Happy New Year

Taken at Max Azria's birthday party in LA, at which many friends and family extolled the virtues of a sweet, kind french man, and then his guests proceeded to drown out his speech by talking over him ...

It's 09 and I find myself sitting in an apartment just shoreward from the waves breaking an aloha to Maui, and watching a dozen or so sailboats swing at anchor from south to north as the dawn settles in and the prevailing breeze takes hold. I hope it's all indicative of what this year will bring.

I head back to New York on the 11th, but until then I'm out of town pretending this year might not be scary regarding the economy.

On the plane last night I spent some time reading Henry Miller, and came across a quote that spoke to me:

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin o things. We are all part of the creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.

There's a beauty to its instruction. Before heading back to the hard grind of NYC next month, I'm spending a lot of time meditating with a journal and sorting out what needs to be sorted out. I'm taking a break from taking in a lot visually - no magazines or books, just prose - in an attempt to wipe the slate clean before I begin again later this month. And with that in mind, this blog post will be one of the few with no photos included. Just thoughts.

It's 10:30 here in Maui and down in the mooring field off my back deck one of the catamarans is already packed gunwale-to-gunwale with what must be the new years party that never ended. And surrounding it are sloops and ketches bobbing in the calm. I can't wait to get back to work, but before all that, I really just want to hitch a ride.