So I am fifty now—fifty! Five. Zero. I like the sound of that. Fresh, sharp, new, nifty. I am fifty. I am told I don’t look fifty, or move or speak or act like whatever the common understanding of fifty conveys. People are taken aback when they hear my age and they ask, how? Why? …
Author: carmen
Beauty and the bus
She is like a big muscular lover, hulking but gentle. She weighs in at 14,000 lbs. I tiptoe around her, still shy to peer under her belly. Big metal springs, pistons, shafts, and tanks full of toxic fluids lurk below. There is black dirt and rust. Massive rubber tires as high as my shoulder. She …
Waiting to set sail
I am stoked and nervous as an expectant mother, waiting for everything to align so I can sail my vessel home. So much could go wrong, and yet so much feels so right. The vessel has a wee brake malady that needs to be addressed before we take her up the steep hill to her …
I just bought a bus
I appealed to the Universe for a tiny house surrounded by big trees. Said the Universe: “Voilà ! Yours. On wheels.” My new house is a 1979 Chevy shortbus, remodelled by a shipwright. She is rat-proof, watertight, and fully seaworthy. The curved box behind the drivers’ seat is a built-in guitar case. She even drives. I …
Commitment is a process of perpetual self-forgiveness
By the time I landed on this tiny wee island three weeks ago I had managed to slightly psych myself out. The Project (previously known as “the Book”) seemed by turns foolish and daunting and trivial and overambitious, narcissistic and deluded. I was calling myself all sorts of names. Then, I remembered that commitment is …