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Wow Benzinha! That is so cool!
Thank you for telling me all of that. I love it. I would love to learn Portuguese...I'm so bad at languages. I am learning little words here and there in different languages. Perfect choice for you. :) I am going to try and use these words, too.
posted by
Temple
on September 3, 2004 at 10:43 PM
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Temple, Benzinha is Portuguese and it comes from the word BEM,
(Baymmmmm) which means GOOD or WELL or LOVE. Lovers call each other Meu Bem ( MAYoooo BAYmmmm), My Good and I like that. It was my rescued dog's name, the last one before Autumn from the O'Odham Reservation. You start by calling someone Meu Bem and then you use the diminuitive, 'zinha' (ZEENyah) and it becomes Benzinha (BAYnnnn ZEENyah), my little love, my little good, to add extra affection to it. I did it to remember her AND
It is what friends call each other and family, too.
posted by
benzinha
on September 3, 2004 at 10:22 PM
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Abuelita, thank you so much for finding that!
I will look for it and, per instruction, stop Everything and watch it. :) Yes, here name is quite glorious. I think as we grow up we should be able to pick our adult names that suit us or who we want to be. That's why I chose Temple, my spritual, philisophical and more calm side. What does Benzinha mean? I can't remember if you told us....
posted by
Temple
on August 30, 2004 at 1:44 PM
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Temple, I found the name of the surfer, soul woman, Rell Sunn.
The PBS special on her was called "Na Ki'i Hana No'eau Hawai'i " and was produced by Ed McNulty about the Queen of Makaha , Rell Sunn. If it is ever advertised as showing on PBS again, stop Everything and watch it, as it is life affirming beyond most life affirming experiences.
When she was in a coma, she kept trying to catch a wave back to shore and never gave up, even though she felt weaker and weaker, until she caught it and came out of the coma, to everyone's astonishment, but they did believe that if anyone could do it, she could.
Rell Sunn, even her name is gloriously right , no?
posted by
benzinha
on August 30, 2004 at 10:42 AM
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Cass, not everyone understands how to be a soul surfer without a board.
I can see that you do. It's that sense of center, of connectedness, of community that is part of the ocean and part of the surfing community that I feel so much a part of...even though I'm not a part of it totally. It's amazing isn't it? You stand on shore, toes in sand, and can feel the ocean tide pull worries and stress from your body. It's as if she is reminding us to maintain perspective, to stay centered, to remember that there is a vastness out there working every day that we can see...that has nothing to do with us. Imagine, then, what is working that we can't see? That small moment on shore can bring me back to faith.
posted by
Temple
on August 25, 2004 at 7:58 AM
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I hear you, jimmy...the things in nature can leave us in awe.
Sometimes it's just flowers that blow me away. Walking down the street in the city, yet surrounded by these little tiny things with such color and personality. How brilliant that the universe saw fit to create so many different ones. I love the mountains, too, but I've always been a water baby. I like those moments when you are camping away from people, and you wake up just as the sun's rising. You can smell the pine and hear the forest coming alive all around you...and it happens whether you are there or not. Being in the mountains rafting with friends, although not exactly roughing it since we had showers and food cooked for us, was such a retreat. Quiet moments on still parts of the river just floating, stars without city light interference, or just the sound of the earth and pine needles underfoot. Definitely communion with the divine.
posted by
Temple
on August 25, 2004 at 7:54 AM
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Abuelita, irmã de alma, I'm not surprised that we are water spirits in kind
...as we seem to share so much on our soul's plane. Sitting for hours watching the ocean has always been meditation, salvation, resurrection. Is it any wonder that those years spent land locked found me starving and uncentered? That documentary sounds so brilliant. If you think of the name of it, do tell me and I'll see if I can find it. I think that's why surfing has always touched me so much. The sense of spirit, of self, of community. A common bond.
Alas, I am fire sign Aries...but people who have read my chart say my sign doesn't fit me totally...that I have more water sign in something or another than a normal Aries. Ah, I say, there we go. :)
Moving indeed is a funny time, but for the first time I feel like I'm building a home. Things always feel somewhat temporary to me, and this place I want to feel more homey. It already does. It will take time and money I don't see yet, but it will happen. It's part of this shift I'm in.
If you read my post in Portuguese, which I think you speak, be kind. I don't really speak the language, but I was playing with it because it clicks with me for some reason. I wrote the translation down, what I was meaning to say, because I'm sure it was totally loopy!
So brilliant to have you back in my comments. Sometimes I don't feel like a post is complete without a comment from you. 
posted by
Temple
on August 25, 2004 at 7:48 AM
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girl crazy cargo, it's funny to me how you managed to work Kate B. in here
I appreciate the compliment, knowing how you love that movie, but I think the only similarity is that surfing is mentioned. :) In Blue Crush, surfing was about beating demons, true, but it was about winning...which is not the soul surfer's goal. The soaring spirit is indeed the blessing, and the kind of soul surfing I have done doesn't require a board. You could even soar out there in the desert, Lt. Cargo. Surfing without a board is much easier when done in spirit, although those waves can feel like they might kill ya, too. ;)
posted by
Temple
on August 25, 2004 at 7:35 AM
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Bella, I'm not sure how close we get to fruition before the plan becomes
obvious. I think the goal for me is to have faith that it will happen, and to enjoy myself on the ride. That is better for me than always waiting for the next thing, which is what I used to do. If we stay focused on our soul surfing when we are happy, too, it makes it easier to connect in times of uncertainty.
posted by
Temple
on August 25, 2004 at 7:29 AM
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Temple - my soul lies in the ocean, it is where I go when I have nowhere else and noone else to turn to. Its where I go when I'm happy, sad, emotional and just being. When I'm broken the ocean makes me whole again and when I'm troubled it washes away the pain. I've never surfed with a board, but often body surfed in my teenage days. You are right - everything will work out for the best.
posted by
Ca88andra
on August 25, 2004 at 2:57 AM
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I find that peace, that connection with the divine...
out on the Ocean sailing sometimes, but my favorite place is the high mountains, right around the treeline or even higher...God is a hell of a sculptor, in ice and rock and trees and grass and flowing stream...
posted by
jimmy68
on August 24, 2004 at 11:35 PM
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Temple, having lived near the ocean for four years in Ro, I walk in your
water spirit. I would go sit, especially on winter days, in bikini and cashmere sweater upon a rocky cliff edge between Leblon and Gavea's roadway and watch the crashing winter waves for hours, alone on the beach with the few other people of rare and similar callings.
You would love and would fall into (as I did) a wonderful documentary about a Hawaiian Japanese lady who surfed her entire life and pulled herself through carcenogenic hell and cancer by never stopping her surfing. She changed her town and transformed her friends and family. She taught surfing and and its mindset and freedom and I can't remember her name and it's killing me, to not be able to point her out to you. Shall search for her name everywhere. Watching her changed me.
Not that I believe anything of astrology, but am happy that my designated sign is Pisces, which locates me inside water and surrounded by fishies and deep in glorious, ever changing blues.
Moving is such a funny time, boxed and unboxing, perusing all possessions one more time as they are placed within the new place, filling the rooms with old comforts and new possibilities, overwhelmed and hopeful.
posted by
benzinha
on August 24, 2004 at 10:43 PM
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Good post - very Blue Crushish...Kate Bosworth was living the dream
in my sixth favorite movie. But the best wave I caught in my surfer phase (without a board) damn near killed me. Still, it feels good when our spirit soars. Ride the wave Temple.
posted by
FreeManWalking
on August 24, 2004 at 9:52 PM
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I hope my plan will become obvious.
I am a soul surfer who sometimes catches waves although I couldn't for a very long time.
I used to dream of it at those moments when I need something to focus on - ie if I was experiencing pain.
posted by
beachbelle
on August 24, 2004 at 9:45 PM
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