The Wind is in the East

The wind’s easterly, John Jarndyce notes.
I must retire to the Growlery.

You take the house keys, Esther,
Hang them from your waist,
Watch over our strange house
Bleak House

The wind is in the east.
Again.
The wind is easterly.


As the carriage came by, I thought,
at least, I believed, that the wind was
Northerly, Sir.
Coming from the north, not the east.

And Esther’s been our companion.
It rained Esthers at the Jellyby’s.
She fed them and she washed them,
She prayed with them and loved them,
Sang to them and put them all to bed,
- even little Peepy, who ran away down the street,
-even little Inky, all covered in ink.

Then the wind must be northerly,
John Jarndyce slowly said.
Isn’t that what you said?

Oh yes, in the carriage it was northerly,
I was quite sure.

And how goes the great case,
The Jarndyce versus Jarndce case
The case that ate my brother, and now is eating me.
Not solved yet, sir, Mr. Jarndyce, cousin Jarndyce,
We’re waiting for a judgement.
For a judgement there must be.

A judgement?
They cannot hear, but a little voice in London,
a Miss Flight in London
echoes their thoughts.’
Soon we’ll get a judgement. I’ve
Got all the documents, see them!
They’re in a bag, all the documents,
And the case will be solved.

The little birds are waiting,
many generations of
caged creatures.
twenty birds in twenty cages,
all dead, waiting,
Now twenty new birds,
and on and on,
they die in their cages,
in Miss Flight’s room
waiting for a judgement
generation after generation.

A case of arrested development.

For Miss Flight will never be free.

The wind is easterly, John Jarndyce whispers,
I must go to the Growlery.
Don’t stop me
For the wind has turned again --- to the east.

don't live in a prison!

This morning, I started re-reading "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, and this book has brought home to me how much I (and I believe many people) choose to live in a prison of their own minds.

What do I mean? Well, I'm a ruthless taskmaster for myself. I forced myself -- made myself -- tortured myself -- into finishing my Ph.D. Okay, I had some fun too along the way, but I was a strict disciplinarian.

You have to be if you want to finish a Ph.D!

The results of such a disciplined way of life are many. The most important result? Somewhere along the way, I forgot to have fun and be creative.

Julia Cameron writes "I teach people to let themselves be creative." This is the key to enjoying life: allowing yourself to be creative.

We are all creative. So, let's let ourselves out of our self-made prisons!