Snowflakes are like time-release raindrops. The earth banks them unchanged for a season to be drunk into her soil when she becomes hot and dusty in the season hence. Meantime, the likes of me get to ski on that snow, breathe in its pure chill radiance, and stare in wonder at the way it turns silver moonlight blue.
Four seasons are good for me. My sorry body needs multiple venues in order to keep all the circuits glowing, and my hyper mind thrives on the renewed inspiration each season brings. What about you? Have you figured out the necessary seasons for your life? Hope there’s more than one, just because I want to believe that someone is sharing my joy. But if one season is the life for you, so be it. I understand. And if you are simply suffering in the Bahamas 24/7, or if you feel you’ve missed the life you should’ve led, may you at least live the life you have to the max.
I come into this winter fully restored after a year of too many sports injuries, and while the well wishes are sincerely appreciated, I couldn’t be healthier. Seriously. No disease processes, resting pulse 42, blood pressure typically 100/60, cholesterol 123, 6 foot tall and range between 137-143 pounds. At my funeral you’re going to hear a door opening and closing, followed by, “Hey, anyone seen Sully?”
If all goes well (and there are no more South Pacific earthquakes and tsunamis), I should be ocean kayaking in Tonga from atoll to atoll for 12 days in about 11 months with my kayaking friend Grant Soosalu & his soulmate Fiona. Grant just posted an incredible video on his inspiring website. It shows world-famous Joshua Bell performing anonymously on a $3.5 million violin. Two nights earlier Bell played to a $100/ticket sellout crowd in Boston, but in the video almost no one stops to savor the free show there on the floor of Grand Central Station. Do we have to be told how valuable a thing is before we can appreciate it? Do our routines keep us from seeing and hearing what life offers right before our eyes and ears? Perceptions & barriers -- how strange! We carry our prisons of apathy with us according to settings, it seems. To put an ironic point on it, I am a terrible musician, but when I play bad ol’ rock ‘n roll on a T-sax in picnic shelters, I draw small crowds (and blue smoke). While my ego wants to suck that up, I know full well that these are people driving or walking in a park with nothing to do but watch squirrels (serious competition for me). It’s just astonishing that in Grand Central Station people can be so self-absorbed that they tune out a Joshua Bell. Here’s the link to Grant’s site (scroll to September 21 for the article): http://enhancingmylife.blogspot.com
As many of you have discovered, www.storytellersunplugged.com has moved to a new dynamic home with David Niall Wilson as site administrator. While the dust was settling, new links had to be created, but the old archived columns are now restored. Additionally, thanks to California webmaster Ed Picard, my newsletter & column links are now updated on our author’s website (www.thomassullivanauthor.com ) under News & Articles. This month’s column on SU is about energizing your imagination. Click the link: [ http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/10/16/thomas-sullivan-jigsaw-puzzles-innermost-rooms-a-bed-of-roses/ ]. The photo below of the bed of roses is from the column.
Other photos below include a Doc Foto (Mark Manrique) classic, revealing who Laurel & Hardy REALLY are, and two pictures of autumn canoeing on Rice Lake. And for those of you who are caught up in the saga of the incredible white feather and keep asking, YES, I checked and it’s still there! A year and a half now. You wouldn’t recognize it, if you didn’t know precisely where/what it was, because the barbs were seared off the feather when they did a control burn of the Golden Field last summer, but the main stem still stands at the base of the tree. So…I’ve included a progression of three photos – 4, 9 and now 18 mos -- and a perspective shot of the tree itself.
On the literary front, my latest story “Case White” has received multiple recommendations for a Stoker Award. The parent of this piece is my novel of the same name, which is epic in size and scope and which I am hoping to market soon.
Happy Sweetest Day to you. I will buy my favorite chocolates in the morning, Nipples of Venus (two, of course), and stare at them all Saturday until I can resist no longer. By 7:05 pm (my deadline for eating at night) they will be gone. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going downstairs to invent the pecan pizza. Meanwhile, may I invite you to view the comments of 140 characters or less I’ve been posting daily on Twitter? Just click http://twitter.com/thomassullivan It’s anonymous and you don’t have to do anything after that. Even if you join in order to follow me or others, nothing comes to you and you don’t have to utter a peep...er Tweet. It’s just an informal ear to the wall to overhear things on almost any subject. Example of my recent Tweets: Chicago out 4 Olympics. So tell the gangbangers to stop training for the drive-by target shooting event. And… “Freedom ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free.” Is that why I always do way more than I commit to?
And if you’d like to get this newsletter sent directly to
you free each month including photos, email me at
mn333mn@earthlink.net.
See you when snow gives blanket absolution to the earth...
Thomas “Sully” Sullivan
http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com
http://twitter.com/thomassullivan
