We are family...

Do you know what it is to find one of the people you are closest to in the entire universe, cosmic sibling and best friend, after almost two years of conscious searching (and over 25 years of subconscious searching)?

Do you know what it is to have them feel the same?

Have you ever loved someone so intensely that you ended up sobbing because the emotion was too great to contain?

私は、あなたが最愛の人の男の子を愛してる。

私は永遠にあなたが大好きです。

You can't title love....

Every spring a craving is awakened in me. As soon as I see a Japanese cherry tree, my soul yearns for the blossom. I don't feel complete until I have some in my hands, in my hair, through a buttonhole. It started when I moved to Edinburgh for university 7 years ago - Edinburgh has squares within the city which are lined with cherry trees - and the first time I saw one a part of me was filled with longing.

Once upon a time, millennia ago, there was a young Japanese woman who fell in love with a man who wasn't her husband, and he fell in love with her too. One night they arranged to meet. The man brought the woman some blossom off one of the cherry trees, and they spent one beautiful, forbidden night together. At the first light of dawn the next day, the young woman dressed, picked up the blossom the man had given her, and stole back to her room before she could be missed. She never saw him again, but for the rest of that spring, and every spring following, she wore cherry blossom in her hair to remind herself of what it was to truly love. Her love for him lasted even after death, because some loves are eternal, and once forged can never be broken.

Aishiteru.

Freckle, freckle....

Oh, mother, how pretty the moon is tonight
She ne'er was so pretty before.
Her two little horns are so sharp and so bright
I hope she won't grow any more!
If I was up there, with you and my friends,
We'd fit in it nicely, you'd see.
We'd sit in the middle, and hold on at both ends
What a wonderful cradle 'twould be.
And there we would stay, 'til the dawn of the day
And in the bright clouds we would roam;
We would see the sun set, and see the sun rise
And on the next rainbow come home.

Unknown

All the important things I ever knew, I learned from my mother. Except for my past, but then, she never knew about that. How could she? I don't even know if she was there.

You can almost see the wizard through the curtain....

I have so many names sometimes I don't know what to do with myself. Jinks (Jinx), Vj, Cj (Kittynip) - and J, Jay and other permutations of my actual name.

I don't mean to sound as though I don't like it. I do. There is something freeing about having so many names, from so many people. Some of the names I've given myself, but people choose to use them. Some, people have simply given me. Some names are only used by one or two people, and I like that, too.

Identity is a strange thing. Some people change their names legally, for various reasons, but sometimes because the name they were given at birth is not a name they identify with. I understand that - for many years I didn't identify with my name. Well, maybe not as strong as that. I didn't like it, and I hated my surname. I like it now, although I like some of my 'other' names better. Jin(x)ks and J/Jay are two of my favourites, but only a few people call me the former, and only one person uses the latter.

I think how we identify gender-wise has a lot to do with how we identify with our names. I identify more happily with my non-gender-specific, but still slightly feminine, names. I do like my own name, though. God is gracious.

The swingin' sixties were not what they seemed, not everyone was lost in a technicolor dream

My friend at work showed me this yesterday. I think the 'third date rule' has changed a little bit in the last 46 years.



It's always strange to see first hand how different social norms are from generation to generation. When my great-grandmother was alive, she didn't like my first tattoo (she never lived to see the others) because, for her, tattoos were only found on sailors, criminals or 'women of loose morals'. She was shocked that my parents were quite happy with me having it.

Part of me thinks that it seems like a simpler time; the rest of me understands that I would not have lasted a week as a teenager back then.

By guess and God and hope and hopelessness.

It's funny how families work; how the person you were least close to growing up ends up being, in a perverse, messed up way, the person you're closest to. It's amazing what adulthood and distance does to relationships.

Almost regretting invitations given in haste, but the things we do to make others happy should never cause regrets, even though they often do.

My pulse still feels sluggish, as if it's pumping stale alcohol to the surface of my skin to be sweated out. This would not surprise me. Every time, I'm left wishing that I was in possession of a modicom of impulse control. Aching, exhausted, and feeling like hell, but the memories are good, and you only live this lifetime once.

I wish the air was cooler. I feel as though I'm baking in my own skin, expecting to be extra crispy any day now. Part of me can't wait for winter, even though I love the summer. Yesterday felt like July; clear blue skies, brightbrightbrightness, butterflies chasing each other (in honest idiocy of flight). There was a sweetness to the day, memories of being young and lying in a hammock slung between trees as my dog ran around crazily, before coming to lie in the shade, panting at the heat. I miss her.

I wish I could cool myself down just by pressing a button on my arm. That would be awesome.

You're more than in my head, you're more

Sometimes saying what you mean is the scariest thing in the world, when people can be so unpredictable. It's easier to hide out in the lie, or just say nothing at all ("if you can't say something nice..."). But there are some things that need to be said, because otherwise things might just get worse. Festering in your brain until they burst out in a flurry of harsh words and harsher meanings.

Passive aggressive is not a lifestyle choice.

My friend's handwriting makes the lowercase letters feel like urchins, running around in rags with dirty faces, hollering at each other across dusty streets, skinning their knees when they fall.

Sometimes I miss being that young, but then I remember what it was really like. Rose coloured spectacles give a pleasant fantasy, but sometimes it's best to remember things the way they really were so that we can appreciate the present more fully.


'Bastian Balthazar Bux,' he grumbled. 'If I'm not mistaken, you will show many others the way to Fantastica, and they will bring us the Water of Life.'