A new year

Lying around listening to the radio, and further off, a flock of geese calling out as they circle overhead.  It's another dark day (weatherwise), I think the rain has started up again.  Did the only thing I had to do earlier today (pick up mail), detoured home by way of the garden, found it resting mostly; artichoke plants thriving, calendula healthy and in flower (not a spot of powdery mildew to be found now) due to the wet, and very mild "cold" season.  Got back home before the rain started up again.  Three-and-a-half days left of vacation.  No longer sick.

Yesterday, went downtown early (ish) to renew driver's license, return a pair of slippers, and pay a bill.  The whole license process took less than 20 minutes, in spite of being the day after a holiday.  Biggest change (and it is a huge change) was that all of our license numbers have been updated, so have to memorize a new one, after all this time.  Went to REI to use my dividend, intending to get a water bottle, but ended up with a long wool sweater instead, the price was pretty close (why are water bottles so expensive?!)  And then went to Glazer's Camera to buy some film, been ages since I shot film, been itching to shoot some, and had been one of the things I wanted to do during the time off.  I have yet to load it into a camera, tomorrow, perhaps.  It's raining in earnest now.

Finally made it to a couple of movies, Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" and Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Shoplifters."  Both of them being more slow-burning, meandering films following the lives of a maid and the family she serves in early 1970's Mexico City (Roma), and a chosen family of shoplifters in Japan (Shoplifters), both, in a way, about "family" and how one defines and finds their place within.  "Roma" was shot in b/w, and is the most beautiful cinematography I've ever seen.  "Shoplifters" got under my skin, and has really stayed with me, there was no resolution.  There is a certain honor in the choices, even if under the rule of law and civil society, they were wrong, such as when the "father", when asked by authorities why he taught the children how to shoplift, replies, "I don't know anything else to teach them."  What they have is the love that binds them, and the secrets kept that (possibly, we never really know for sure) break those bonds apart.       

Walked the labyrinth again this year (I had told some people about it earlier in the day, and so had company this year).  I didn't find any resolution, like I had last year (but maybe I didn't need it, and sometimes action is discipline for it's own sake.  I have things I'm coming to terms with, but I think it'll be a longer process, and I'm okay with that.)  Also, I found a place to burn things to let go of, but the paper caught fire so quickly, I ended up dropping it on the floor, and letting it burn itself up there because I wasn't wearing shoes.  Luckily, the floor wasn't flammable, and I didn't burn anything down; when the flame had burned itself out, I picked up what was left of the paper and dropped it in the sand.  Later, I caught a bus to a party in Lake City, and came home before midnight because another friend was tired and driving home early, and I was able to get a ride home.  I fell asleep before midnight.  Went for a group walk in the chilly morning, but it just felt like any other day.

Life churns onward.  Happy New Year.