New

Once they believed that the day started in darkness.

Everything began at its first beginning, not at its first appearance.

Seeds curled around stones and soil and fought their way to the surface, but life began when the first shoot shot up in the darkness.

Men and women began their life in darkness, and though they appeared nine months later, there was life there already.

So even when all is cold and hard and dead, it is not the end. It is the unseen sign of hidden life beginning.

You have nothing to be afraid of when death comes. It came before and will come again - it is part of life, the only part we can be sure about. It seems to us over here that all goes dark and ends but it is the same silent, secret beginning.

This time of year is the most difficult for us to cling to life. The sun grows weaker and low in the sky. Days grow short and cold. Food is harder to find. We see death more closely.

For each life, there will be one death. Not yet though. At the right time, when everything has been said and done and the children are put to bed and the ploughs are back in their sheds and all rosy-cheeked friends have got good use out of their ice-skates and come home to warmth again. The fruit was picked in the summer and it is still being enjoyed though now it is wrinkly and doesn't move as easy as it once did. But the seeds are there for next year. And that is the only good time to leave this place.

So when you look out tonight you will see the beginning of something. The end of summer, yes, but the start of the new year. Say goodbye to your mistakes. They are gone now. All you have with you are the smiles you smiled and saw on other faces near to you. All the happiness comes with you to next year.

Why do skulls always grin at you? Do you know what he's saying? What's the big joke, Death? Well, he says...You know what? You're next!

That is the meaning of Hallowe'en, the Old New Year which was borrowed by the church and called All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day. But once there was no Eve and Day, it was all one day because the day began when the sun went down, just as the year begins when days start to get dark.

We knew things then.

If it seems like a hopeless gap between then and now, think again about the bridge between here and there. Is that time lost and dead? Only as much as our own people who died are lost. Think of them now. Say sorry and help them rest. They are still in your heart and you are in theirs. It may be cold in winter but there are good fires and candlelight and warm hearts to look into.

With love.

Heavens above

Wow, I think I have found another pianist I like. His name is Liberace, have you heard of him??

Actually, as a pianist he seems to play fairly well. It sounds like he practised quite a few hours sometimes. Perhaps his repertoire was not very demanding though. But it's not bad. To me, it is amazing just to hear someone who can get up and down the piano as easily as throwing a rubber duck in the bath, particularly these days. PS It may have been a rubber duck but there were probably diamonds on it too.

It was Paderewski who advised Liberace to use just his last name for the stage. And Paderewski may have been quite right about that, of course. Paderewski got so very very famous, it would be unbelievable to see it now. I guess he knew a thing or two about publicity.

It is a rather dubious practice to put your own importance above that of the music. On the other hand, one must admit that Liberace was in no way mediocre. He certainly did what he wanted - and that is his biggest 'plus' in my eyes.

From a musical point of view, the pieces are mostly quite far-fetched, but if that is a fault then why is the world suddenly a more vivid place when it is lit up by his exuberance and star-shining theatrical fantasy? If you have a listen, you may feel it is much much too vivid, vivid enough to make you ill, but so what. You felt something for a moment, didn't you. There was no grey anymore.

Wladziu Salvatore Liberace that was, look down on us with kindness. Put your hand on our shoulders when we feel bad, like you felt bad yourself. Let your jewels shine like sunlight into our hearts. And here where everyone we see lives as nobodies, call us forward to stand out and step into the spotlight. Let us live as men and women at last, burning bright, sparkling, shining and unforgettable.

Hot heat!

Yesterday was the hottest 27th October in England for 117 years! Wowee!

It was hot - I noticed, and I think the weather people were probably right!

Heat is good, but I suppose cold is pretty good too, in its place. Everything is good, did you know that? Shut up, you say, stop being so positive! Well, sorry but I'm not being positive - this is just the hard facts, as I see them!

Hot things are good - hot baths, hot weather, hot food, saunas and things that make you sweat! And cold is good too. It gives you the feeling of being alive, but in a different way. Cold, the colder it gets, makes you more aware of the value of life. Warmth makes you feel alive too. All weather is my favourite, but one really good temperature is the one which is exactly the same as your body temperature - there is no difference between you and the outside so it feels like you have no body!

Being alive in the world is good, but it can be a bit of a burden at times...I don't know if you noticed that. So it's good to have some relief from that. Happiness is the best answer. That's another thing that takes away the feeling of having a body. I think. I would like to find out!

Bring us all happiness, bring us hot and cold in the right places! We can share them if you like!

Nice

Today: some of my favourite letters in different writing systems. Let's start with English, or Roman letters as they are known. The English alphabet was the very last thing I thought of when I was wondering about my favourite letters. But I remembered I use it all the time so obviously it has some importance! But which is my favourite letter? I'd like W if it were more round and not so sharp. O is good, the shape of a mouth saying O! S is quite nice, you feel you have got somewhere by the time you have finished writing it. Well, we'll have to come back to this. Now let's travel to some different alphabets!

In Greek my favourite is Phi:


The sound is "f". I like the round shape and the balance of the letter. It is good to write. It is also the first sound in "Philip", which is a Greek name. The name means "lover of horses", but spelled with two Ls (Phillip) it would be "lover of fat"!

In Cyrillic (Russian etc) my favourite is the sound "zh" - like the J in jewel but softer, like the French G in blancmange. Again it's the balance of the letter and how pleasing it is to write it:



In Hebrew writing I'm not sure of my favourite. I like Shin ("sh"):


Perhaps it's my favourite. Perhaps not. But then I don't know any Hebrew to speak of, and I can't do the handwritten form so let's move on to another language.

My favourite Japanese letter is the sound "Yu" written in Hiragana (not an alphabet but a 'syllabary' because the symbols are syllables, not letters used to spell syllables like in E n g...l i s h):


It's a nice one. It's rather like Phi from earlier. Obviously I like circles! Oh well, I like it. I'm sure it is used for nice words as well as ordinary ones. And ordinary words that are nice. But most words are written using Chinese characters (Kanji) so you're not so likely to find the Hiragana Yu used in a word. Hiragana is for writing out pronunciation, for bits at the end of words, and other things a bit like that. So a word with the sound Yu could be written in many ways. Here is one example:


The sound is Yu, only it's a different character this time. But I still like it.

So why no favourite English letter? Do I only go for foreign looking shapes? No, but you can only find beauty where you find it. It's not my fault if my own letters don't look so great! Tell you what, today I'm going for G. It has a peculiar shape, and reminds me of all that's peculiar about English. All those letters you don't pronounce and words spelled the same but pronounced completely differently! How funny. It is a kind of nonsense! But it is a special kind of nonsense. OK now I will use my letter G to say (for now) GOODBYE!

Vanity

There was an extremely vain man on the train today. Every aspect of his appearance looked as though it had had hours of consideration and bother invested in it. And it was only a few seconds before he started to look at his reflection in the glass door. He was having a good check and making sure that everything was as neat as could be. The only thing was, there was one place he couldn't see in any mirror. And I was the one looking at that place. On the back of his neck was a line of angrily erupted red boils! Yes, boils! What did you think I was going to say? A bit of fluff? A hair? No, it was exactly as I reported it.

It reminds me of the famous 'hide everything' method of tidying up. Just push everything under the carpet and the house will be tidy again. Oops, it doesn't quite work, does it?

Appearance, appearance. He wanted to look under control. He was trying to fool people, I suppose. And I saw a book today that tells you how to change your body language to get on better at work. It's the same thing, the same kind of lying. Do these people not believe they could truly be charming-looking or have genuine positive body language? I suppose not. They don't have much confidence in themselves, then.

I have confidence in them. That is of no great benefit, since I will never meet any of them, but I do meet some people occasionally. And I am talking to you too. Perhaps you will believe me a little bit, and have some faith in yourself, like I do. So then nobody needs to spend hours in front of the mirror disguising him- or herself. We can all have a look in that mirror instead and see a great friend there - you, me, us. Sometimes I give him a quick wave - we are on a lot better terms these days.

Oh, vain people! How very silly. They all looked nice before they started putting paint and chemicals on themselves. Believe me!

Distance

Are you far away from me?

Then how is it you are reading my words here?

Which one are you going to believe: the map or your spirit? One says I am miles and miles away, one says I am near. When you think kindly of something, it comes near too. Doesn't it? Or is the map still telling the true story?

And time, what of that? Years pass by but it seems like only yesterday you were doing those things. Which is correct, the clock or your spirit? Is there something wrong with you that means you cannot be believed, or should we trust your feeling?

Today I saw Beat Takeshi in Zatoichi. Zatoichi, the blind masseur - where is space to him? When he hears you he is with you, next to you, in your place, seeing your movement and moving with you. Everything is close.

And someone who remembers everything, what is time to him? Everything is close, and time is something false. Everything is close.

Come closer! Or, at least, no need to go further away.

Rain

A lovely rainy night.

A lovely rainy night with cool air too.

A lovely rainy night with cool air and home not far away.

A lovely rainy night with cool air and winter coming soon.

A lovely rainy night with winter coming soon and home not far away.

A lovely cool rainy night with water pouring out of the sky.

And an umbrella.

Destiny

A path already carved in the ground in front of you, leading who-knows-where?

A bus driving you from A to B, but you don't know where and you can't stop it or change direction?

Things that happen to you, good or bad, either way you must accept them?

Things that happen because they were planned?

*******

A distant star that guides you, but sometimes the clouds pass in front of your star and your steps falter for a moment.

A sea chart that tells the captain of your ship what dangers to steer clear of, and shows you where home is.

*******

A flower grows from a seed to a beautiful bloom, then dies.

A butterfly is born after a little worm seems to die and turn to stone.

Tiny black wrigglers sprout legs and jump out of their frog-pond!

Something calls to them all and when they can hear the call, they grow.

*******

It's not a battle you have to fight on your own. If there is destiny in the sense of a plan, then the plan will be a good one. We don't plan plans that fail - though there is always a chance of failure, just as there is a chance of success.
And most of that plan will be made out of the people you meet and remember.
The ones who make you feel yourself are the good ones. You feel happy and you forget you are even a person in a body. All the stress is gone. You are a soft person again, not a hard shell or mask. You smile. You can laugh again! The laughter ripples through you like happy thunder in the mountains.
Find those people. Find the soft person inside you too. Or should we say, just forget about the masks and love the person you always were - that is you. That is the one we like!

Remember.

And then we can all go home again, up that big mountain that is getting smaller the more we move on.

Nori

I love to look through a sheet of nori held up to the light.

I love even more to see the sunlight shining through green leaves close above me.

When I look through the nori I feel like I can see all of that, the green leaf sunlight and the green seaweed sunlight shining through the sea from the air far above.

I can't live under the sea though.

But somewhere is my home. And I will see the same green when I get there, where there is life and happiness.

I wonder where it is, and who I will see there? And will there be nori too?

Target

To find everything, you have to search for nothing.

To find nothing, you have to learn to stop searching.

Convenience

In March 2005, the West Hollywood City Council voted to outlaw "cosmetic" surgery for animals. The motion to bar "non-therapeutic" surgery for animals was introduced by Mayor John Duran, who says that tail-docking, ear-cropping, de-fanging, and de-barking are all done for cosmetic reasons and for the convenience of pet owners. If the law is written into the books, which appears likely, West Hollywood will become the first city in North America to ban such surgery for animals.

OK so far, you think. Next it says:

Concerned breeders in New Zealand are continuing to campaign against a ban and Australia has lost the battle for common sense.

Closely followed by:

Unchecked, breeders world-wide are facing the same...hysteria which is being fueled by a minority of the veterinary profession and major animal protection societies, who campaign under the pretence of "animal welfare".

I took this from a website published by the "Council of Docked Breeds", i.e. some type of organisation in favour of surgical alteration of animals. It seems that there are arguments for and against such procedures (It is unnecessary and cruel/It is necessary and painless) which you can find out about if you want. But I found it odd to see this name, "The Council of Docked Breeds". It gives the impression that a group of animals have got together and formed a pressure group. I guess having their claws removed helps them use the computer more easily.

Noise

"Large numbers of blue whales were killed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with 30,000 being taken in the 1930-1931 whaling season alone. Numbers remain low today with an estimated population in the 10’s of thousands worldwide.

"The effect of acoustic disturbances from shipping, the oil industry and other human sources must be considered when whale populations are being studied. There is increasing evidence that such noise pollution could be having a negative impact on the marine environment as a whole and cetaceans in particular."

from Brixham SeaWatch

When Busy

Write short.

To Conflict

Bring peace.

Calm

Be calm.

Aitches

Elp! I'm losing my aitches. The letter 'H' (pronounced "aitch"), which I used to be able to pronounce without fail, is being eroded from my English accent.

It's still there at the beginning of words, but in the middle of something or in casual speech it is deteriorating. "What was 'e saying?" I ask. There is always a variation in intensity of aspiration on the H (depending on the formality or intensity of the situation) but I just recently noticed I wasn't controlling it as much as before. I think it must be because of the local-type accent I hear so much of the time in London.

Strangely, all the other regional accents I have been exposed to for long periods have had the missing H as well. But I never missed it myself until now.

I don't want to lose my Hs. I want to pronounce them because they are part of the words I want to say. People need to be able to understand what I am saying.

Of course, the language has lost sounds before. We don't pronounce the "gh" in "night" - but when I hear it I can hear a trace of it. I checked, and I pronounce Brite and Bright differently (Brite is not a word, so this was the first time I ever had to pronounce it!)

Even in "Wednesday" there is a D in there somewhere.

But these are ghost letters. Will my H go the same way?