HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHIARA!

Day 27

Krios beach, Paros

The beach means different things to  different people.  For me, it’s the sand beneath my feet, the sound of the waves and the smell of sea air.  However, for others it means dedicating one’s time to ephemeral activities such as sunbathing and building sandcastles.

Camping at Krios beach

I consider sunbathing an ephemeral activity in that, despite all the time and effort you dedicate towards getting a tan and all of the hours spent imitating souvlaki on a grill, it rapidly fades away.

Dad helping his little girl build sandcastle

little boy building alone

There’s a tenderness in seeing young children building sandcastles. They are so focused on making something that will be washed away by the waves. Like sand mandalas that are painstakingly made and then destroyed, sandcastle construction is an example of BE HERE NOW and that it is the process and not the product that gives satisfaction.

I’ve noticed that fathers more so than mothers enjoy participating in the making of sandcastles.

two friends building together

the beginning or the end of a castle?

from Miltos Pantelias’ palimpsest series

Yesterday Pierluigi and I had the great pleasure of meeting with the artists Irini Gonou and Miltos Pantelias at their incredible summer home on Naxos. I have already written about Irini HERE but will do so again this winter as there are some aspects of her work too enchanting to resist. But today I want to mention Miltos’ work.

We get the word “ephemeral” from the Greek “εφήμερος” (ephemeros) which means “lasting only one day”. Miltos’ work hints at fragility yet it transforms the ephemeral into something eternal. His palimpsest series is mesmerizing. A palimpsest is a manuscript page that’s been scraped or washed with milk so it can be used again for something else (ancient recycling). But sometimes, after years of hiding, like a ghost the original writing (scriptio inferior) resurfaces. Miltos’ palimpsests magically seduce the Only One Day and he resuscitates the past to create a new life. Πολύ όμορφη!

Today’s mantra comes from “To Tango tis Nefelis” by Haris Alexiou & Loreena McKennett. It’s the story of Nefeli and two little angels who tried to feed her  pomegranates so she’d forget what she wanted. But Zeus intervened by turning Nefeli into a cloud making it impossible for the angels to find her.

Eating pomegranates caused Persephone a lot of problems. Hades kidnapped her and took her to his underground home. Persephone knew that if she ate or drank anything in the underground world, she would be forced to stay there forever. But after a week of not eating, she lost her willpower and ate a pomegranate. 

Desires are ephemeral. And so is life.

Like a cloud. OM. Like a cloud.

Related links:  Exploring Ephemeral Practices pinterest + The Archimedes Palimpsest pdf + Secrets of the Page: Palimpsests