Upside Down Kris

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...

Chocolate Coated Life "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." True wisdom from Forest Gump. Truly true in many ways. Sometimes a bon bon melts in your mouth, the soft heart spreading and coating the roof. Yet another has a sour liquor in the middle that makes you pucker. Still another has a caramel center that sticks to your palate and lingers there for a long time. There are times, however, that you just don't feel like comping on chocolate. Or you get a kind that doesn't tickle your fancy and you don't even want to it. Still other times the box is so shaken that the description doesn’t go with the truffle. You become confused and have no idea which one to choose. Suddenly, the box that you were so sure of makes no sense anymore. Then there are those bitter ones–those bitter pieces of life that are so hard to swallow. Divorces, operations, someone with a debilitating sickness in the family...it makes you ask why: why was I de...