum) with the incredible culture (like the Forbidden city in Beijing) still fascinates me.  We were in a very modern mall, trying to get the final details for my good friend's wedding. She had decided to have the wedding she had always wanted back in her homeland, and the dress code was pretty specific. (No bare shoulders o...

The Year of the Snake It's my year:  the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac. The cycle of twelve years goes back to my birth year and cycles even further back to 2,000 years ago. The snake years are special, representing years of transformation.  The snake keeps slithering up to me or past me. The other night we went out to a Chinese restaurant and since we had already been there twice, they expressed their gratitude by giving us a calendar. The calendar has a snake curling at the top, representing its dominance over all the other symbols at the moment. In Western society the snake has such a bad rap...after all, he was the one that convinced Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, which basically damned humanity until judgement day (according to Catholicism.) He is thought of as deceptive at best, evil at worst. But in China there was/is this fascination with snakes–their colorful beauty showing in shining scales and mysterious movements. It makes sense, then, that indivi...

Just Fake It Fake it 'till you make it. This catchy phrase has been roaming around my mind a lot lately, trying to find a place to sit. Backwards it would be something like "making it fake". That strikes me as odd, as does the combination of fake and make in general. Anything "fake" is normally considered cheap, a knock off of the original, like handbags sold on the street. It brings to mind something not made well, not real...a copy of the real deal. We also say that someone who is not genuine or true to themselves is fake. But here the world is, telling us that if you want success, the secret is to fake it first. For example, I saw a video where Lady Gaga said she faked being an agent at the beginning of her career to get some gigs! And books like The Secret say that you have to visualize what you want before it comes to you. Is "faking it" such a bad thing in those cases? To have confidence, to go after something, and believe so much that even if y...