(no subject)

at the health club today i was stretching when i heard a startling voice singing; crystalline and with a beautiful wide vibrato that only comes with age. i looked toward the singing and saw a slender old woman walking hard on the treadmill, with earphones on, eyes shut, in obvious musical ecstasy.
her singing at once shocked me, and haunted me. old women have beautiful voices.
i wonder if she knew that she had sung out loud... ?

(no subject)

i think it was a couple of years ago that caerie (harebell) taught me the cure to hiccups.
no drinking of plenitudinous amounts of water involved, nor holding of breath for immoderate lengths of time.
instead, you simply stop everything, shut down all distractions, close your eyes, and make yourself stop.
it's like closing the door on the outside world, reaching down into yourself and flipping a switch, then coming back out again.
at most it takes about 15 or 20 seconds to do, and it has never failed me. further, i was able to do it the first time i ever tried.
it is stultifying that neither of us previously, until recently, thought of applying this simple strategy to other unwanted states of body: anger, depression, obsession, 'bad moods'....
we have lately both been experimenting with this to great success.