River Reverie- Words, Wanderings and Wonder
I'm living in an adopted and magical country, Thailand. I'm celebrating my birthday in the city of Angels, Bangkok. My friend Sybil and I delight in a Thai dinner of wing bean salad with spicy peanut sauce dressing, fried kale in oyster sauce and grilled fish at a river side restaurant.
Afterwards I go up to the roof top deck of our Bella Bella Riverside Hotel. The panorama of the Chao Praya River sparkles below. The operatic city sounds and sights rise up to the rooftop. Gazing down at the river I see a tiny tug boat straining as it struggles slowly to drag five barges. Their loads are so huge they burst with bulges under black tarps, looking like humped backed whales. Further up river is the Rama VIII Bridge whose suspension wires glow like a golden stringed harp against the indigo night sky. It perches above the water as if waiting for Angels to descend and pluck its strings. Reflections of the bridge’s lights paint wide stripes of gold upon the rippling black waters.
Afterwards I go up to the roof top deck of our Bella Bella Riverside Hotel. The panorama of the Chao Praya River sparkles below. The operatic city sounds and sights rise up to the rooftop. Gazing down at the river I see a tiny tug boat straining as it struggles slowly to drag five barges. Their loads are so huge they burst with bulges under black tarps, looking like humped backed whales. Further up river is the Rama VIII Bridge whose suspension wires glow like a golden stringed harp against the indigo night sky. It perches above the water as if waiting for Angels to descend and pluck its strings. Reflections of the bridge’s lights paint wide stripes of gold upon the rippling black waters.
River choruses of sound rise up to the rooftop. There is a puttering chug, chug, chug of the scorpion tail curved fishing boats. Their long pole tails, twirl rudders in the water, pushing a forward momentum. River cruise boats, lit like pastel florescent floating birthday cakes, blast out their own recorded American music. First I hear Elvis echoing off the water. Later, Aretha belts out a soaring, "Chain of Fools." These ships, too big to go under the Rama 8 Bridge turn just before, disrupting and churning the gold bands of reflected lights into ripples.
Mingling into the choir of river are the songs of street, cascading up to my ears by the strong and cooling river breeze. Mummers of street traffic from six stories below mesh into the melody, pierced with an occasional staccato accent from a car honk. A temple loudspeaker squeaks out an eerie chant from a single singing monk. Then, entering into my concert of melody, the trumpeting "whee, whee ow, whee ow" siren of an ambulance.
The sounds and sights illuminate my happiness at the end of my birthday. I am grateful for this goulash of my life: for the spicy times and even for the bitter times of sorrow. All memories, some of which fermented, forming a sorrowful education, go mixed into the pot.
Seventy-six years ago I came into this world; pushed out, a being birthed into an existence. Some miraculous force has carried me to this point of my life where I feel so blessed. My body registers time in sags, aches, droops and wrinkles. But somehow I forget all those years until I look in the mirror. Still startled to see the image of the old lady, a stranger it seems, because inside I feel full of energy and wonder. Even after years of experience it feels now as if I'm still at some sort of a beginning.
I marvel at the journeys and gifts of joy that have been bestowed upon me. Messages of remembrances from my super and loving children, my sister and "Streeter", my best friend from high school brought happiness into my birthday. Many other friends sent greetings which have heightened this sense of celebration. I’m grateful to all that I've shared sometime, someplace, somewhere on my life journey's trail.
I marvel at the journeys and gifts of joy that have been bestowed upon me. Messages of remembrances from my super and loving children, my sister and "Streeter", my best friend from high school brought happiness into my birthday. Many other friends sent greetings which have heightened this sense of celebration. I’m grateful to all that I've shared sometime, someplace, somewhere on my life journey's trail.
I have been loved. To those who I have loved deeply, happily and even sadly, I send gratitude. Mistakes I have made. Painful lessons learned. Yet I still continue to revel in this lifetime’s mysterious ways. May my worlds of wonderment continue. May this newborn wanderer, accepting all seventy-six years in body, mind and soul, continue on this life's path in pleasure pursuit.
