Electric Ladyland

A haiku and a gratitude 10.28.08

Today's haiku:

Morning dark as night
Rain mussing strands of my hair
Passing Nor'easter

And a gratitude:

To be reminded anew that something as simple as an unexpected, broad smile from someone else can instantly lighten your mood and put you in a happier frame of mind.  That happened to me today and it was most welcome.  Being on the giving end of such smiles more often than not, or so I'm told, it is also awfully nice to receive them when I'm not in the best of spirits. Turns things around.

A haiku and a gratitude - 10.26.08

Today's haiku:

Clear light and blue skies
Strolling lazily today
Manju and green tea

And my gratitude:

Being able to explore the things that I like the most.  Case in point, Mom and I took a fun excursion to Sunrise Mart where I checked out different nabe.  I had plans to buy one and try different dishes like yosenabe this winter.  So we checked out the pottery section for a while.  For some reason almost everything I saw in the grocery section brought me squarely back to the Japan of ten years ago.  Scanning the wafu pasta, konnyaku and katsuobushi, I recalled how everything was once new.  I also remembered how once I had no idea what any of that was.  Now it's familiar and friendly, even to the point where I can try learning to cook Japanese homestyle dishes at home.  So I'm grateful to live in an American city like New York where I can still develop my knowledge of things Japanese.

A haiku and a gratitude - 10.23.08

I've recently gotten into the habit of writing a haiku every now and then.  Nothing of epic grandeur or stunning eloquence but just a dashed impression of whatever has been on my mind.  Lately that's chiefly been baseball.  Now that the (Red Sox) season is over and Thanksgiving is approaching, I thought I'd start up a semi-regular posting:  one haiku, on whatever theme catches my fancy that day, and one thing for which I am grateful. 

So here goes.

Tuscan white bean soup
Calming my nerves this evening
Warm soft light, silence

And what am I grateful for today? 

Inane, snarky heartfelt gestures.  I got two of them, real bang for my buck. 

First one arrived in my work email this morning and it was from my former boss, who is a Yankee fan.  It read: "One condolence deserves another...go Tampa...get used to losing (:"  Ahem.  This was in reply to my "condolence" email after the Yankees had been eliminated from postseason play.  As I told my dad, the rivalry is kinda like the gift that keeps on giving.  I'll take it.  Tampa Bay deserved to win but mohawks (excuse me, Rayhawks) do not a rivalry approach. 

Second inane, snarky and heartfelt gesture was the sudden appearance of several plastic spiders and a miniature plastic skeleton inside my office.  They'd been planted there while I was in a staff meeting.  It took me a while to find all the spiders.  Mmm, arachnids.  How to show you're really thinking of someone.

The pathos of things

So the Red Sox have exited the stage and it is time to accept the fact that winter is advancing.  Perhaps it is not a coincidence that yesterday was the first day the floors in my apartment felt cold underneath my bare feet.  I brought my space heater into the living room while relaxing there in the afternoon until noticing the sound of the season's first radiator hiss emanating from various corners of the apartment.

It is fall and soon there will be no baseball anymore.  I am not being facetious when I say I'm a little sad.  It reminds me of the Japanese expression a Russian recently taught me (and of course a Russian would know such things):  mono no aware, the pathos of things.  There's a wistfulness and contemplative fullness in the empty space here. 

I've instinctively started bundling up, slipping on my favorite soft wool socks and dark blue robe with the little star pattern on it.  Tonight I'm curled up listening to the sound of that space heater whirring while sandalwood incense drifts in the air.  Having recently started writing baseball-themed haiku during the postseason I thought it worthwhile to locate a genuine haiku by none other than Basho to illustrate the sentiment of the moment:

Autumn approaches
And the heart begins to dream
Of four-tatami rooms