Everybody wonders what Eire does when we travel. My answer: 27 variations on this theme.
Somewhere between California and Missouri / eternity / off the grid
Tag Archives: #travel
That Endless Sky Has Captured Me
My head is filled with crowds, milling and claustrophobic. Everywhere I look today I see humanity revealed with embarrassing clarity in all its jealousy, wrinkles, and farts. There is dust, color, and danger in the streets of Albuquerque’s downtown. The public transport creaks down the street and the strange beauty of the city presses on my soul.
I come around a corner and emerge in the shadow of a church and look up, up, up. Up to a sky so blue, so translucent, that it has no end and I can suddenly see myself within the Medieval layers of world, air, heaven. I am an ant in the universe. I am one in thousands and, suddenly and breathtakingly, alone.
Albuquerque, NM / afternoon / Immaculate Conception Church
Tongues Tangle in Arcata
Too often I’m focused internally when traveling, instead of externally. When a portly woman with waist-length silver and black hair crowned with paste jewels crosses my path, I’m focused on my aching feet. Or when I drive past a drum circle swaying in the lawn, I’m feeling my sun-dazzled headache.
Which is why it was a small miracle that as we drove through central Arcata today, we… stopped! I pulled my camera out and snapped while each brilliant sidewalk square dazzled me. Turns out, we’d happened upon one of the largest art events in Northern Cali, a yearly fundraiser called Pastels on the Plaza. The air thrummed with energy. A tanned itinerant with a djembe argued with a policeman. Children skipped past or drew their own designs with sidewalk chalk, pale against the intense pigment of the pastels.
Serendipity was kind to us today.
Arcata, CA / early afternoon / Pastels on the Plaza
Dance with My Salty Mistress
Your salty kiss lingers on my lips, your twinkling caress on my toes. I leap and twirl while you advance and recede, our forces meeting again after far too long. In your waters the sand glistens and rises, performing its own intricate dances beyond my glance and washing in to join our waltz.
You’ve always intrigued me, Lady Pacifica, and sometimes when I’m far from you you invade my dreams with washes of translucent water that fill my vision and float me into a new world where breath is precious and bubbles fill my vision. Now you call to me and I venture deeper, deeper, and I abandon control and let you tumble me in your dangerous embrace.
Arcata, CA / mid-day / Samoa Beach Dunes Recreation Area