Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
As some of you may know, I love to spend time over by the ocean. I live about a mile or so as the seagull flies from the Atlantic and making my way over to the beach road is one of the things I do several times a week, even in tourist season.
The ocean is my mother, as familiar as my human mother. She is the source of life, a source of calm, a reflection of all my many moods....or I am of hers. It's hard to tell where we diverge, some days.
Today has been a day of reflection for me. It is a sad anniversary, but my life has moved beyond this sadness into joy. Still, I needed to be off by myself, to put things into perspective a little more, to acknowledge the passing, to embrace the joy. When I need to make this kind of emotional journey for myself....my instinct is to return to Mother Ocean.
While I was there, I happened to hear a Jimmy Buffet song. What're the chances? The beach during summer, and a Jimmy Buffet song plays! This is one of those that doesn't get as much air time these days.......and it brought us the title of tonight's diary......
Follow me over the coral reefer cheese doodle, and we'll kibitz a bit....
Each life has its ups and downs, its wins and losses, its tragedies and joys. Pain is pain, even if our pleasures may vary widely.
So when the time comes to let out the pain, release it into the void, turn that energy into something bearable, even joyous....how do we do it? There are all the self-destructive ways...we all know them, and I'm not about to list all the stupid ways I've managed to try to cope. They are of the ordinary; ordinary to the point of banal. I'm not special in that regard.
Tell you what does it, though. A little trip to Mother Ocean. I sit and watch Mother Ocean meet Father Sky, and in the meeting of horizon and space...new worlds come. As does perspective and calm. I am a dot in a vast, timeless eternity. I am important, as we all are; but I am not the singularity of it all.
You know what else does it? Music. Music is the language of the Universe. They say it's math...any scientist among us can argue that point. But math, when inspired, becomes music. And the Universe works on the principles of music. Not just the notes, but the spaces between the notes.
So it is with us. The music of our lives is meant to be joyous....but there are spaces in that joy, which balance the rest. We are meant to move in that rhythm, timed to the beat of our hearts, the echoes of our souls, the creativity of our minds. Even laughter has a song in it! As do tears. I have shed oceans of tears, over the course of a lifetime. Tears of loss, of rage, of sorrow, of joy, of pleasure. And each time, the song was a little different. My tears dried, eventually, but the songs they inspired became part of me, part of the Universe.
I'm no songwriter; but I do know a few good ones. I'm including a few of the songs that have made me cry with sorrow or joy or pleasure or pain or laughter...you never can tell which one is which, with me. Hope you enjoy them, and please do share your own.
When you've got the blues...admit it!
We don't always get to stay where it's warm...
Some days, it is unbearable, but we bear it anyway...
Just when you think you're never going to be happy again....the Universe taps you on the shoulder and gives you the chance....
Whether it's friendship from a new place or love from an old one, the cycle and rhythm of life will not be denied....unless we're too damned blind to see it. And what a shame that would be!
Eventually, we're no longer crying from pain...we're singing silly love songs, weird little ditties, or just goofy things that we didn't even realise we knew!
What moves you? What helps you work through your sorrows? How do we walk through the fire to come out tempered on the other side, with our souls intact, and our ability to love undiminished?
Pull up a chair, children, and tell your tales.
As always, this is the jumping off point. Do as you will; but have a good time doing it.