And So It Is

~ Mia Pharaoh

Lee Miller photographed by Man Ray

 

And So It Is


There exists something different, strange and mysterious today. I can smell the stillness, perhaps it’s the uncertainty of the known. I blink, accepting an invitation to an alternate reality. I blink again, I can no longer discern what material is, I assure myself it’s of no importance. An indescribable release floods my being, I let go of all attachments that anchor me to a realm of light and dark. There’s a weightlessness found in this saturated calm, like the air after a good hard rain. I feel more alive than ever, the perpetual violet twilight smiles down on me. With grace I push-off, fully immersing myself, slipping silently into the visible abyss of everything and nothing. No longer blinking, I forget all that came before this moment.

 

“Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

Henry Halloway reads, “A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe.       Zing!

 

138 thoughts on “And So It Is”

  2. I wish that I could blink and go, too. It sounds like a special place, or time, to be in. Beautifully written, as always, Mia. As a side note, the air after a hard rain? I used to have that aroma in my house all of the time. Then, thankfully I had realized that my ozone generator for my coral tank was set a bit too high. 🙂

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          1. I have a small marine tank now, but no corals. I used to import corals by way of Jakarta. In an effort to stop collecting in the wild, I started to frag, or in the parlance of gardeners, cuttings. lol! No Kryptonian references for this bassist! 😉

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    1. Thank you Soul, for you lovely words. I find that just before nightfall, when all color starts to fade, the twilight has a hint of a violet hue. Thank you for the kind wishes, I hope that your Monday has been of to a fantastic start. Take good care. Much love, Mia ❤

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      1. My Monday starts at twilight
        to stay on …
        You’re right in that moment at twilight the atmosphere is evocative, magical, and I allow myself to wrap a kiss with affection ❤

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          1. Yes treasure…..
            will not be long for the twilight days are getting short here in Rome.
            In fact, the good times will last forever but at least there are just like the kiss you sent.
            Love.

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          2. Here too, the days are getting shorter, and the morning gloom has set in, looking close to twilight. Memories and special moments allow the good times to last and linger, here’s to holding on the those good times. Always love for you. ❤

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    1. Thank you Mr. Cake. It is a beautiful photo of Lee Miller, I agree.

      I know that few would read a History Lesson, so I didn’t bother to include any facts about Miller and WWII. I personally can’t see her image and not think about it, as well as the lingering effects that the war had on her and her artwork (packed it up and put it away in the attic). Truly tragic.

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      1. It was truly tragic. It definitely had a major negative effect on her later years. It is hard to reconcile the brave determined free spirit with her unhappy post war years battling with depression and alcoholism. I think we should celebrate the woman in all her full aspect.

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      1. No it is impossible to disregard the war business. It was truly tragic. I didn’t mean to minimise her pain and suffering. I still find her an impressive person, even though her later years had that overwhelming shadow cast over them, understandably so.

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        1. Agreed, tragic. I didn’t read your words as you minimizing her. I found her later years to be an underlying theme of this post. She is very impressive, which for me is incredibly sad, only because so many only associated her with Man Ray, remembering only the title of “Muse”, forgetting that not only that she was a remarkable artist in her own right, but what she gave of herself during the war.

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    3. Mr. Cake, the thing that I love about your posts, is that you talk about the artists that you profile, their life styles, the movements that they belonged to, etc. I believe that much of this information changes how we view their art, how we perceive their visions, how we understand their creations.

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      1. Well I would have to loved to have been a painter but knew that I had zero talent, so it is admiration when I write about them. Obviously I love the modernist and surrealists, I think it was a breathtaking period, art after Warhol I really have very little familiarity with so I leave it alone.i am glad that you enjoy my posts, I am no expert at all. For some reason I feel close to the artists I profile. Strange but true.

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          11. No, it is not a bad move at all, it’s a good move. Sammy Slabbinck creates surreal collages. Your genre. It doesn’t matter that an artist is still working. You introduce a lot of great art and artists that many would never even know exists. Continue to share great art, great artists, that’s what it is about. Continue to use your “good eye”.

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    1. Chris, your comment has completely made my day, thank you! So true, “our introspection lets us find what is truly important”. Someone I admire suggested to me to let go of the “why” and focus on the “how”, sometimes I have to remind myself. Wishing you a wonderful evening, please take good care. ~ Mia

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      1. Mia, coincidently I started reading “Living Buddha, Living Christ” and there is a section on meditation where the author, a monk, describes meditation as “stopping, calming, and looking deeply.” Good luck with the how search and be well. -Chris

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  9. I love this piece so much Mia!! The line, “perhaps it’s the uncertainty of the known.” really resonated with me. Living in the moment is what we should all aspire to. I believe Lee Miller did it beautifully and despite her stumbles along the way , she lived such an adventurous and full rich life! This picture of her is stunning. Thank you for continually raising the bar with your amazing prose. Have a lovely week! – Lola 🌺

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    1. Lola, thank you so much, I’m so pleased that you liked this effort. I find it true, “uncertainty of the known” can really cause a lot of unnecessary stress. The more we’re able to let go, and not feel a need to control everything, the better off we can be (of course within reason, we do need to eat).

      It is a stunning photo of Lee Miller. She did indeed have a full life, living outside of the box. Please have a lovely week too! ~ Mia 🙂

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  10. Mia I loved this. I read your work then listened to that wonderful reading the Edgar Allen Poe poem. I read your piece again. Poe’s work must have inspired yours but they complement each other well. That “nothingness” or a dream with in a dream. Our sense of perception of what is real, all something you play with, but your speaker slips into a place of no “material.”

    This reminds me of the beginning of the world — where (for me) existed God and nothing else, yet we were created, live, die, — yet our sense of time to that of Gods, or even the world, can’t be measured. And our existence of souls can be and will be, separate from our bodies. Hard to imagine but I think when Poe says a dream within a dream, life is that dream within, and then after is the real dream — or perhaps, when we wake up for real that is the moment we are ethereal.

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    1. Thank you so much Mandi, for sharing such wonderful insight, kind and lovely words. After writing this, I felt the effort had a rather dreamlike quality to it, I couldn’t help but think of Poe’s “A Dream Within A Dream”. It does give rise to the idea of what’s real and what we perceive as real, and in fact is there a difference or does it matter? It is, “Hard to imagine” definitely, the divide between the here and now and the ethereal. Mandi, wishing you a wonderful and most creative day, thank you again for a marvelous comment. ~ Mia 🙂

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  12. Wow Mia, you took me into a trance-like state with this one… I’m not sure if you like classic rock but The Alan Parson’s Project has a song with the same title (Dream Within a Dream). If I recall, it was on a concept album devoted to Poe.

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  13. “I blink, accepting an invitation to an alternate reality.” I’m not quite sure how old I was when I first felt such a feeling ~ a dream within a dream ~ but you’ve brought the moment back with this post Mia. Wonderful and inspiring.

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    1. Randall, thank you for a lovely comment. I hope to believe that we all feel this way at some point, wondering is this life but a dream. Wishing you well and a wonderful week. Please take good care. ~ Mia

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    1. Thank you Charly. This was a little different for me, I rarely post any prose, you’ve made my day with you’re lovely words. Enjoy yourself, and have a happy celebration! Felicidades! (Did I get that right?)

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          1. Yes in the U.S, west coast or east coast or in the middle or central time you guys call it?
            I´ve been in the east coast and west coast, and then also in the middle so where are you from?!!!!
            got it, from Mexico´is my hunch

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          4. The Bay Area is an interesting place for sure. How fabulous to study literature and creative writing, and on a scholarship! You never had the opportunity to travel down the coast? It’s a beautiful drive. So what do you think about living in the US?

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          5. Loved it living there, and no unfortunately had not the opportunity to travel. I could only travel from the shitty appartment to work, then to school, then back to work and then back to the apartment or the library. At the end couldn´t keep up with two Jobs and maintaing a 3.3 GPA, plus to tell the truth I did screw up and saw all the pary that was going on campus and me always isolated at work or studing or both really I decided to have some fun and then the the GPA went down hill as well as the scholarship.

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          6. Nice to read that you loved it here, even without the traveling far, you were able to soak up the atmosphere. That sounds like it would be difficult for anyone, two jobs and school. We all need an escape to indulge in, sometimes it doesn’t come at the most opportune time, sadly, I know this all too well. I believe all experiences are good even if they suck sometimes, I don’t mean it to sound cliché, nothing is ever for nothing. Do you ever consider coming back to the US to live?

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          7. I consider going back to the US every day, the best country I know, the only country that with my limitted skills as a person would find people and institutions that would poetential my “forte”, in this case my love for reading and writing, (I did do and still do a bunch of shitty Jobs here, sorry the computer is configured in spanish so there will be quite some gramatical errors) so you have no idea the difference from studying in a school in Spain than it is in the U.S. It would take me me quite more time to write about it, but there they will see that i maybe not good at math, science and all those topics and see other potential I had and help me reach that potential instead as here in spain tha if you didn´t do good in science of physics, here we where doing physics and maths and sciences at 9 th grade that you do over there in college, to me that is no point for me to do so since not everyone is the same and point being, you americans may say a lot of not so good things about the public schools but trust me that if you come to spain then you could get another perspective. the us sabe me for some time.

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          8. I agree, it is the best country, I feel very blessed to live here. Education is available to almost everyone here, in one form or another. True, I don’t know the particulars of education in other countries, and what is deemed as valuable. I’m delighted to read that your experience here was good.

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          9. I found out about the US that first,it is a tough country, meaning, that here in Spain you can get into the social security services without working a single day in your life and you will get a pay check from the state, not happening in the US, and that is what I liked about that country, here in Spain you créate by giving handouts to people be it for disemployment, or for housing, or for a bunch of other things, that you créate what I call a parasite society. It is the norm here to look up to the government to help you out. Not in the U.S, so in that sense I like it because you gotta work for what you want, might be a shitty job, and trust me I had a bunch of those, but they are Jobs, I worked in construction and not as these college kids that I met that the summer vacation they would do that because of their rich parents told them to do so, so in the minds of the parents the kids would get a sense of working “hard”, I actually find it harder to work in an office, so the consturuction job was my lifeline, didn´t have that didn´t have to pay the rent nor food nor…my cigarettes!!
            Going to get to the point, it is a tough country in the sense that you do not depend on the State, is not a welfare country although as I see Obama this guy is right out of the Socialist party that has ruled Spain for half of its history as a democracy. And living this, I will say that it is imposible to maintain a country in a socialist type of way. There will always be people on the top and people on the bottom and it should be that way, who the hell thinks I put bricks to build a house for some rich person, me and some quite others and that gave us money, I don´t expect for the government to give me anything, am actually ashamed that they do now, I am passing by with the help of the government, I should add that after also 4 years in the Spanish Legion might as well say fuck them I put my time on what you send me to do so give me the money honey!! Not really, but I do feel sometimes that way when people tell me other things.
            In Spain 40% of the money going out of the State it goes for food stamps, pensions, prescription drugs (they do pay it here the government) and the rest of all “good social services” plus hospitals and e.t.s, that is 40% of what people who work put into the government,so s pure math, how in the world can you sustain anything if you art taking out more than you are putting in? And that is socialism, it sounds great when they say about raising minimmun wages for the poor and the rest, sounds great to the ear of the people, and is very easy to manipulate masses, but it just does not work, I know, live it seen it.
            And I got carried away…..

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  17. Beautiful and evocative prose Mia. I keep being drawn to the line “I let go of all attachments that anchor me to a realm of light and dark.” There is something about how you use that duality that I find in intriguing.

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  18. Hi Mia, wonderful piece of prose you’ve created here. Very surreal actually. I can understand why you’ve paired it with Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘A Dream Within a Dream’. The third paragraph makes me think about freedom, and how it’s often found in releasing control. I have had experiences of such freedom – like realizing that I am not in control, nor do I need to be. I’m sure that probably doesn’t make much sense, but for me it does on a very personal level. It also makes me think of transparency. I say that because of my own personal experiences of fear and thinking that I can actually keep some things to myself, hidden away from God’s knowledge. It was only after I realized that there is absolutely nothing that I can hide from Him, that I was ‘released from the fear bondage’ (for lack of a better word/expression). This knowing that He knows all, and yet still loves and accepts me.
    Mia, please forgive me if this sounds a little quirky or if it doesn’t make much sense at all. These are my personal experiences. Very inward and intimate ones.
    Thank you so much for sharing this piece with me. It’s wonderful, and I think you really should post more of your prose.
    Please have a wonderful week and take care.
    🙂 ❤

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    1. Staci, thank you for sharing your wonderful thoughts, yes, it all make sense. I think we’re often on the same wavelength. It is about the release, the ultimate release, or what I imagine it to be. And within that idea, you can help but think about the more immediate thoughts of control and freedom. I think the reason I have not posted any of these, is because they’re personal thoughts about things, yet at the same time enlightening, at least for me.

      Immediately I thought about Poe’s poem, because I felt the writing has sort of a dreamlike quality to it. Don’t we all wonder if we’re living in a dream once in a while?

      I’m very happy that you liked this. Thank you for the encouragement to post more of this type of writing. Please have a wonderful week too, take good care and thank you again.
      ~ Mia 🙂 ❤

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      1. Hahaha @living in a dream. Hmmmmm… I know there are people that actually do live in a dream. Like a fantasy life, apart from their reality. I wonder it that’s to compensate for boredom. Must be.
        Yes, Poe’s poem definitely has a dreamlike feel to it.
        You are more than welcome for the encouragement Mia. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your prose in the future. 😉
        Take care and have a lovely Wednesday.
        🙂 ❤

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        1. Staci, as always I want to thank you for a thoughtful reply. I think we all have to escape from time to time and perhaps creativity plays an important role and is a healthy way to deal with this escape of day to day living and the stress that it offers. To literally live in a fantasy and not be aware or address reality seems psychologically dangerous to me. Living under the umbrella of false believes all the time most surely will catch up with an individual at some point. We’ve spoken about some of the things that reinforce these false beliefs or fantasies, it’s one of constant affirmation through immediate gratification, which so often takes place in the virtual world. This maybe harsh criticism, it’s just part of the problem as I see it. While technology is wonderful how do we turn back? How do we address and stop the negative impact it has, and how do we stop the unhealthy rewiring of the human brain? Ha-ha, a bit of a rant… So much for staying on topic, ha-ha! 🙂

          Staci, I hope that you had a lovely Wednesday, and are enjoying your Thursday. Take good care. 🙂 ❤

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          1. I think you’re on to something there with the creativity playing an important and healthy role in dealing with life and its struggles. There are many people that use art and music as therapy, right.
            I would have to agree with you there @To literally live in a fantasy and not be aware or address reality seems psychologically dangerous to me.
            Oh yes, ‘the virtual world’. Great questions Mia. HUGE actually. Can you even imagine a world without the internet and social media anymore? Hmmmmm…
            Have a great weekend Mia.
            🙂 ❤

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          2. Hi Staci, personally I couldn’t imagine a life without a creative outlet, it’s far too important for my well being. I do try to imagine a world without all of the technology that we have today, and I can’t help but think of the past. Perhaps one day old school and technology will find a way to meet in the middle. Please have a great weekend too, I know it will be a busy one for you. 🙂 ❤

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          3. Hi Mia, that would be interesting to see how that would turn out @old school and technology finding a way to meet in the middle. I wonder what that would look like. I think I strive for that in life with my kids, but I fear that society and the natural advancement of things could end up taking over. I hope not.
            I would love to have a creative outlet right now. I’m hoping to actually do some photoshop classes online while in Canada. Maybe that will be my outlet while traveling.
            Take care Mia.
            🙂 ❤

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          4. Hi Staci, I doubt there will be any meeting in the middle. 🙂 Travel and photography go together, I think that will be great to take some photoshop classes while you’re away. Enjoy! Have a great day, take good care. 🙂 ❤

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          5. Hi Mia, so sorry for the delay. After a lot of hard work and long hours, we are finally moved into our freshly renovated place. Phew! I haven’t been able to blog at all.
            Looks like we are no longer going to Peru, but possibly Mexico.
            Thanks Mia, and please have a wonderful week.
            🙂 ❤

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          6. Congratulations Staci! How tertific to be in your new place. Oh yes, the blog will wait for you. 🙂 Please enjoy your travels, where ever they may take you. Thank you, have a wonderful week too. 🙂 ❤

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  22. I heard a really old song today, although apart from the musicians I never really picked up on that to start with, that I’d never heard before on a borrowed IPod on shuffle. The track was, The Windmills of Your Mind. What with that lyric and coupled with this piece I think my head might explode. Bizarre and brilliant, Feather.

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    1. That song is certainly a trip, the words are wonderful, a bit mind blowing. We wouldn’t want your head to explode, what would happen to all of those incredible random thoughts of yours? Thank you George. Lightfoot is asleep dreaming of tasty treats.
      ~ Feather

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    1. Hi Alan, how odd. I know when I returned to WP after being gone for a while, I needed to re-follow your blog, more oddness. Thank you for letting me know, I hope all is remedied now. Have a wonderful evening and a good week ahead. ~ Mia

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  25. Mia, it is a magical piece you’ve written.. you seem to be extraordianrily spiritual and brilliant. Somehow, reading this today, has even helped me to get on with the day which is otherwise not a very great day. Love the way you write, and the pictures, links and quotes you find to go with it.. xx
    ❤ Elisa

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    1. Dear Elisa, thank you for your lovely and kind words. I’m enjoying your writing and photos/artwork very much, you’re able to capture such an ethereal and dreamlike quality which allows my mind to go to wonderful places. Wishing you only beautiful pastel thoughts for the rest of your day and evening. ~ Mia 💗

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      1. Oh thanks so much, Mia. You are wonderful..and definitely have a wonderful way with words.. Now , I wish you a pastel pretty new day . 🙂
        ❤ Elisa

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