Now I become myself. It's taken time, many years and places...
- May Sarton
1. A morning cappuccino with Bud at Intelligentsia in Venice Beach.
2. Spotting my absolute favorite car around town. (It never fails to bring a smile.)
3. Finding this appreciated reminder on a building while out for an afternoon stroll.
4. This poem.
Bicycle excursions in the hours of levitating daylight have been prescriptions for pure joy. I take the path along the shore where I weave into walkways with spilling bougainvillea and honeysuckle leading to the farmers market. I stop there for fresh berries and cold coconut water to consume along the way. Sometimes I carry a camera and often my journal, but mostly I am enveloped in the moment. My hair flies feral in the ocean breeze, my skin hot from the sunshine. The scent of Nag Champa from the Venice Beach Boardwalk mingles with the sounds of shouts, laughter and basketballs thumping on the court. I pedal past Santa Monica Pier where the ferris wheel I love is in motion and continue to Malibu where the breeze becomes more prominent, more urgent. This is where I begin to feel the most free. I disembark and sit for awhile. In solitude I am encircled by the ancient stories of voluble waves and I beckon them to tell me all that they know.
The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.
- Christopher Morley
Bud taught himself to surf when we moved to Santa Monica. He fell in love with it and I'd say it's become just about the best part of his day. Some mornings he is gone before the sun comes up, waiting in our VW bus at Malibu with a thermos of coffee for the first break of daylight. Before sunset you can sometimes see him walking down our street with his board, hoping to catch a few more waves before the day is over.
Not long ago he came across a small camera that discreetly attaches to his board and records his outings. It's been a lot of fun for me to watch these "dailies." Often they feature pods of dolphins, sometimes a few leopard sharks (pretty harmless, I'm told) and more than once, a curious sea lion that shadowed him a little too closely for his liking. But I think the most impressive video was when someone's board went hurling through the air and he caught it mid surf before it clobbered him, seamlessly tossed it back to the owner, and finished riding his wave.
Smooth.
I spent a lazy summer afternoon
reading, writing, and doodling
while lying on a quilt in the grass.
I dashed inside to grab a quick snack
and then...
I lost my spot.
(He was kind enough to share, however.)
Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet - Collette
Sunday, July 31, 2011