Stray Gifts

We've reached month 17. I visited my ortho on Friday and he was once again pleased with the progress, and I'm once again back to teeth that don't line up, eggs and mashed potatoes, and liquid lunches. I'm back to tripping over my tongue, and yesterday, my throat gave out, but with copious amounts of tea, honey and citrus bioflavinoids, I'm miraculously better. I also had dinner with my dear friend Pete at Ippudo, where I experienced firsthand the healing powers of that incredibly rich ramen broth. (The sake and plum wine didn't hurt either.) I haven't seen Pete in years, and there is nothing like catching up with an old friend to cure what ails you.

That was the first thing to put me in a good mood. What followed after was rather extraordinary.

I got on the train today, and though I didn't get a seat, I was standing right in front of an old man who wore a wool fedora and a 1940s style overcoat just like my grandpa used to. Though he didn't look like him, there was some similarity there, some old-world feeling that I find charming and mannered. I have always liked men of a certain age. My mother says that when I was three years old, I would walk down the Brooklyn Promenade on sunny days and climb into the laps of all the old men. She said that it was probably because I was looking for Grandpa. I think it's because I was just as charmed by gentlemen then as I am now.

He got up to leave the train a stop before I did and we exchanged such warm smiles with one another that my mood elevated even more. I didn't mind the snow that was falling in great flakes outside. In fact, I found it really, really lovely. (The description of snow from The King and I came to mind: "Little bits of lace, falling from the sky.")

I met my brother for lunch and had such a good time with him that I was practically skipping back to my office. A man in the street tried to give me a 50% off coupon for Baluchi's. When I said thanks but no thanks, he said to me, "You look great!" I smiled and walked away. As I was halfway down the block he yelled, "My name is Shawn!"

And then! I had dinner with my friend Alicia who presented me with an enormous flower arrangement bursting with yellow tulips and lavender roses and freesia. (Oh my!) It was left over from a work event, and I was so touched that she brought it for me. My apartment smells like a spring garden. It's nothing short of a dream juxtaposed to the frigid tundra outside.

As Wordsworth said, "Pleasure is spread through the earth in stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find." I am so grateful for all the stray gifts of the day! I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Party in Your Mouth

Good God. Have you seen these?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/new-japanese-fashion-l-e-d-lights-for-your-teeth/

As ludicrous as I think they are, they might be really appropriate for when I get my braces off! Anyone going to Japan anytime soon?

Everything Changes

And it can be so beautiful. I love this video for that reason:

Time Lapse NYC Snow Blizzard from K Taro Hashimura on Vimeo.

Feliz Ano Nuevo

My people! I have not abandoned you! My sincerest apologies for not writing for so long. I've been traveling, and decompressing from the rather stressful end to 2010. I don't know one person who wasn't simply thrilled to kiss this past year goodbye.

I took refuge in Costa Rica a mere two days after my last entry, and after being there, something has changed entirely. Nicole and I did a phenomenal yoga retreat in the mountains where I finally got my yoga practice back, lost my seemingly debilitating dependence on sugar, was face to face with a jaguar, a ghost face monkey, a tarantula, quite a few crocodiles and so many beautiful birds. I went zip lining in the cloud forest. I let my heavy heart get light. I slept as I've never slept before. I don't feel the cold anymore. (An affliction I've felt for over 20 years.) I saw rainbows in the coffee fields every single day. Here, see for yourself:

While I was there, I arranged for a massage, where I told the practioner about my struggle and unhappiness with the braces. He worked on my whole body, but at the end, held my cheeks and jaws in his hands for quite a while, simply letting his heat and energy absorb into my face. This struck me as so kind, and so intimate that I wanted to cry.

It was so interesting to find upon my return that Dictionary.com's Word of the Day was "mansuetude" which means "mildness, gentleness" as in "For indeed, it is possible to attain a state of divine mansuetude that nothing dismays and nothing surprises, just as one in love might, after many years, arrive at a sublime tranquillity of the sentiments, sure of their force and durability, through constant experience of their pleasures and pains." -- Honoré de Balzac, Jordan Stump, Adam Gopnik, The Wrong Side of Paris

I don't know why I love that quote so much, but I do. It somehow sums up everything that I've been feeling, and the profound shift that has happened since being in Costa Rica. I feel balanced, unburdened. I want to smile and I don't care what's on my teeth. They look good to me, in fact, and I've caught up with quite a few friends who I haven't seen in months who have been utterly beguiled by how good they look. (And may have inspired a friend or two to take the plunge themselves)

It is no coincidence then, that Dictionary.com's Word of the Day, right after mansuetude was "creolize" which means "to combine local and foreign elements into a new, distinct whole." That would be me. I've been creolized. I've been Costa Ricafied. Quite literally, I've been enriched by the Rich Coast. I am local, and foreign, and a new, distinct whole. Put simply, I am ready. I don't know for what exactly, but I've started drinking coffee again in gratitude, and it feels lovely, warming, luxurious to do so.