This week has been crazy what with dueling colonoscopies for the hubster and I (including those ever-fun and entertaining cleansing preps beforehand), a mysteriously injured leg for Dane the Mangy Rescue Mutt, and visits to a dear, dear friend who has just entered hospice and is–bravely, calmly, and gracefully–readying himself for final departure.

It’s been a lot.

So this week I thought I’d just post a fascinating, 44 second, Youtube video of a train passing through a densely crowded, urban, vegetable market.  This thing just blows my mind.  See what it does to yours.

Living in the western U.S. as we do here, wide open space is a given.  The expectation of being able to see long distances, lots of sky, and relatively few people is actually structured into our physical, brain circuitry and the hubster and I have frequently noticed how, after a while, we start to feel constricted when traveling in areas that are heavily forested or otherwise “closed in”.  I imagine it involves some form of imprinting.

Anyway, this video beautifully illustrates how these people (possibly in Thailand?  I haven’t been able to discover for certain…) have imprinted on a heavily populated, urban environment.  Adapted.  In some strange way they’ve elevated these difficult living conditions into something fascinating and dynamic, disturbing and deeply moving.  The precision and coordination between so many diverse, moving parts looks like choreography, doesn’t it?  Or possibly an undersea scene.  The awnings coming back down after the train passes looks like the way sea anemones eventually, gracefully, unfurl again, after being disturbed.

copyright Dia Osborn 2011