Jewels of the sea

I never used to be that interested in collecting stuff on the beach. But since I married into a family of collectors (my father-in-law has a growing collection of arrowheads and my mother-in-law decorates the house with a variety of shells, sea glass and recovered bits of ceramic from the beach), combing the beach for little jewels of the sea has become a constant pasttime. On a recent trip to the in-laws, we went out on the Chesapeake Bay to visit some of the sandy isles near Crisfield, Md.:

We also brought Miyagi along, although he wasn't very much help when it came to hunting for artifacts. He spent most of his time in the water, waiting for us to join him.

Anyway, I've generally been focusing on sea glass during our outings. This recent trip turned up some of the best in my collection:

I'll point out that among the basic white glass, there is green, purple, cobalt, light blue and amber. See if you can see the little piece of sponge coral I discovered dried up and  lodged in a broken bottle that I left on the beach to get a little more wearing down from the waves.

Anyway, I keep most of the glass in a bamboo bowl, along with my Coca-Cola bottles I brought back from Morocco. Like so:

I'm not sure if the tableau makes any sense at all, but it does make me smile when I see it. Call it my little memory corner.

Pots of color

I'm feeling a little under the weather today, so I've decided to keep today's post short and sweet. I've been into photography ever since I was young and was given my first point and shoot camera. Since then I've taken so many photos that I can't even guess how many I have. But I do have a favorite (though my favorite tends to change, this one always makes me happy and I often point to it as a favorite). For me, it does many things. It makes me smile; it makes me feel warm; and it symbolizes for me where I can find myself, if only I am willing to go.

Bags of dye await purchase at a market in Morocco.

Narrative writing

I've posted a glowing report about this blogger before, but I feel like I am still surprised by her everyday. Today's post spoke about her experience discovering prostitution in the African country she was visiting. Her words paint a perfect emotional picture for you (her pictures give you the physical picture just wonderfully). Read Maryam's account. Enjoy it. Use it as an example of really good narrative writing. And, as per her style, its done in the third person. Which somehow makes it even more riveting to me.

And the silence prevails...

It's Memorial Day, so the newsroom is exceedingly quiet right now. It's odd to be working full time in the professional world. Kind of anti-climatic actually, but it is quite enjoyable here. I thought that I would miss writing, but a year and a half of copy editing has left me hungry for more editing jobs.

One thing about returning to this job, though, is that I have again become nostalgic for last summer. This, of course, has left me yearning for Morocco, one of the best countries to visit if you want to get a sense of Islam without getting shot at (a gross overgeneralization, I'm sure, but still a great country). And so I bring to the interwebs a few of my favorite shots from my time in Morocco. The first shot is looking Northeast along the coast of Morocco near Tangiers. If you look closely on the left in the distance you can see Spain and across from it you can see the part of Morocco that reaches out to touch it's neighbor across the Strait of Gibralter.

Lone Tree

And next, from the same place, looking southwest down the curve of North Africa:

Twilight Falls

Finally, here is a shot from a medina in Tetuoan. The medinas, or 'old cities,' of Morocco are some of the most wonderful places to visit. Not only are the alleyways tight and close together, but exploring them often means navigating a maze, with little surprises here and there. In this case, we turned a corner a found beautiful potted flowers decorating old, crumbling plaster that covered the walls of houses where people lived.

Where the Path Chooses You

Hopefully I will have more time to go on photography expeditions soon! But until then, I will continue to rely on old fodder.

Also, one of my current favorite poets, Gary Snyder, has been captivating me lately. A beat poet and buddhist, his poems leap off of the page with references to both his love of nature and his Zen Buddhist training. So here is a quick poem that thought I would share(unfortunately I cannot keep his same formatting, but I will direct you to a site that has a few of his poems with his unique formatting):

"Regarding Wave"
The voice of the Dharma
the voice
now

A shimmering bell
through all.

Every hill, still.
Every tree alive. Every leaf.
All the slopes flow.
old woods, new seedlings,
tall grasses plumes.

Dark hollows; peaks of light.
wind stirs the cool side
Each leaf living.
All the hills.

The Voice
is a wife
to

him still.

~Gary Snyder