Reflection completed

Forest fires and vegetation fires kept materializing on the map like goblins in a haunted house, a couple of them actually caused my acquaintances to evacuate. The Year of the Metal Rat is filled with so many calamities and I can't help but wonder if there is indeed some validity to Chinese astrology, which foretold a year of unrest. I'm just waiting for the sine wave to reverse its direction. To be candid, I've not been paying much attention to my pinned "reflection" painting on the wall. I seem preoccupied. Everytime I contemplated on doing something with it I stalled. I've been through this scenerio numerous times. I know the contemplation is just the proofing process, leavening my thoughts. Finally the moment came, and I began to paint over the original work. This is in direct contradiction to what I've been taught in classical Chinese brush painting on Xuan, that one would never want to double paint and conceal the original brushstrokes. I didn't care, not now.

This repeated modifying and over painting caused to Xuan to shed fibers, as if an eraser was running over the paper surface. This in effect changed the absorbency of the paper, rendering the Xuan more like a paper towel. With this serendipitous help, I was able to come close to what I had wanted to begin with, a dreamy, hazy look. Perhaps the wild fires had taken more a hold on me than I had realized.

Then arrived the second full moon of month. The Blue Moon was not blue; it was an affirmation that life goes on, and everything will be alright.