Down the Hall on Your Left

Posted on October 27, 2008 by randomyriad

In my dreams life is lived in a world house in which doors open onto rooms of almost infinite landscapes in a state of constant fluid change. The rooms change with my experiences in life, the places I live and people I meet.

Sometimes I think of my waking life in that way. When I get into my car in the morning to go to work, the road becomes a hallway and my classroom a door at the end that opens onto my work day. Then in the afternoon my car takes me back down the hall to the door leads to my life at home.

Yesterday on my way back down the hall from my day at work, a man leaned out of his car window and asked me directions to the nearest market that sold fruits and vegetables. I almost answered, “It’s just down the hall on the left.” Then I realized he was not inside my life’s house. He was in the house that contained his life and had not constructed the hallway that included the market. He was most likely adding a hastily constructed new wing which he called northwest vacation, or business trip.

“There’s one just up ahead on your left,” I yelled. “Two signals,” I held up two fingers to emphasize the number. I wished him good luck and went back into my life to continue my journey down the hall that takes me to my life at home.

Posted in Dreamtime, House and home, make your own world, Of the Road and The River, pieces of the mirror, thinking in words, whereever you go there you are, working world | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Navagating by Dream Compass in the Urban Wilderness

Posted on October 25, 2008 by randomyriad

As I waited at a red light, my attention was captured by a man wobbling to a strange rhythm. His clothes and flesh under the clothes hung uncomfortably on his bones, sagging here and there as he tottered toward the busy intersection on a stretch of sidewalk that he navigated as if he were using a dream compass to cross an alien landscape. He hesitated, glanced back toward the square of sidewalk that he had just successfully traversed. There flashing like a beacon in the afternoon sun was a small metallic object just of the center of the sidewalk. The saggy man stopped and girding up the small cardboard package he held tightly to the side of his body, he prepared for his return journey to the previous square. Turning unsteadily, He glanced casually as if the metallic object was of no interest to him. Then with the grace and skill of a dancer, he crouched and snatched the shiny object, and all in one motion straightened, sliding it into his front pocket and continued his wobbling progress to the intersection through the wild white desert of the sidewalk. If I had glanced away for a split second I would have completely missed it. I would maybe checked the signal and then when I went back to the wobbly man there he would be continuing his journey. I would have no idea that he had just performed a miniature ballet to snatch something I hadn’t noticed and still do not have any idea what was flashing in the sun. Maybe something unspeakably precious that would enrich my future life. Who can say?

The light turned green, and I continued on my way wondering where that man was taking the shiny object, and would his dream compass get him there. I hope he was not an evil time traveling scientist bent on worldwide destruction and the shiny object the one remaining piece to complete his evil machinery. Oh, well, I had my journey to continue with my own dream compass to guide me down the black river of road that carried me into the rest of my day.

Posted in Dreamtime, Mythical and mysterious, Of the Road and The River, paying attention, Telling Stories, thinking in words, time travel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Traveling by Telephone Time Warp

Posted on October 24, 2008 by randomyriad

I picked up the phone. I could tell it was Bev right away. She has a nasal, Judy Holiday kind of voice, though not exactly.

“Hello this is Bev,” She always sounds a little tentative on the phone as if she is unsure that her voice is in the same century and can travel through 21st century technology. “Stan’s OK, but they’re keeping him overnight for tests.” Stan is her husband.

“I tried to call you at work, but you had already gone home,” She continued after I made a little sound that told I had heard what she said. “I talked with Myra. I’m gonna come in tomorrow anyway since I’ll only be ten minutes away from the hospital.”

I had just put down “A Movable Feast” by Hemingway, and through most of the phone call, I was making a journey from 1920’s Paris to a place where Bev’s words made some sense coming through the phone in my living room.

“You do what will be best for you. We would love to have you cooking tomorrow, but don’t worry about us,” were the words that almost automatically formed in a part of my mind that wasn’t in Paris with Hemingway.

“No, it’s best I work.” Bev finished and we said our good-byes.

I went back to Paris, and she went back to worrying about Stan and tomorrow.

Posted in conversations, pieces of the mirror, Telling Stories, time travel, working world | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pizza Store Window at Sunset

Posted on October 23, 2008 by randomyriad

Thin and sharp,

her silhouette moved

against the sun’s sinking glare

through the pizza store window.

“Oh, honey look what you made me do!” she announced,

bending to pick up the pile of napkins

as the red light caught her sly smile.

Posted in pieces of the mirror, poetry, Telling Stories | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Monkey King File Folder

Posted on October 22, 2008 by randomyriad

I was having a talk with my friend Zachary. He’s 5 years old. We were talking about tails and how it would be cool to have a tail so you could hang in a tree and eat a snack. It all started with our snack of bananas. Suddenly a thought popped in my head like a little thought balloon with Monkey King written on it. But, that was it. I remembered that I had read a story about the Monkey King and that he was a mythical and magical character out of Chinese Folklore that had zany and outlandish adventures, but that was all. I could remember no details or particulars. It was as if my mind randomly pulled the Monkey King file from some dusty old file cabinet in a dark corner of my brain and showed it to me. (I don’t know why: probably the talk of bananas and tails) But when I opened it up all that was there was a sky blue sticky note saying: “This is something about a mythical and magical character who has zany and outlandish adventures,” and another one in another color, maybe bright yellow, saying: “See Chinese Folklore.”

I have no idea why my mind works this way, but it often happens. My mind leaves me hollow shells of ideas without the nut inside. Maybe a tiny worm has burrowed in and eaten it up. However it happens, the idea just sits there with Monkey King carved on its hard brown shell, and when you hungrily open it up there is nothing to eat.

Of course this means I have to go back and fill that empty file with some scribbled notes and diagrams and maybe a few neatly typed pages on the Monkey King. The only way to keep those worms away is to do some serious thinking and writing notes. So I feel it is only fair to warn you that some ideas about the Monkey King will drift in and out of these pages in the near future. It’s just the way my mind works, dusty files, sticky notes, empty nutshells and tiny worms. Its a real mess up there sometimes.

Posted in file folders and nut shells, Monkey King, Mythical and mysterious, paying attention, pieces of the mirror, Questions and riddles, Teaching and Learning, Telling Stories, thinking in words, working world | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment