In the Labyrinth

Falling Into Water and Rising Swimming

Can I just say how much I love these two etchings by 18th century artist Thomas Rowlandson? The first is a woman diving into the water from a wagon pulled into the surf to serve as a diving platform. "Venus Bathing" is vigorous, round and robust as she takes a "Fashionable Dip" into the ocean at Margate. She dives fearlessly, the people and the shore are small and far away, making her even more wonderful, a woman in her element.

And then she swims...effortlessly like a mermaid on a stroll. "Side Way or Any Way" -- she is perfectly at home in the water, buoyant and serene.

Comments From the Dream World

I woke from an early (really early!) morning dream where Max Fleischer-style cats were on a fence, saying, "I woke up too early, too late. "I can't decide if it was meant for my untimely rising, a description of my whole life, or the character I am writing in a new novel—all three fit.

The Company I Keep

Well, I am always surprised to find my name popping up in unexpected places...and usually not because I am an author so much as my Japanese name draws attention. I was named after my mother's best friend in college, and it has served me well. Especially considering that the BBC News Magazine thought it intriguing enough to write a little feature on the name in "Why Midori?".

And of course here's the best part:

"Midori crops up in Japanese placenames, and it is a relatively common girl's name. Here's where it becomes connotation-laden. Midori is a Japanese violinist, but another Midori is a "prominent human sexuality writer" and a third Midori is a porn actress. There is a Midori Snyder who writes fantasy novels, and a Midori Matsuo who is an aspirant underwear designer."

That would be me...right after the porn actress and before the aspirant underwear designer. This is why when I first started publishing, I was reluctant to let my children look up my name on the internet -- too often it brought up "Midori's House of Pain." Oy....

Being Good At Problem Solving is a Problem

Mostly because its not my problems that I am solving. I seem to have spent the last five days putting out fires, rebuilding lost websites, reputations, getting other people's work done, and completely ignoring my own. How does that happen? I am too much of a competent fixer of problems not my own. And as happy as I am to help, it has become a burden of my own making -- an excuse not to solve my problems or face my own hard things.  

I need to be more like woman below, the problems of others muted into a much smaller elephant, nudging at my side.  But she is calm and won't be moved, focused (not unkindly) on enjoying her coffee and her own thoughts.

 Top photo: Haying in Cogne, 1959 by Pepi Merisio. Bottom photo: A photo of Dame Daphne Sheldrick, one of Africa's best known conservationists, who with her husband worked at Tsavo, Kenya's biggest National Park. She wrote an autobiography, Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story, published in 2012.  (Thanks to Sarah for the heads up on this photo!)