"No one knows. They can never get that close. Guesses at most. Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching" *

"What is it about the color orange? I don't really like it."  I blurted out to my trusted friend and colleague, Ms. Bee Haven. Instantly she retorted "Your hair is orange, and so are your oversized sunglasses."

I could easily recognize that her quick witted comeback was my friend turning the therapeutic tides on me.  When I called her on it, she bellowed "The look in your eyes screeches! The sound makes me want to take a bath in blue."  She then took a deep breath and ever so gently encouraged me to remove my psychotherapist specs, take that scorching look in my eyes and sear it onto a blank, white page.  Read more...

Yesterday, I hung a new painting on the Wall.  Pink and magenta blots among cerulean swirls. The 6 foot giant canvas jutted out of the long, gray monster, next to two high titanium ladders and a wobbly wooden one. Right smack in the middle of the muted world. 

The hems of my yellow silk skirt collected concrete dust as I bravely stepped past the line of ladders and up to the Wall.  As the people on the Wall gathered about to sneer and snicker, I hung it by myself, standing my ground in my sturdy souled shoes, with nothing but a hammer, a step stool, and long silver nails designed to last. 

I call this painting Wonder, and created it just for this spot. A few weeks back, I saw a Short Waves report about the latest fingernail scratching on the leaden, slate Wall. I couldn't get the sound out of my mind.  It was a common scenario. One fist clamped to their ladder, the other clawing at their neighbor as they tried pushing them off in order to get to the top. The sound of fingernails and the ladder scraping on the slate was excruciating. 

Have you found joy today? If so, was it on the face of the barista who waited on you at the Coffee Chop this morning? No? Why would you ever expect to find it there, you ask cynically?

After my neon pink helicopter lands on the top of the Starbright Towers, I'll often head into the Coffee Chop for a quick cup of peppermint tea before I ascend to my globe penthouse in my pink spiral heels.  When I do, I often leave a tip with a small pink card that READS "It's the Dance."  I find that most of the baristas pick up the card, read it, and squint in confusion. They seem to be more concerned with the amount I left in the tip jar than the real tip I left them in my card.

"Today in this very busy bee self-consuming modern day superficial world of instant gratification and wanna-bees, there's a buzz of belonging to another world. The few who already belong to this world make it seem so simple and effortless, as if they are just naturally there. These are the bees who live their dreams and are often noticed by the masses, with some even changing the course of history.  

And so it's no wonder that many bees desperately seek this other world. Yet they seem to be constantly bumping against it like a window, seeing exactly where they want to go in plain sight - right there on the other side of this invisible barrier - but unable to get there. 

It was not an easy climb.  To reach Mzzz. Pink's exclusive globe apartment at the top of Starbright towers, I had to take off my six inch pumps and put on my best pair of climbing shoes.  There are no elevators draped in glitter and pink fur to get there. No free rides on her neon pink helicopter. First came the wooden ladders, then the steel, and eventually titanium, which are rougher on the soul than I could have ever imagined. 

The first time I saw the Sign of the Times I was late for work. Back then, I was working as a nurse at Humpty Hospital, and on that particular day I stopped at the Coffee Chop on my way to work. My friend Vicki Pedia and I were kookling for a knock off pair of Mzzz Pink’s spiral shoes. You see, the day before, we saw her get off her neon pink chopper wearing these really cool shoes and just about gasped! When I worked at Humpty, I had to wear these really ugly and expensive shoes. It was unbearable to wear them day after day!  Vicki and I lost track of the time, and when I realized I was late, I rushed out of the Coffee Chop, onto the boardwalk and bumped into the sign, spilling my coffee! As I picked up my things, I read the sign. It read Happiness... over there, and Someday... this way.