Just Jump

photo taken by my brother of me jumping on Mojacar Playa on xmas eve 2009. post production by me.

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” ~Zora Neale Hurston~

It's the last day of 2009 and I can't help but look back over the past year and marvel at all the changes I've weathered and all the adventures I've enjoyed. It's been a big year for reversals, upheavals and goodbyes. I suppose my strategy has been to meditate more so I remain calm while jumping into my new life. When my relationship of 5 1/2 years ended, I jumped into being single and taking care of myself despite my stinging eyes. When my circle of friends dissolved and scattered back to their countries, I jumped into new circles and had new adventures. When my landlord unexpectedly moved back and booted me out of my room this summer, I jumped and jumped and kept on jumping at every potential piso in the barrio until I finally found what I was looking for. When I lost 5 teaching hours earlier this month I jumped right into action and managed to recoup some hours from other sources by the next day. This year I've also tried to jump at every opportunity to travel and see as many places as I could and so in 2009 I've been to Paris, Donostia-San Sebastian, Bilbao, Atazar, Chinchón, "Hoces del Río Duratón" Nature Reserve, Sepúlveda, Pedraza, Sierra de Madrid, Quintanar de la Sierra, the Pyrenees, Mojacar, Vera playa and Garrucha, and I saw my first bullfight.

As I stand on the cusp of a new decade I plan to do a lot more jumping. Jumping into action. Jumping into my creative projects. Jumping for joy. Jumping at opportunities. Jumping at the blue moon. Jumping into 2010.

I'm going to end my blog posts for 2009 with these last words from Mel Brooks:

“Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively.”

Happy New Year everyone!! xox

Happy Holidays

photo by me.

It's snowing again in Madrid... but I'm off to spend a week with my brother in a white village perched on a mountainside that overlooks the Mediterranean in the south of Spain. It'll probably be rainy and windy yet beautiful. You can be sure that I'll be back with photo essays!

Ho ho ho Happy Holidays everyone!!

Gossamer Threads

You are going to be late for class. The crowd on the platform at Metro Plaza España grows thicker. 10 minutes pass by and still no metro which is unusual for this time of day. 4.45 pm. tick tick tick. You spit out a text to your student just as the subway finally screeches into the underground station. It is stuffed with people. It isn't until you squeeze yourself inside that you realize who the metro is crammed full of. Brits. Football, flag waving, beer can swigging, singing, chanting fans all the way from buttfuck Britain to Madrid to cheer their team onto victory and they literally rock the metal can metro with their jumping and swaying revelry. Large thick anglo saxons with muscled pipes from pumping pints down at the pub. Thin Indo-Brits with thick hair and long scarves wrapped around their necks. All bouncing and chanting victory cheers. A mist of beer fills the air. Crushed against the doors, you look around and notice that the Spanish men in suits, bless their hearts, are smiling to themselves in amusement quite unconcerned with the mosh pit. Three stops hurl by. The doors open and close. Some bodies wrestle out, others squeeze in. One of the smaller Brits takes notice of your precarious position behind one of his brutish friends and immediately positions himself to protect you. "Are you alright?" he blurts out in English without a second thought to the need for translation. "Yeah, I'm fine," you reply and all the years of being stressed out over the tiniest interaction you deal with daily as a terrible Spanish speaker living in Spain melt away. Next stop is yours. As you get off, he calls out a goodbye but you hesitate, unable to reciprocate as you are carried out by a sea of bodies. He haunts you the rest of the day. During your class. Your ride home. Dinner with your boyfriend. Under the covers. His eyes haunt you. You can't understand why such a small act of kindness from a stranger should so cling to you but it does. It lingers, it swirls, and it wraps you up like a gossamer cloak for days.

Another birthday... no more tears!

In the past, I used to cry every birthday for one reason or another like some cursed sad sack. This year I had a party and I didn't cry. In fact, I was surrounded by friends and wine and laughter. I successfully cooked my first tortilla de patata and it made me feel confident in my ability to do new things. I don't know where life is taking me but I know I can both relax into the flow and navigate, exploring the many tributaries that branch off the main river of life. Age gives you this: a knowledge and confidence in your beautiful self that during the frenzied blindness of your youth, you failed to see. So cheers to getting older and hopefully wiser.

Emerging

Getting beyond the boxes. Out of chaos and uncertainty emerges the face of a clearer self.

Photography by me. Another experiment in textures, tone and meaning.

Patience

All good things come to those who wait with patience, right? Deep breath. In. Out.

Photo Essay: Granada pt.3, a stairway of stunning beauty

This isn't an attraction you'll read about in a guide book nor will you see it in a gallery nor a museum in Granada and yet it was one of the coolest, most phenomenal things we saw during our visit. We happened upon this gem quite unexpectedly while wandering the streets on foot. The staircase to Mirador San Cristobol, a lookout that peers over the citadel of Albaícin, the Sierra Nevada and the Alhambra, is a stunning gallery of local urban street art, a canvas of fluid collaborative images, and a mashup made all the more exquisite because of the ephemeral nature of urban murals.








All photos taken by me at Christmas time 2007


Above: the view from the Mirador San Cristobol.

This concludes my three part photo essay series on Granada.

Happy Friday!

Photo Essay: Granada pt.1, splendor of the Alhambra

Photo Essay: Granada pt.2, a day wandering around Sacromonte