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When Time and I Collide

January 31, 2016 in Astro Matters, City Matters, Essays, Music Matters, Ruby Intuition, Spirit Matters

With my Sunday supper bubbling in the oven, I guess it’s time to call it: I crashed into walls the entire weekend. Yesterday I wrote and read and forgot everything I remembered. On the way to dinner, I ran into two different friends and couldn’t recall their names or even how I knew them. Today I went to Meg to fetch a pair of pants I’d specially ordered and realized they simply weren’t for me. I ran for the ferry only to arrive as it was pulling away from the dock. I left my bag at the 1st Avenue L stop, and dashed back from Brooklyn just in time to catch two guys rifling through it across the platform. “Gentlemen!” I called across the divide. “Do you mind watching my bag until I can get back to your side?” They pointedly looked away when I arrived in front of them, red-faced and panting with my hand outstretched, but handed it over.

It didn’t matter, any of it. I got home in time to make the lasagna I’d planned. I eventually remembered who my friends were. And my bag still contained the purple scarf I made the winter I couldn’t stop knitting, the long fingerless gloves that make me feel like Jo March, the notes from today’s session with brilliant astrologer and general wise lady Virginia Bell. Continue Reading →

The Thrills of Life: David Bowie, 1947-2016

January 11, 2016 in Age Matters, Music Matters, Spirit Matters

It feels so typical of David Bowie that he died when he was already on all of our brains, not only because of his birthday but because he’d just released an album that inclined us to especially celebrate his birth. He had a beautiful–and increasingly elusive–knack for keeping relevant through his art rather than his personal life. A few times I saw him out and about in New York, once by himself and once with Iman, the one woman who could so graciously overshadow him. Each time it was like glimpsing a ghost who would never entirely pass over, which is a fact I cling to today. We’ll miss him terribly but will have all the blueprints he gave us for as long as we listen to music alone and together. As usual, he said it best: “It’s the darkest hour and your voice is new.”

My Blood, My Holy Wine

December 31, 2015 in Essays, Music Matters, Past Matters, Spirit Matters, Theater Matters

I rallied last night. I’d been sick all week but wasn’t about to waste an opportunity to see the Alvin Ailey Company perform. It was probably ill-advised–now I’m sicker than before and I was feverish and hacking phlegm even when getting ready–but the ticket was a Christmas present to myself and my spirits needed lifting. So I bundled up in a fur hat and a big white scarf and sweeping black coat. I lined my eyes with kohl, painted my nails with glitter, pig-tailed my platinum hair with bits of leather, and put on statement earrings and the high-heeled boots that are bad for my back but good for showing off my legs. Then I shimmied out the door.

On the subway, people kept staring and I couldn’t tell if it was because I looked gorgeous or like a crazy lady. I hoped for Option A; knew it was Option B.

At the City Center, I was seated next to a handsome couple who’d been together for a while and still dug each other’s company. I knew this because they were enjoying their conversation but felt generous enough to engage me, and because they wore complementary colors. It is my observation that couple who choose complementary colors not only share energy frequencies but tend to dress together, which means they still seek opportunities to see each other naked. All in all, I found their presence bittersweet. Continue Reading →

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy