NOV 21, 18 .. WHERE TO BEGIN

Where to begin?

Wednesday the 21st of November 2018.

I thought I’d begin with : It is written in the stars.

Then I checked my e-mail ..

Now Captain! YOU KNOW, YOU UNDERSTAND that it is NOT necessarily a good thing to check your e-mail just before you are about to write a very specific Post about something fun and light. 

And?

While reading an e-mail from a friend ..

Thanks so much ‘ Willy G ‘ for your e-mail ..

Off down the streets-of-my-mind I wandered.

Forever ago, my friend’s 12-year old daughter offered to do some weeding in my back yard in Royal Oak, Michigan. This shy, 12-year old, now is a mother with (I think) three children. With a set of twins maybe.

Sunrise .. Sunset ..

Forever ago, he and his wife and I were talking on the street in ‘The Hood’ outside of their home, when their youngest son fell off his bicycle and ‘bloodied his face’.

Sunrise .. Sunset ..

Fiddler On The Roof

I hope you read the below lyrics slowly and feel and ponder their meaning ..

Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older,
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small?
Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days.
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as we gaze.
Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly fly the years.
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears.

What words of wisdom can I give them?
How can I help to ease their way?
Now they must learn from one another,
Day by day.
They look so natural together,
Just like two newlyweds should be.
Is there a canopy in store for me?
Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly fly the years.
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears.

And NOW ..

Here I sit ..

Myself IN Russia ..

I am not in Western Russia as were Tevye and his Daughters. I am in Eastern Russian Siberia. But the realization of the shortness of life itself and especially the memories of ‘Fiddler ‘ just came rushing back when I read his e-mail to me.

In ‘Fiddler ‘ I have one memory of the remoteness of the Pale of Settlement and I feel that remoteness here this morning in Siberia.

Winter is moving into Irkutsk. The days are getting shorter. The nights are getting longer. Temperatures are dropping below O° F (-2°F) and way below O° C (-19° C). Being out on the streets at night, riding the Trams and walking long distances, intensifies the experience here.

I arrived on Monday the 29th of October. Sergey (the man who invited me here 3-years ago) and I ate lunch with friends in a local restaurant of his choosing and, while AT our lunch table, while eating, Sergey falls ill and only recently has gotten released from the hospital here.

Sunrise .. Sunset ..

Don’t look at the danger or the stranger is gone.

I wrote ‘Zilla, in a comment to my Post of .. NOV 18, 18 .. A LITTLE CHIT-CHAT

“THIS, what I am doing here and now, is the culmination of my life work. And I take it seriously. VERY seriously. To the point I was so tired from last Saturday ..  that it has taken me into the third day .. to finally feel rested again.”

A quick aside. Writing is how I spend my mornings. The one time of day that I have my best shot at being present. Of being able to Focus. Concentrate. Being fully present in the Silence. KNOWING / UNDERSTANDING that I MUST keep pressing ‘Save Draft’ and that Ctrl Z, if pressed instantaneously after I lose-a-page, or after I completely leave my website (something I don’t ever plan-to-do but it happens when I fail to open a New Tab first as I am jumping around) will bail-me-out as I go back and forth to Wikipedia and Song Lyrics and e-mails and Dictionary.com .. and .. and .. all the time writing. Dealing with a mind that keeps whispering in my ear ..”Just delete it all. Forget it all. Start over.” 

The answer : Total commitment.

You BELIEVE . You don’t believe.

You MUST pick one and only one.

You’re ALL IN or you’re all out.

And?

I BELIEVE.

And?

Now off to blogspot to do what I meant to do (write a Post : It Is Written In The Stars ) when I first checked my e-mail a few hours ago and then got sidetracked out onto the streets of my mind.

And now .. The Rest Of The Story ..

https://bobbacaps.blogspot.com/2018/11/nov-21-18-it-is-written-in-stars.html

Just click onto the above link to read about .. It Is Written In The Stars.

I will sign off with these words : IF you ever decide to leap off into space and do what I am doing, you’d better know that you will need all of the psychological tools necessary to keep-your-mind-together when off it wanders, down the proverbial streets of your mind, in the dark and in the cold of a Siberian Morning in Russia.

Still Smiling ..

I Still have it .. More or less .. Together ..

Cap

• ← NOV 20, 18 .. WHEN I CAME BACK OVERSEAS I KNEW WHAT WAS COMING
• NOV 22, 18 .. HAPPY, JOYOUS, AND A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL →