I am slowly creeping into the new year. I don’t know what to expect so I want to be ready to run.
The sky has a strange color like a white bed sheet that got washed with black jeans. It’s been like this for several days now. And we are all feeling waterlogged.
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Sometimes we go for a walk at Villa Ada. I took a clipping from one of the laurel shrubs and stuck it in a pot on our balcony. Now it’s growing and aims for the sky. Laurel, aka bay leaf, is used in cooking. But it has more than just flavour. Bay leaf helps treat digestive problems, lowers blood sugar, eliminates bad cholesterol, and helps fight insomnia. And, in you boil the leaves and inhale the steam, you can get rid of phlegm and reduce a cough.
In Greek myth, Daphne was a naiad, that is, a water nymph. She was quite lovely so the naughty Cupid put a curse on Apollo causing him to fall madly in love with her. But Daphne was not interested. She tried running away from the arrogant god but he chased her and demanded a kiss. Desperate, Daphne cried out to her father, the river god Peneus, for help. To save her from Apollo’s lust, Peneus transformed his daughter into a laurel tree.
In Greek, the name Daphne (Δάφνη) means “laurel”.
So for all you tree huggers, don’t squeeze the laurel.
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Related: The Metamorphoses of Ovid…read on archive.org HERE.
I was 19 when I was pulled by a current off the Long Island coast. Scared, I tried to stay calm, float parallel to the beach, and, above all, not waste energy struggling to fight the current. “Just keep your head above the water” my instincts told me.
Instincts can make mistakes but they aren’t liars. And, although I eventually arrived safely on shore, the fear of deep water has never left me.
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Note: “Thalassophobia” is the fear of deep water. The term comes from the Greek “thalassa” (sea) and “fobos” (fear).
Things can’t always stay the same.
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Life is no longer linear. It’s full of curves, blind spots, and lacks a continuous flow.
It’s easy to be insecure when you can’t see where you’re going. So, for everyday life, why not follow the guidelines used for driving through a curve:
“Ease up when going inside a curve then accelerate when going out.”
In other words, stability is a straight line.
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The Narrative Within 