random truths

Finally.

Florian and I are laying in bed discussing our fears in the darkness. Our voices are softer and slower and we are listening more than talking.


There is a magical space that emerges when feeling and voice meet with comprehension. They gingerly crouch under a tree and they wait. At the exact moment that their eyes meet they suddenly smile at the silliness of their gravity and trust comes bouncing through the tall grasses and towards them.


bohemiangirl, the taker of enchanted photos has asked me to share eight random fact regarding myself.

So without further ado:


1. Since I was a little girl I have believed in magic and wanted to live in a world where I could talk to plants and birds and rocks and animals and the sun and the moon and the rain and the wind. Lately I'm becoming aware that this is indeed possible. In a different way than I thought. Planting and learning and respecting and caring and listening and dreaming and conservation are all conversations. Florian often talks of the relationships between plants and people and the way in which we have changed and adapted because of each other over thousands of years.


2. I studied fine arts and wanted to become a photographer. I even worked for a well known South African fashion photographer for a while. But I was young and foolish with a new dangerous boyfriend and a drug habit. Pretty soon I lost the boyfriend and my dreams. However I am happy with the twists and turns my life have taken and very excited about my new dream. I dream of using the magic of story, permaculture gardening and art as maps through mental landscapes.


3. I work out the best route to work in the minutest details. I carefully ponder the amounts of green spaces on my way, the number of traffic light, the busyness of intersections etc. I will stick to this route for months. Then suddenly one morning my entire being will refuse to travel down this path even once more and the search for the new route will begin.


4. I was born on New Years Eve and my father had to fetch the doctor from his New Year’s dance.

5. I love swimming. The feeling of my body and the water flowing together. Floating on the water I watch the patterns that the sun draws on my eyelids. When that becomes boring I stare at clouds and the bigness of the summer sky or I try hand stands.


6. When I was in the midst of my drug addiction a friend suggested topless waitressing as a good way of making money. I happily agreed. However, the manager fired me at the end of the evening claiming I was scaring his customers. I suspect the fact that someone gave me fifty bucks and told me to buy myself something to eat had something to do with it. That and the combination of ribs, a slightly gothic hairdo, lots of eyeliner, stiletto boots and leather shorts.


7. I was once in a movie that was shown at an art festival. I was also an extra in a movie called Fleshtone that stared the lead singer of Spandau Ballet. It was not a great movie. The best scene is where Martin Kemp looks over at me and my friend, clutching glasses of fake red wine, and sighs with irritation. Since the sound was only added in later we had great fun saying the most awful things possible in reply to his line which was: “The butler, you see, he is a lonely guy.”


8. After I came out of rehab I joined a organisation called Ananda Marga and lived in a small flat with my teacher who was a yogic nun. I almost became a nun but started wondering whether I was running towards or away from life. So I promised myself that if I could make it in the real world and I still wanted to become a nun I could go for it. I sometimes wonder whether I made the right desicion.


Since I also spend a fair amount of time pondering the effects of my deeds on other I am way too paranoid to tag anyone. What if I leave someone out or tag someone who hates being tagged? Awful.


But I would love hearing silly random things about all of you. Yes you, you know who you are. You who I visit in hope of catching yet another aspect of you. You are tagged. Let me know when I can come and say: “Who would ever have guessed?”
D

The bit of snow you see in the pictures is the first snow in Joburg in 26 years.

We are going to the mountains for the weekend. I will pop in to say hello tomorrow and then only again on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend.