On my 79th birthjday. Manny Maramara and Mark Wiley joined me for dinner (courtesy of Mark) at Daddy’s Place (Mommy’s Kitchen), a Moroccan restaurant in downtown Easton. I often say it was my 80th because as a person with Chinese ancestry I also consider the 9 months in the womb as a year. A friend also told me that the Chinese skip 79th and go on to the next year to celebrate. But I am not one to miss a birthday. So there we were with a feast in front of us — grilled chicken, beef and lamb with a skewer of onions, peppers and tomatoes, hummus, babaganoush, salad, pita bread, kibbe, tabouli and a few other dishes I do not have the names for. We had Turkish coffee and tiramisu for dessert. I was even able to blow the candle. I was like a kid in a toy store. Sorry, no beer. We were all teetotaler. Hallelujah!
Continue reading “February 2020 – Photos, old & new”Month: February 2020
February 2020 – Blog post
Kintsugi, noun, (Kint-soo-gee): “golden repair”
As if it arrived in time to teach me a lesson, I encountered the Japanese word two times in one month last year, once in a magazine on wholeness and again in a book by a young woman who was raped. It refers to the ancient Japanese technique of putting together the broken pieces of a bowl or a cup with gold thread and lacquer or resin. We can infer different meanings or metaphors from it. Life is not entirely perfect or whole; it is composed of broken pieces that we mended together, shards that became a part of ourselves, a part of who we are, or part of our relationships. The restored self is made whole from life’s experiences. We see the blemishes: they are repaired with love and gentleness. When we look at what we have threaded and glued together we see something new; we also remember that it came from a painful past, a time of anger and bitterness that was transformed through love. We have created a stronger bowl or cup and it’s even more beautiful. I have a saucer that I glued together: I am still using it along with my miniature tea set from China. Our body covers the wounds with scars. As we go through life, we suffer tragedies, tribulations, traumas or learn lessons that become a part of our psyche. We speak of a broken heart when we are rejected. Yet we survive and are healed because we bring our will and hopes inside of us to face the trials we fear we cannot endure. Continue reading “February 2020 – Blog post”