What follows are short bursts from my journal from this past week spent in Greece:
“The air is soft and warm. Like every breath is a sip of milk and honey.””The black sand beach scorches the skin beneath my feet before the cold clear water offers its calming relief. I sit on the slope of pebbles and rocks leading into the crashing waves a foot away from my toes. I pick up a clump of the dark pebbles in my hands and hold them up close to my face so I can see them glisten as the sun reflects a sparkle onto my cheeks. Each tiny pebble so smooth and shiny. Like a million little crystals, no one like another. Each unique and yet equally beautiful. I feel that it is a metaphor for so many things”
“I pick up the end of my long blue dress to wriggle over the concrete wall and hop onto the dirt on the other side. I step from the sticky soil, rotten with fallen fruit to tangle myself in the branches. Surrounded by juicy green figs which hang down in clusters in every direction, blanketed from the hot sun with soft green leaves. Each fruit begging to be picked and devoured. The sun glistens through the branches, showering me with sparkles as the leaves reveal its rays with the movement of the soft breeze. I sit supported by the old barky white trunk picking the ripest fruits and savoring them one juicy bite at a time while my dirty bare feet dangle below. This is where I long to be. Among nature. Giving an abundance of love and receiving it back in the form of tree-ripened fruit. This is the give and take of the earth. If we care of her, she will provide us with an abundance of everything we need. Like these capsules of edible magic which surround me as I tangle myself high up in the branches. Feasting on figs.”
“A meditative experience. Floating head back in the Mediterranean. The water is clear and I can see the smooth colorful rocks which blanket the bottom. The waves carry me softly into deep meditation as I lose myself in the blue sky. Easily the bluest I’ve ever seen. The distinction between my body and the water is gone. Just for a moment in time, it doesn’t matter. I become part of the ocean as it becomes part of me. Elementally the same. A mountain rises out of the water to my left. Kissing the sky with its rocky cliffs. There’s nobody and nothing around to break the tranquility. Alone and content like a happy jellyfish, I drift aimlessly back in forth in the waves.”