Monica: I haven't spent quality time with my best friend Sativa in years. I miss her terribly, especially when I visit her parents in Santa Cruz and sleep in her childhood bedroom which is filled with specimens of her life. Every time I'm there, I drink in the familiar objects which fill a wall of shelves in her room: books on ballet and the Greek classics we read in college, childhood art projects and dolls and figurines of dancers, small bottles of perfume and photo albums from her travels. There are remnants of our friendship, too: the watercolor postcard I gave her before I left for China, the Pema Chodron book I gave her when her heart was broken, a photo of us being silly framed in the hallway. Every time I see these things, I am reminded of how amazing she is and how much a part of my life she is in spite of the distance between us.
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ReplyDeleteA prominent broadcaster, on a big-game safari in Africa, was taken to a watering hole where the life of the jungle could be observed.
As he looked down from his tree platform and described the scene into his tape recorder, he saw two gnus grazing peacefully. So preoccupied were they that they failed to observe the approach of a pride of lions led by two magnificent specimens, obviously the leaders.
The lions charged, killed the gnus, and dragged them into the bushes where their feasting could not be seen.
A little while later the two kings of the jungle emerged and the radioman recorded on his tape: "Well, that's the end of the gnus and here, once again, are the head lions."