I'm interested in (nearly) all things which concern the mind, spirit and senses...see all of the many things with which I (apparently) "could never do without" for a window into, taste of, my multiple selves...

Besides living it? I moved here in the summer of 2010 from Jersualem, where I spent the last 12 years, 18 years in Canada and some time in France before that...so I'm still setting up my tent in this chilly city with my feline love and cobbling together a living teaching ESOL towards putting kibble in his bowl and mueseli in mine. And, having shaken up my life and uprooted it, I'm busy with my shameful excess of stuff (see George Carlin's brilliant piece on this topic) as well as questions about which of my many modest dreams to pursue and which to let go...

*noticing
*remembering birthdays
*cooking and other expressions of creativity
*enjoying the small and delicious moments in daily life
*analyzing and procrastinating
*being with children and animals
*ambivalence and asking questions
*making lists I can never complete
*laughing at my proclivity for earnestness
*kissing and touching
*tenderness and travelling
*talking and listening and learning...

My eyes and smile (or so they say.)

I've enjoyed many kinds of music and books, food and films since the days of Tapestry and Where the Wild Things Are, Good Humor and The Sound of Music...

These days, I mostly read non-fiction (social sciences) as I'm very curious about many things; books on Buddhist teachings are a familiar bedside companion. I try to read the newspaper regularly as I feel the need to know what's going on in the world around me. I'm a (very) big film person; my favorite films tend to be foreign or alternative and a well-crafted documentary is a gift. I love many kinds of music -- classical, jazz, folk, soft rock -- and listen a lot to what strangely gets called "world music" (isn't all music "world" like every one's "ethnic?!"). And I have a lively appetite for a diverse palette of foods -- passionate cook -- especially if someone else prepares it!

*animals at home and elsewhere
*my passport and backpack
*meaningful conversations and connections with others
*emotional intelligence and social justice
*irreverence and imagination
*a spicy wit and sweet words of endearment
*exclamation marks and parenthetical phrases
*European films and cities
*cheesecake and chocolate
*heroes and mentors
*bird song at dawn and golden autumn light
*routines and rituals and daring adventures
*red wine and goat cheese
*walks in the woods and along the sea
*courage and curiosity
*integrity and nobility
*water and weed
*naps and sleeping in on the weekend
*passion and compassion
*the fragrances of decaying leaves and grass after a summer rain
*hot baths and rainy days at home
*olive oil and garlic
*kissing and touch
*dreams and hope
*time with friends and time alone
*music and words
*green tea and crunchy apples
*the memory of my mother's scent
*loving and being loved
*a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y
*children, art, reflection...
but COULD do without these kinds of rules!

*food
*worrying that I think too much (especially about food) and about all of the people who don't seem to think much at all
*how to be a better person
*where to travel to next
*how we created the myriad of cultures which color our world...and how this one developed into such a narcissistic consumer empire in which people travel tethered to iPhones and iPods and Is
*the complexities of being a human bean...
*and many other mysteries of this vast universe, including how the hell this strange medium came to be such an important tool in our search for love!

Usually enjoying the quiet of home: writing letters to my good friends, watching a film with my cat tucked into my lap, having a hot bath with a good book, sharing food with a friend.

I hated filling in these boxes! And have a weakness for reading People magazine in the supermarket -- like junk food for the mind --though will never figure out what the Jennifer Aniston thing is about.

You are a sensitive and sensual person with a spacious mind, a generous heart and a playful sense of humor.

"Having loved enough and lost enough
I'm no longer searching
just opening
no longer trying to make sense of pain
but trying to be a soft and sturdy home
in which real things can land."

(From "We can talk" by Mark Nepo.)

If you have actually read all of these too many words to this place and think I am not 'near you', then don't take my location too seriously. I can be anywhere.

Know too that I am a shmoozer but not a "chatter" in the high-tech sense -- I prefer real contact with real people. So...please spare both of us.