Little Boxes by the Bedside

It is very hard to think outside the box

when your entire life is packed in boxes.

I am moving again and everything is in boxes.

One thing I am struggling to pack is the writings on the bathroom tiles.

Layers of scribbles and drawings - mine and my friends’

washed away by the bathroom steam

and written over again over the course of three years.

Here’s some of my favorites and my attempt to pack them:

Next to the mirror:

An auto-portrait of my friend over a punchline of a joke my dad used to tell (Ask me in person, it isn’t worth even trying to write it). Above it a faded David Salinger quote in blue, from Fanny and Zoey: Do it for the Fat Lady. If remember well, it meant - do everything as good as you can, always. Then in Serbian - Wait for me faithfully in the garden of joy.

…

Once I dreamt that -

Victoria and I live in a labyrinth.

…

My friend, who is a pianist and composer once dreamt that she was looking down over the world and a voice said: All this has been created, and so you can create also.

She also told me once: This morning I sat down to untangle some chords, then all of a sudden…

I love how gently she exists and perceives the world.

…

I like stories that happen all of a sudden and against all odds, thanks to chance…

…

The word to sur-vive in English; über-leben in German and pre-živeti in Serbian all have that surmounting motion in the root of the word and life on top of it.

…

I dreamt that I said: Life is a dream

Can you do me a favor? - Someone asked for a song from The Beach Boys to be played. A one eyed, two horned three breasted rhinoceros my friend drew and wrote - you are pure liquid gold, over my writing - running into time. I was wondering if one could run into time as opposed to always running out of it. The answer came quickly and abruptly in the form of a slap in the face from life in the form of a series of unfortunate events - one of which was being kicked out of the flat whose bathroom tiles are at hand. I am now optimistically trying to perceive this as running into time and not losing it.

…

in pink ink, something a German professor of mine said and I liked:

Du hast keine Chance- nutze Sie! = You don’t stand a chance - use it!

…

It’s only money - something my dad used to say.

…

Something about a childhood fairytale.

…

I will dance myself into the love again.

…

All beauty seems inevitable now.

…

This party doesn’t seem to be getting any worse.

…

Unbuckle your seatbelts, we’re taking off!

Because how can you fly all buckled

up?

Here’s to another take off and softer landings!

Thanks for helping me pack the tiles!

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