I started learning how to write and read Chinese about two weeks ago and know 126 characters. I bought a book on ancient Chinese architecture...all in Chinese of course. At first I decided all I wanted it for was for reference material, but after asking about a hundred questions to my Chinese friends about different pages in the book I decided I might as well learn to read Chinese. Surprisingly it is not difficult...just time consuming. My target is 50 characters a week. I'm enjoying learning the history of some of the characters....laugh for example is the bamboo radical over the gentle radical....forming laugh or 'Syau'. The explanation for this is that when you laugh you hold your belly and bend backwards...representing what the Chinese thought to be the movement of bamboo when gently blown by the wind. What's nice about living here in Taiwan and learning Chinese is that my classroom is all around me, it has been fun to see things emerge out of the blur and to finally make sense.... oh yeah that says 'entrance', etc... Literacy here I come. Next languages to learn on the list are Japanese, Russian....plus I'd like to polish up my Portuguese and try my hand at Spanish...but I'm not banking on having the time to achieve all that yet... ;)

Saw the 'new' Wes Anderson movie the other day and was struck by how he manages to create these amazing characters that reflect so much of our own humanity back at us... bizarrely. One of my favorite scenes in the movie has too be the race to get onto the train between Bill Murray and Adrien Brody. It ends with a helpless little shrug by Adrien Brody as Bill Murray disappears into the distance at the end of the platform. Hilarious and sad at the same time. 

So life's still hectic, new additions tend to do this to one's life... compounded by Dylan of course... I don't regret anything though and I am enjoying and loving my children despite the lack of sleep... Getting things done is challenging though... I'm working on a illustration called 'Day at the zoo' and find myself painting up to 1 or 2 in the morning... my bedtime is consistently about 12 pm and I get my rude awakening around about 7 am. Do the math, I'm not sleeping much.

Isn't it strange how, with some people, the best you can get is to only manage to talk past each other. No matter how hard you try to actually connect with the other person... it is just no use, miscommunication tends to be a staple when I talk to some people... sad really. There seems to be a lack of desire to cross boundaries, I worry about how I am being perceived... I know my body language so easily misrepresents what I'm really feeling inside. So... just another frustrating conversation ... beating around the bush of polity and appearances. Perhaps it's my fault, I know I try to hide who I am... I've been scared for far too long. I don't care anymore. This is me. Take it or leave it. There are some who get you, the others... well they may never even want to try. 

If you read this ... thanks for reading.

The year of the RAT...

It has been a very long time since my last post... so much has happened since my last post... My family came to visit us for Christmas... THEN on the 18th of January I witnessed the birth of my daughter, Maya Indigo Maureen Correia... crazy times, crazy times... It is chinese new year today, the year of the rat is upon us, it is going to be a cool year. Anyway with this begin my posts once more...

It is time to let go babe...

Letting go is the hardest thing to do.
Not letting go because you have given up or don't believe anymore,
because life has jaded your desires and beliefs,
not letting go because you feel betrayed or angry,
not letting go because it is easier than taking responsibility,
but letting go because you are not in control of things anyway,
you can't control what others think and feel about you,
to demand love nullifies true love,
Of what value are actions and feelings given under threat or constraint?
or out of your own actions of love?
To let go because you want to live in the moment,
to experience life in it's purest form,
both the pain and happiness that comes our way,
to let go and trust in the cosmic flow of our existence,
to experience the little wonders of it all.
To look inside and see our true self,
and bring that power to those around us.
To those we love and those we hate.
No matter what fear or thoughts assail us,
to surf it rather than struggle against the tide.
It's the easiest and most difficult thing to do,
to let go.

A hole in the universe...

'They' found a hole in the universe, a place where there is apparently no matter; is that, technically a place or is it a non place? Would we be able to go to or into somewhere where there is nothing? Of course, by being able to go there we would then have supposedly changed that place/non-place forever; by bringing matter into a place without matter. What would the nature of existence be in an undefined something that has nothing that we are familiar with? 'They' find a gap in the universe and I can't help but wonder about it all again. What's beyond the undefined borders of our universe? Is there more nothing out there beyond the farthest star? All of this is so much bigger than you and I. Here I am, sitting and typing this on a planet that is spinning around on itself whilst hurtling through space in an orbit around the sun; just one star in a seemingly impossible number of other stars forming part of our galaxy which is really a relatively small place compared to the soup of galaxies that compose our universe. How do I compare to all of that? The funny thing is that though I probably don't even show up as a static blip on the radar of it all, yet I feel connected to the essence of it. I have a sense of a greater purpose. It makes me want to laugh out loud, this is why life can never be boring in this wicked cool world we share.

Pregnant vs. no excuse...

This is what happens when 'pregnant brain' meets 'artist brain':

Heather: So, it is raining in Ohio...must be because of the hurricane..
Ciro: Uh-huh...
Heather: Sandy's family lives there...I wonder if they're okay?
Ciro: Oh really? In Ohio?
Heather: Yeah...they even brought the spaceship back earlier....
Ciro: ? Oh...Why didn't 'they' just leave it parked outside Uranus...(thinks Heather is being funny so makes a weak attempt at being funny back)...
Heather: yes, because of the rain...
Ciro: (confused)...in ohio...never realised Sandy's family had a spaceship...
Heather: (laughing) No! The space shuttle...
Ciro: (laughing) yeah...I was quite surprised that Sandy's family has their own spaceship...

Good buddies and Burl the cool...

Ivo and Burl came over to visit Dylan the other day, Sandy tagged along to visit Heather...They play so well together lately...Burl is looking so alert and with it..He has got this cool look going about him...nice play time together...good job guys!

Father's day...

In Taiwan, celebrated on the 8th day of the 8th month...because 8 is ba in Chinese and baba means father...so...We went out and had the most enormous southern cobb salad I have seen in my life. It was pretty cool. Thanks guys fer spoiling me...heehee.

Above: Beautiful Heather...(sigh)

Yoga with Dylan...

I love this... Dylan is a natural yogi....He is often doing spontaneous yoga poses...downward dog seems to be a favorite at the moment...He did this before I started yoga so I reckon it is not form observation. When I do yoga and he hasn't gone to bed or is still asleep he likes to join in with me...without fail he has to join in...

Dylan's celebrity lookalikes...