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Kyoto.
I'm standing neck deep in a swarm
of brightly colored silk wrapped women. They flow around
and past me like so many butterfly, busily chatting
as they make their way to their evening engagements.
The hems of their passing kimono create small eddys
that pick up dry autumn maple leaves and swirl them
along the smooth ancient stone path behind them. Those
stones have bore silent witness to countless generations
of Geisha, and will patiently remain as countless more
come and go.
The butterfly reach a corner and slip
off into the fading twilight.
And just like that they are gone.
The only evidence of their passing
is a barish path carved in the dusting of maple leaves
on the old brick street. I smile to myself, breathing
in the cool night air that just barely covers the earthy
scent of autumn.
Kyoto in Autumn.
This is where I love to be.
The narrow brick-paved streets flanked
by continuous rows of age darkened wooden buildings,
only periodically broken by narrow alleys that wind
their way back into the secret back areas of the Gion
quarter.
The soft scent of incense fills the air, and I breath
in deep.... Hold it. Savor it. Then slowly release it
as a smile spreads across my face.
As alien as this scene should be to
me, it still feels like home. I can't quite remember
all the twists and turns along the way that lead me
from a small little house on a dirt road in Upper Michigan
to this exotic place, but somehow I am here.
Was it just chance?
Could I have made one decision differently?
One flip of the coin, and never have made it here? Maybe.
Or was I meant to come here? To see
this. To drink it all in and let it wash over me. Somehow
I hope this is true. But even if not, even if it all
was just random chance, it does not lessen the magic
for me.
For wherever I would have ended up,
or will end up in the future, I will be sure to keep
looking a little deeper. Continue to peel back the layers
of that onion and search for what lies just beneath
the familiar.
Wherever I end up, I will try to live
by a very simple code.
"Be Here."
"Now."
--
In order to make this site a little
easier on the eyes I'm testing out a slightly less crowded
line spacing. What do you think? Good? bad? Doesn't
matter?
--
As you can likely tell from the lack up frequent updates,
it has been a busy couple of weeks for me.
And as sick as it sounds, I wish tomorrow
were not already Friday so I would have more time to
pull things together before heading to Washington DC
again on Sunday for another week long meeting. (Let's
hope I am able to use my miles to upgrade to First Class
again....but even if I can't I'm sure I will be abel
to crash out on the plane.)
It also doesn't help that I have caught
some sort of cold and the only thing that is allowing
my to function at work is continuous doses of DayQuil.
Even with the medication I'm still feeling kind of spacey
and scatter brained during the day. Actually, I feel
that way pretty much all the time, the cold has just
exacerbated the problem.
To combat this amplified stupidity
I am making sure to keep myself dosed up with enough
caffeine and sugar to make make a sloth dance the Macarena
double time.
This allows me to ride a a continuous
burst of short energy waves, only finally crashing once
I get home in the evening.
The really nice thing about this business
trip is that I will be taking a week layover as I pass
through Detroit on my way back to Japan. This will allow
me to hop a plane to Upper Michigan so I can visit my
family.
Too late to see my Grandfather, but
at least I will be able to visit his grave and say my
own goodbyes.
--
The Sushicam Monthly Prints
Raffle is almost over. Winners will be selected
on the 15th, announced publicly here on the 16th. (Japan
time) Check the guidelines at the bottom of the raffle
page to see how it works.
Comment 30
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