Meri's Musings

Trees.

Egyptian woman who bakes pita bread  at a roadside restaurant near Saqqara. I altered this photo using an opaque chalk filter treatment.

I can't explain it, but for some reason the sight of laundry  hanging on a line  delights me.  Like this shot in Venice or this one in Egypt. Perhaps it's the memory of my mother pinning the wet clothes to the line  with  wooden clothespins.  Or the way I remember sheets smelling when they were dried outdoors. I also have a thing for windows, especially ones with unexpected pops of color. And it certainly doesn't count as a handicap if they're windows in Venice. What delights you? Gives you JOY? Won't you share it with us? To play along: 1. do a post that tells and shows us what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post  and paste it into the  Mr. Linky box  along with your name. 3. visit other players -- as many as possible --  and let their joy infect you.   Leave them a comment about their post. Let's start an epidemic of joy!  

To revel in the beauty of words strung together like carefully matched pearls visit  Haiku My Heart . Then, flush with inspiration, join in with words of your own. Philae at Dawn © 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian sunrise brings a new day governments fall, people cheer ancient stones listen

Becoming a Hummingbird I am becoming a hummingbird, my iridescence coloring the words  that rise in my throat a glistening red. My wings support me as I dip and soar, spiral and hover. I travel at the speed of dreams, searching out the nectar of the gods to sip for succor. My breath shapes my thoughts, a gentle inhalation  shooting straight to my core and rustling the ribbons of my soul, exhalation giving me power to exchange depleted elements for new ones, brimming with life.  The purr of my wings stirs the air, bringing a catlike contentment to those around me. The chatter of my heart sends waves of sound vibrating  into a parallel universe, fresh pulses of delight  erasing the darkness and birthing blessings for all who feel the stirring of my wings. p.s.  This is one of the creative writing pieces done on the Egypt tour. As we speak, Normandi Ellis and Gloria Taylor Brown  are compiling and editing an anthology of works...

One of my favorite things about the Egypt trip was the writing (and reading) circle. Here's a piece that explains the magic. Left to right - Margaret Kachadurian, Laura Janesdaughter, Nettie Eldredge, Piliaka Peter, Denise, Pat Chesser, and just the merest hint of Joyce Brady's peach-colored sleeve. Not visible: Nicki Scully, Mark Hallert, Gloria Taylor-Brown, Normandi Ellis, Barbara Lindsey, Kathryn "Raven" Ravenwood, Vera Kaplan, Cathleen Shattuck, Jane Wodening, Alma Donato, Donna Swindells, and of course me (the photographer). The group sat in rapt concentration, bringing to a close the scribing of words that described alternative selves, alternative realities. Eighteen women and a lone man sat on chairs, sofas, the floor, with journals in laps and laptops on tables or perched upon their knees. The air conditioner exhaled a steady stream of air above our heads but we barely noticed the cool breeze caressing our shoulders, the sacred energy was so vibrant and comp...

The cold I brought home from Cairo is cramping my style. Just going out to buy food exhausts me. My get up and go has got up and left. To pick up my spirits, I just have to remember the fun of browsing in the Khan el-Khalili. It was built in 1382 by the Emir Djaharks el-Khalili and was part of the market tradition that established Cairo as a major center of trade . Like at Alice's Restaurant, you can get anything you want (or nearly so) at the Khan: gold, silver, brass, trinkets, clothing, shoes. There are fragrant spices, pipes for smoking strong Egyptian tobacco. There are carpets, lamps, art and artifacts. There are gorgeous scarves and shawls, billed as Pashmina that are really wool and silk fibers, shawls that can be had for around $8 if you drive a hard bargain, hard enough that the shopkeepers will tell you you're trying to make them go broke and then delightedly close the transaction. More than anything, the Khan's a dandy place to people watch. Young, old, locals...

This morning, thanks to the relentless door bumping of my cats who thought I was a laggard, I was up before the sun. On a wet Pacific Northwest morning, with heavy overcast and leaking clouds, there is scant reward for being up so early, except not having to hear the cat thumps and bumps. Ah, but in Egypt it's a different story. "Luxor Sunrise" © 2009 Meri Arnett-Kremian No matter where you are, no matter how gloomy the skies, I wish you the colors of a Luxor sunrise.

Our Egyptian tour guide gave us a special treat one night, a tour of the streets of Luxor that tourists don't generally see. These goats have taken up residence on the street where he was born and where his parents and grandparents lived before him. This house is painted with scenes showing the sights the owner saw on his pilgrimage to Mecca. This is the way that people tell others about their holy pilgrimage, publicly reveal their devotion to Islam. The end of his old childhood street used to be walled off so there was no direct access to the market area. They had to take a several-block-long route to reach the market. The wall of the neighborhood barber shop tips us off as to the proprietor's religious affiliation. A wide variety of goods is available in local markets. The horse, by the way, is pulling the cart upon which we were riding, Seeing American tourists riding on a farm cart was a source of great amusement to the citizens of Luxor. We were more than happy to have the...

In our little dahabeya, we cruised from Aswan to Luxor, mooring alongshore in relative isolation, far from the bigger river boats. We spent a total of eight nights aboard the Afandina so the daylight hours (when we weren't at ancient sites or participating in writing sessions) afforded us a chance to sit and chat and watch Egypt go by. The area alongside the river is verdant. But, as you can see, the desert is never far away.

How do I explain Egypt to you? It's both the expected and the unexpected. I didn't expect, for example, that traffic in Cairo would make Manhattan cabbies look like models of civility. I didn't anticipate that every place I looked I'd find a visual feast. I didn't know that I'd take a whole series of photos of beautiful weathered doors in Esna and Luxor. I expected to find photo ops in abundance and I wasn't disappointed. I didn't expect that when Egyptians asked if we were English or Canadian and found that we were Americans, they'd burst into grins and flash a thumbs up and say "Obama! Good man." But they did. What a trip! I'll be showing you more glimpses of Egypt in days to come. I hope you won't get bored.