As I’m stumbling along on my “healing ramble” series (please watch the intro video for overview and disclaimers, not unusually, finding myself a little bit overwhelmed with all the artifacts, memories, items, even data, to share. So, rather than obsess over it just putting it all out there, even if it’s a bit redundant.
The next “real” dispatches from the series include my “tips for travelling with a chronic illness” (which is rather practical and logistical stuff), plus another entry from Sri Lanka, another from Nepal, a tough one from Pacifica California, more from other places i forgot and maybe I’ll even fill in the missing gaps from Adelaide Australia, Austin Texas, and crossing Canada looking for a home.
In the meanwhile here are the fronts of some notebooks and a postcard which allude to some of the above.
not really at the hospital but still captures the spirit of the scene
Memo: What follows comes from my erstwhile “Healing Journal” – written/compiled on a foggy meandering journey to various countries (Pacifica, Phitsanulok, Cochin, Pokhara, Dikwella/Galle…) visiting all manner of hospitals, clinics and exploring various healing modalities and techniques.
Shared here more-or-less unedited for posterity (whatever that is) and to shed light to those struggling who might come across this riff. Please watch the “Healing Ramble, introduction” video for context on this series.
Importantly, this is not meant to be a travelogue or creative writing exercise, just laying out my experience as it came to me. I may include some links to other projects or creations that came out of this, maybe… I’m not there yet.
This entry, from is from Galle Sri Lanka, late 2017 and written in the weeks following. It’s now April 2022, i live in Japan, am stable if far from “normal”. No comments, sympathy requested or accepted. Carry on.
I attended this hospital for Ayurveda treatments for some weeks during Dec. 2017-Jan 2018 and was treated by a kind practitioner called Ruwan. I also met with a wise Doctor who recommended I do a longer in-patient Panchakarma program here, but… some life situations changed and i didn’t do the program. I saw the rooms and talked to the doctors and while it was very spartan and not cozy, the staff seemed to be very intent on their practice.
Dissanayake Ayurvedic Hospital: Lobby
Routine: Mr. Prem dropped me off via his Tuk-tuk (he introduced me to the facility in the first place), i then went to a window to announce myself (to everyone’s great surprise!) and then sat in the waiting area. Mr. Ruwan would come back from lunch, i would strip down to underwear and lay down on a wooden table (covered with a vinyl sheet) in a shared room with folks coming and going for massage with loads and loads of oil.
While I’m here >> while in bed I did scribble & stampify a batch of lovely postcards. This month’s offerings features payphones around the world. Each unique capturing variations of pinnacle of practical utility & design
Aside from the payphone postcard series, were a few other incidentals that went out in this last batch. Note: When I decide to send a postcard to someone, I consider which postcard (theme, paper, metaphor) would be *just right*, kind of my way of doing Tarot cards I guess.
Including New Year’s cards, sent out about 500+ last year (includes my “postcards as a service“ members, art dossiers, packets, presents etc.) but it never feels like *enough* >> I always have a stack half finished i’m meaning to finish & send, especially to kids.
Related: my friend Cathy Browne (now on CBC) sent me this in replay to my payphone snaps – its a beauty!
"Oh that’s a beauty! I see hopes, waiting, being lost, being found, unidentified bacteria, debris never to be collected, a pin on a map at a maintenance shed no one looks at, pockets full of coins that’s never quite enough, figuring time zones & what to say when it’s been so long."
By the way, my adorable wife mailed me a postcard from a museum she visited recently for work. Such a treat to receive! And my friend @atomicpoet mailed me a cassette mix tape with custom J sleeve. two items of quality indeed!
While I am sharing postcards, this New Year’s card was on its way to a Tzouras player in Greece but Greece & Japan’s postal systems arent getting along right now so it came back. Pretty though.
However: Re-considering my little slacker “postcard shop” as @buymeacoffee changed their payment options/workflow and my meagre little funds are captured in limbo. Admin hassles kind of takes the fun out of it :(
So my choices as I see it are:
1) Set up a “proper” shop with Shopify or Woo #hassle
2) Set up a cheap and cheerful Etsy shop #cheesy
3) Move to Patreon #Patronizing & pressure
4) Shut it and go back to sending postcards ad hoc for no reason in particular Thoughts/advice?
Ok, one more envelope to address *and* this month’s “postcard as a service” postcards are printed! Gotta figure another/different/better system than current though.
Newest Postcard series for the “daveo postal club” members and other free radicals. Snaps come from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Australia maybe, other places as well but mostly tall slender red unit except the blue one, and the ones that are red but not post boxes.
such elegance and utility in the designs which somehow feel universal and unique at the same time
completely unrelated, half finished and lost painting (that was changed entirely) in Jamaica which appeared on a robot and posting here so i don’t forget it
Kind of nervous about this project but somehow it feels like a good (or important) idea so here we go… &/or just watch :).
I deal with #MECFS a complicated complex and chronic disease (see below).
After diagnosis eight years ago (2013), I was kinda ground-up by then-local (Vancouver, Canada) medical system through challenging and ill-advised therapies, a litany of dangerous medications and laborious uneventful tests. Plus my entire life seemed to fall apart… ugh. As such I set out on a meandering journey seeking to figure out what was up with my body and brain and try to find a way forward. Continue reading Healing Ramble: #MECFS journey to Thailand, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and onwards→
Still life with postcards, inky stamps, cup of tea, bowl of nuts / was making up for some poor decisions at the time by (trying to) spread love out into the world. Hope it worked. Did you receive one of these treats?
(excerpt of poem – written by me – read at Kemp and Sheila’s wedding vow ceremony)
really unrelated snap, as it goes a tea shack in Sri Lanka
Now, all is deliciously possible A present to savour A history to grow A future to whittle To any possible shape
So, How shall we fill this vessel?
Devoid of cynicism and ego, Jealousy or restraint With rambunctious affection In all possible forms To manifest and articulate Unabashed tactile Love.
Shall we fill with endless notes Of spontaneous jazz and Distant gazes from close range? Slow dances to quick songs Languid mornings following Smouldering nights?
Celebration of the commonplace? Anticipation of usual happenstance? Easy banter about nuanced topics? On verandahs and gazebos a like Replete with warm drinks And cool touch?
With fond hellos and Infrequent goodbyes As we seek nowhere to go Desire no escape In darkness and rain All yearnings were sent away
Marrow and soul Now have a purpose, a place A place to dwell With you, always As together we fill This vessel Full.
– daveo, Pokhara, Nepal 2017 (photo: Sri Lanka, 2018)
I stayed in Sri Lanka (near Galle) for a while doing some Ayurvedic treatments, drinking tea and wondering wtf i was doing etc. As such, i made an address stamp for ease in my copious correspondence, usually performed at a tea shack down the road.
Sri Lanka / writing letters at the tea shackSri Lanka / tea at the tea shackSri Lanka / tea shack as seen via Ggle Maps Street ViewBonus: Sri Lanka / postal stamps (cancelled)Artifacts: Sri Lanka / ink address stamp
couple Canadian classic with Farley Mowat atop Wade Davis’ Serpent and the Rainbow
Books are my pals, even since a kid – and sometimes books (by circumstance or convenience) are stashed at mysterious locales around the world.
Sometimes, i snap pics of the cache for future reference, sometimes they go to little /free libraries, sometimes into my “Liberated Literature” program.
Regardless, sometimes, the bookcases and/or contents are captured for memory of spending time with friends in a still-life of sorts. As such, this dossier of evidence.
Ed’s final piece was stashed at Sensei Larry’s house since who knows when…
In this round-up is an assortment of books gathered here and there / sometimes used, sometimes new and sometimes re-collecting from someone’s house where the tome has fermented awaiting my pickup.
Some have recently re-arrived (i assume) to me in present day (April 2020) and are waiting to be unloaded from a box and placed lovingly on a shelf.
This little book appeared in prep for (now cancelled) Jack Kerouac preso and is driving directions for the roadtrip chronicled in OtR using Ggle Maps driving directions – a fun remix idea!
Letters from the “Dr” which are more prescient now than ever.
Picked up a Beat Museum looking forward to actually digging in.
50th anniversary documentary from the noted (and recently sold) Vancouver arts and culture weekly.
This one sent to Sooby in NJ (acquired in Sri Lanka).
Such a solid in-depth primer for Middle East history (though wasn’t meant to be that per se)
