el primero

A salaam aleikum and welcome to the new blog. Who knows what it's all about or where it's gonna go. Kinda like life that way. This is, as the title suggests, other things. My other blog is a collection of my poetry, which started as a place to leave my heartache and emotional flood that I was experiencing at the time. It has since evolved into something different, a mix of real world issues, simple things, and what not. But this is the place for whatever else I want to write that isn't in poetic form.

First of all, choosing the layout from what blogger.com has to offer is like being faced with all the different chip flavors on the shelf. What's the mood, how do I feel about it, what am I in for at this moment, etc...so I went with the one that had "rose" in its name. I like roses. If you know me well enough then that would come as no surprise. And right now the native little five-petaled roses are blooming and it reminds me of the nicer things in life. I believe the smell of these roses have the power to change a lot. They've changed a lot in my life.

So hopefully this new blog with its rosy layout and relevant quotes and shit like that will convey that other side of me that is a flower in spring time and not the black emotional midnight of the stormy northwest winter. It's all important. I value the darkness as much as the light fluffy stuff. Fair warning, I like to lay down some heavy shit though, and I have a potty mouth from growing up around Marines. The blood and guts of life are always present and that's where I like to be, in the thick of it.

With that, I'm gonna give it up for my ancestors, those who went before me and laid down the path for me to follow. Today is the fourth year since my maternal grandmother's passing. She was the last of my grandparents, so now it's me in the middle of the river. My parents on one shore and my children on the other. I'm 35 this year, halfway to 70, which is how old my father is. I'm right in the middle of this mysterious flow. My kids are 8, halfway to 16. This seems like a very significant time in my life, and believe me, all things have significance for me. In that way I think I'm some kind of indigenous person living in the body of an American man. Life for me is a series of symbols and metaphors, things to pay attention to and honor. I'm just trying to find my way home. I promise I'll do my best to help you find the way too. We're all in this together.

Let's talk about the weather...NOT! Thanks be to the rain that has been falling all week and probably will for another week. Do the fish talk about the water?

Well, whatever. Here's to the first post on this new blog. Does it mean something? Probably, maybe not, I guess that's for you to decide. Let's see where it goes. And thanks for reading, whoever you are. Thanks for being a companion in this life.