End o’ the year 2007…

Happy New Year to everyone. I came across one of my fave little books in the web. It’s Kandinsky’s “Concerning the Spiritual in Art” and you can get it free if you go over to this website: www.gutenberg.org.

It’s a great read. I had a friend once tell me about her midnight New Year’s Eve tradition. She would write down all her hopes for the year as wishes on little pieces of paper and then plant them underneath a blanket of seeds. This way, as the wishes came true she’d see flowers. It’s a mindful way to think about the turning of the year, and also beautiful too. Imagine if they were sunflowers. It’s my feeling that the world needs all the sunflowers it can get at the moment. Make sure that you get open pollinated organic seeds though.

So, working on a memoir. It’s called “White Girl” and on some levels is a massive expose of what it was to come of age during a certain period. It’s gotten great feedback from those who have read the first chapters. I chose that title because of a song that the band X did. It sums up certain experiences we all went through and dunno. It’s uncharted SoCal ground.

How does a person “come of age” is the question. Or maybe does anybody ever?

All my old friends are going through extreme transitional periods. It’s hard to watch this as it happens. It seems they are all still trying to find or reinvent themselves. Guess so.

Me, I just want to plant some kind of dream under a sunflower, someplace.

The curious thing about a memoir is what the writer chooses to release onto the page, and the shaping of that “voice.” I chose second person for this one. So far it doesn’t seem to get in the way but I’ll have to see if it holds.

Happy New Year to you,

Valentine Bonnaire