Writing and reading restore our buoyancy

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”

—	Anne Lamott in one of 9 essential books on reading and writing, for a New Year’s resolution to read more and write better (via curiositycounts)

I'm a pen...

I’m a pen. I’ve been handled by many more people you could even imagine. I’ve been looked at, weighed in palms, disdained, refused, admired and purchased several times.

It’s not easy to survive when everything is typed by a keyboard and nobody cares about ink and handwriting again.

How can you exchange the vibrant feeling of the pen in your hands, the sweet resistance of the paper once it’s been marked with your thoughts, the insightful window that your calligraphy is into your mood, your character, your intentions?

I’ve been used for scribbling on perused fragments of paper, napkins, bare skin, I even carved a table once. That wasn’t pleasant.

I’ve elegantly danced on precious sheets, guided by a loving hand. I’ve been shaken and jolted by nervous fingers, opened and closed until my springs were almost worn and my guts turned upside down.

Thanks to my flawless performance, documents have been signed, obscure deals sealed, secret messages delivered.

If only could I tell you all the things I’ve witnessed…

I was a faithful companion, a perfect partner in crime, as guilty as the hand who lead me, as thorn as the desperate mind who conceived those words, as loving as the man who owned me for ten years and then passed me onto his precious, beloved daughter when he realized all was lost, for him.

Now, how to tell her what really happened? How to explain her that life is cruel, and it’s not her fault? How to tell her that love is not a linear, easy ride, and often it’s sacrifice and loss?

How to teach her she’s not alone?

13 writing tips: memorandum

Good tips on writing... because I don't want to forget them!

http://litreactor.com/essays/chuck-palahniuk/stocking-stuffers-13-writing-tips-from-chuck-palahniuk

Flatmate quiz

 We've been looking for a new flatmate in my apartment and we came up with a quiz that would give us an idea whether the candidates where suitable for the craziness of our daily lives, here it is. 
Do you wanna try and see if you could be a good fit?



If I say 'garlic', what do you think?
a) vampires
b) bad breath
c) there's never enough in my food

If I say 'coffee', what do you think?
a)bliss
b)heaven
c)nirvana

If I say 'cigarettes', what do you think?
a)occasional company
b)no-smoking signs are pure discrimination
c)only if it's from my orchard

If I say 'bath tub', what do you think?
a)Can I bring mine along?
b)not without my yellow duck
c)what a waste of water!


If I say ' bread', what do you think?
a)the supermarket has such a lovely wholegrain!
b)there's just enough time to clean the house whilst the dough is rising
c)carbohydrates are evil

If I say 'jam sessions', what do you think?
a)only under the shower and if I really want it to rain
b)I like it loud, fast and dirty
c)only with pots and pans

If I say 'science', what do you think?
a)I live by the Fibonacci series
b)god created the world in seven days
c)I don't have the solution, but I admire the problem

Sufism

Come, 

Let us be friends for once,

Let us make life easy on us,

Let us be lovers and loved ones.

The Earth shall be left to no one.

-Sufi poem

Stories and Dervishes

"Expand your horizons, open your heart and write what you can feel.
Stories are like whirling dervishes, drawing circles beyond circles, connecting all humanity." - Elif Shafak

Gypsy: 3 years, 4 countries, 17 apartments...

I started making a mental list of how many times I moved in and out, how many houses and how many countries over the past 3 years. It was kind of an adventure, so I decided to write it down so as not to forget it....

October 2008-November 2009: New Zealand

-For the first two weeks a colleague let me sleep in the guest room, until I find a place I feel like living in for one year.