re-emerging

Sometimes life gets in the way. Interferes and imposes a new schedule or a new set of priorities. Over the last two years I've been focused on a different form of creativity. Making my life humm, making sure balance, gracefulness and mindfulness were ever present. This took me away from this blog. But the time has come to re-emerge. So here. I'm back.

Although not posting, I have been living and making. Small steps into defining this new chapter. Yes vague. But yes, new chapter.

Perhaps the project that is the first of this new phase was the merapi red circle. A ritual for delineating my own space. The year before I married, in 1995, I climbed an erupting volcano, Mt Rinjani in Lombok. It is perhaps one of those experiences that ranks up in the top five of extraordinary. The volcano killed two people the night I spent up on the rim. They were on the other side, where the ash and rocks were being spewed. I remember the sound, the lightening, the intensity so clearly. It was transformative in that I felt awed and alive.

After the end of my marriage, I decided to climb another volcano. Although not fully erupting, it was steaming and spewing and erupted only a few months later. This one was Merapi, in Java. I went with meridel, she photo-ed, I climbed and gps-ed and made a little statement for myself at the top. A red circle of closure. A wish circle. A prayer circle. The action was meant for me alone. But it was performance and it meant finality.