wuthering heights

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees - my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath - a source of little visible delight, but necessary." -- Cathy, Chapter 9 p.82

Someone asked me why I love this novel so much, when it is so dark and depressing and the characters are despicable, and I really can't explain why. The closest that I could come up with is that its one of the few novels that I want to read over and over again. And each time I read it, the story somehow becomes new again, and I fall in love again, perhaps even more than the last time. Yes, the world that Emily Brontë created is bleak but it is so rich and multilayered, and the characters will endear themselves to you not because they are likeable but because they are complex and flawed and yes, very much human.

// Screencaps taken from the 2011 Wuthering Heights adaptation by Andrea Arnold. Has anyone seen this movie? I'd love to hear what you think of it and your thoughts on the novel, too.

happy seventy-five, golden gate bridge!

Yesterday was the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary and we were there to celebrate. It culminated with a fireworks display that was nothing short of spectacular. Especially during the opening sequence when they turned off all the lights on the bridge and then all of a sudden there was a cascading waterfall of lights. So gorgeous!

Watch an awesome video of the fireworks here. I promise it is worth your time.

On a personal note, I thought about what the bridge means to me and felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. For its beauty, for the freedom that it represents, and for the way it comforts me. When I feel like I need to get away from my hectic city life, I often drive across the bridge to go to Marin or Sonoma and come back feeling like myself again. It takes me to faraway coasts, endless hiking trails, quaint little towns along the sea, lush vineyards. Most of all, it takes me back to the city that I love the most.

Photo taken by me, via iPhone Instagram

so many stories

I would like to step out of my heart
and go walking beneath the enormous sky. -- Rilke

Hello friends! Hisashiburi (This means "It's been a long time" in Japanese).
I have so many things to tell you, I'm not sure where to begin.

A beautiful Saturday evening, sitting on the edge of the water, we watched the brightest moon rise over the bay. Someone was singing, the sound of the crashing waves, the smell of the sea, and magic in the air. I danced barefoot and laughed at my messy pirouettes.

More dancing, this time while waiting in line in front of the crème brûlée cart one Friday night. Holly said she wants to write a poem about the crème brûlée man with beautiful eyes and the Christmas lights inside his truck. Later we went to a used bookstore and I was so happy to see Owen, their resident cat, curled up sleeping on a chair.

Another weekend, I took the wrong freeway exit and ended up in a quaint neighborhood in Berkeley. Found a bookstore called Mrs. Dalloway's. Though I have a rule to buy only used books, how could I resist a shop named after one of my favorite novels and has a whole section dedicated to Virginia Woolf? I simply couldn't. I walked out with a new copy of this book.

This same book I took with me to the coast yesterday afternoon. I had no idea there was going to be a solar eclipse. Someone came and brought a pair of eclipse sunglasses and soon we took turns viewing the partially-covered sun. Feeling a sense of kinship with strangers, standing there on a porch of a beach-house-turned-coffee-shop.

So many stories. My heart is full.

Photo taken by me, via my iPhone.
I also uploaded a short video of our moonviewing here.

sacred afternoons

I will never grow tired of all this light.

at the park // on top of a hill overlooking the bay // among books and poets //
a quiet corner to read // sitting by the ocean, digging my toes so deep in the sand.

Thank you all for your kind words for my previous post. I am definitely in a much happier space
than I was last month. And its only going up from here. Big hugs. xx

Disposable camera photos, taken by me.

from blossoms

Late March to April // Some photos from my disposable camera.

I wish I could say that these past two months were as bright and carefree as the images that I took but it was actually the opposite. I felt like I was so thick in the middle of this dark and frightening place that all I could do is to cling passionately to the things that make me happy.  Words, beauty, sunsets, films, letters, the sea.

One cold evening, I met up with a good friend for dinner. We hadn't seen each other in awhile and as soon as he saw me, he touched my face and said, with certainty, you're in love. I wanted to cry at the irony of his words, tell him just how difficult the last few weeks were. Then I realized that perhaps he is right. That I am, at least trying to, fall in love with my life again.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
-- Li-Young Lee