Independent filming and other things
Hello! I survived the night of being the babysitter "on location" for an independent film crew. It was fascinating to watch these youngsters wrestle with lights, and do the takes necessary for a good shot. Much giggling and retakes, but we all got through and the shoot was "wrapped", as they say. I even had a small walk-on part as a blind lady looking for help with braille books! Hollywood, here I come...NOT!
Between times I was reading a fascinating book called Blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture, by David Kline, Dan Burstein, Arne J. De Keijzer and Paul Berger. It's a compilation of interviews, short essays, guidelines for businesses, and references to the giants in the blogosphere (already!). I was amazed at myself for enjoying reading a book like this--(it was very well put together)--as one who normally drifts towards poetry, memoirs and novels. It's never too late to learn some new tricks. But I quickly realised I am just now putting a toe into a vast ocean!
It's a beautiful late April day here in Ohio--cool breezes but hot sunshine. Much blossom blowing about now, like snow showers, and more and more summer flowers appearing amidst lush thick grass that hasn't even been mown for the first time this season yet. A lovely hiatus before the crash and dust and noise of the full-blown summer.
It's my nephew's, (Christopher's), birthday today--in Bury St Edmund's, UK. Happy birthday, Chris!
More soon!
Sea Change
The High Chair
It's a warm spring-into-summer sort of day here in Ohio today. Nice enough to go to our local park and sit on a swing-seat with a good book! The book in question, currently, is Mary Karr's The Liars' Club. I don't normally comment on a book until I've finished reading it, but I am so close to the end, and so excited about this book--I'll say a couple of things. It's a dynamic book--so well-crafted by a very skillful writer, skillful enough, I have to say, that you don't see any of the strategies or scaffolding that make it so good! Her use of language, image and detail are spot-on. And the pacing (not often discussed about novels but very important) is also spot-on. She knows just how much to cover of a scene, and exactly the perfect moment to let it go., so that you get those echoing reverberations set up, like those of a choir in a vast cathedral when the voices have ceased but the music somehow continues to float there for a while. It makes one shudder with the perfection of it.
Everyone and his uncle is writing memoirs these days, I know--but there are a handful of the very best, and Mary Karr's is one of those.
It's my day off today--sort of. There is something I have to do later, that I've never done before, which is to "babysit" the library where I work whilst a filmcrew comes in to do some shooting for a movie. I have actually been an 'extra" in a small amateur film once before. This was at a women's coffee house in a church, and the film was by, about and for women. I don't remember the story--but I do remember that we were all assured it would only be an hour or so. Hah! Anyone who knows about filming would have laughed. Several hours later--I think dawn was coming up in the east-- we finally made an escape from that place. And I was way past caring if the lighting was right this time! So that was the sum total of my film career til now. This time, it's "just" a matter of making sure nothing gets damaged and no-one gets hurt. It had better be over well before dawn or there may well be some damage of a sort the Board of Trustees couldn't even imagine in their wildest dreams! (Do Boards of Trustees have wild dreams?)
Well, enough of this--if I survive, you'll see me back here again in a few days.
Went to my "Thursday Sunrise ACOA" meeting this morning, to set up the room. There was a baby's high-chair amongst the chairs in the circle, which I left there because it seemed appropriate! Well, people getting into recovery these days are getting younger and younger. It was nice to see the smiles or looks of puzzlement as folks came in for the meeting.
There should always be something unexpected in one's day!
Have a great day full of contentment and some nice surprises.
~Sea Change
Happy Wednesday!
Hello! This is my second post in this new world of blogging! Still feel as though I am walking out into a snowfield and not leaving any prints behind--but let's just do it anyway!
Some nice readings on self-esteem that I read this morning in a little book by Nathaniel Branden, called Self-Esteem Every Day:
April 6: "This is the principle of self-acceptance: do not be an adversary to your own experience".
April 7: "The challenge of self-acceptance is not confined to acknowledging faults. You can be as frightened of your assets as of your shortcomings. Some of us are afraid to accept our own intelligence, ambition, excitement, or beauty. We might be afraid that these traits will alienate us from others or invite their envy and hostility".
April 8: "Out of fear of someone's animosity or disapproval, you can betray the best within yourself. You may repress not your lowest but your highest. What is left behind is some vague, inarticulate sense of having committed treason".
It's windy and warm in Ohio this morning. There's lots of fresh green grass, new leaves on trees, other trees in blossom, and daffodils and tulips in bloom. I'm going to walk out there now, and see what the wind has to say.
With love,
Sea Change
Bright Bright Bright Sunshiny Day!
Hello! This is my very first blog! It's strange--I don't know who I am writing to--but it feels more like writing to somebody out there than just messing around on my laptop, creating Word documents, does!
It's a lovely day where I am living. Cold, but bright. The winter has been strange--very warm through January, but a chilling damp stretch through February, March, and a good bit of April. Frost on the roofs this morning, too--but it's going to get warm--lovely and WARM--today! So much for the outer weather.
Inner weather? Slept well and feel well. This is good. I don't take these simple things so much for granted as I used to!
I read something from Richard Bach's little book, Messiah's Handbook, this morning. You might have seen it before in his book called Illusions.
The simplest questions are the most profound:
Where were you born? Where is your home?
Where are you going? What are you doing?
Think about these once in a while, and
watch your answers change.
In response to them today I wrote a short poem:
I came alive in Athens.
I carry my home within me, in my mind
and heart.
I am walking into my life, which is after all
not a wall, but an astounding ecology!
I am falling and rising with the days
and nights, and
seasons.
Let it be, with love,Sea Change
