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a lot of looking.  a lot of trying things,  undoing the tryings.  and where it stands now is that only the rocks and DayNight are for sure.   all else is in question.  so i began turning the edges of the rocks and stitching them down and to one another.  slow work.  all the while, stopping to look often.    and as it goes,  a red thread was on the floor at one point.  it hadn't been just this morning.  so it had managed to make its way from where ever it had been to directly underfoot.   ok.  the red thread.  and as i write this, my scalp tingles.  i wrote….directly underfoot….maybe that's where it goes ????  whose?  hers?  the Goat's?  both??  

While i stitch,   my mind is drifting from one thing to another in a very edgeless way,  one mindthought blending into another that often is not connected at all.  

This morning i went to Music Morning at the Old Folks home to meet up with Alz B's son who was home from Maine for just this one day before leaving to teach a week in Colorado.  he wanted to ask me something.  The Something:   would i be willing to continue as i had while he was gone a month in Maine,  being responsible for Alz B. ?  Being responsible means going to hang out with her 3 times a week, for undeterminate times.  Sometimes i just stay 20 minutes.  Sometimes i help Ann the Bath Lady with that.  Sometimes i go at a mealtime and feed her.   Sometimes i take her outside to the patio and we listen to music on her boombox.  Sometimes we just sit and she mumbles away while i sit in silence holding her hand.  What i actually DO and how LONG i actually do it doesn't matter.   it's just that i am aware of how it's going for her.  and one more thing.   The Big Thing.  He would like to only go once a week now.  He would like to turn off his phone, maybe for a week at a time.  during these times, it is me that would be called for any emergency decisions.  it would be me that would make decisions about  care in those times that might extend life or let life go.  it would be up to me.    It has been many years that i have worked for them, he and his wife, then B his mother.  we know each other well.  he knows that what i want really, more than anything now is to just BE AT HOME.   But he asked.  and he asked with this awareness,  so, i understand from this, that for whatever reason,  it is Important for him.  and maybe Necessary to him.  so once again, i am looking at the weight of Necessities.  Someone elses.  Mine.  

and yesterday, a book arrived:

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how exactly this book ties into it all is unclear yet.  But i found out that it is just NEWLY published by clicking on Heather, of truestitches.blogspot.com on someone's blog,  maybe Deb G's and reading back so see what Heather has been doing and reading a review of sorts for this book there to find out she has met the author,  i am not clear how, but they met.  Heather lives in the Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada.  the author of the book, Wendy Jehannara Tremayne lives down the freeway from me about an hour at the most, probably 40 min?,  in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Wendy and her partner moved here in their 30's from New York City.  my guess is that they might be 40 now?  or close to it.  They took a Great RISK and have built a world for themselves.  I love the book partly because i know T or C.  have been there.  and things about their life are things about my own life.  but somehow, in a Bigger way,  the finding of this newly published book, really, through Spirit Cloth where i first knew of Heather,  ……is saying something to me.  is saying something about this cloth i am making about the commitment to the Goats, to what that means…somehow it's all tied together….

on the back cover  "This is not a story about going 'off the grid' and living in isolation from society, but rather returning to the interconnectedness and social values that have characterized humanity pretty much since there have been humans"   Doug Rushkoff, author of Present Shock"  When Everything Happens Now

 

 

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18 responses to “189 the part that is For Sure”

  1. handstories Avatar

    the weight of wants and needs…something i’m thinking on right now, too. as some offers are presenting themselves, ways that I could help others & make some $, but not what I had planned to do…but still, maybe these are doors? oh, I don’t know.
    & I am waiting on this book from the library.

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  2. grace Forrest Avatar

    it’s a great book. it is specific to New Mexico in many
    ways, but the underlying truth is
    Risk.
    and they did come from NYC. and chose Tor C for vague
    reasons, really.
    but it was because they felt most and MOST deeply, a
    desire to create a life.
    offers always present. we imagine they wont, but they do.

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  3. Minka Avatar

    Heavy stuff.
    On a lighter note, in high school, a good friend was born in T or C….and boy, at the beginning of each school year when you have to fill out dozens of forms that keep asking for trivia like where you were born….but the box was too small….so she just wrote T or C! Has!

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  4. Nance Avatar
    Nance

    Wow… This is really a lot to think about grace. Just because someone asks you to help when you have already helped so much… Do you feel obliged to say yes? Myself, I am trying to say no. Trying to stick to it. For the good of the future. What ever that will bring. You have committed to the darling goats and your stitching. D you need more money? Or do you have enough? I hope this gets resolved in a way you feel comfortable with. But comfort isn’t always available, is it? And those books… Intriguing…. I will have to check them out tomorrow. Esp. present shock. Yes… The red thread. xoxo

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  5. patricia Avatar

    yes, the red thread– the umbilical cord connecting you–your life–to life source. this seems huge. and in some way, it’s so tied to this cloth–but also to the request from the son that you take over. take over the end of life things that Alz B is facing. and here it gets tangled for me because of a commitment not to judge. and yet the facts. you. your life. your needs and responsibilities. then there are his.
    and this ties in to the book cover quote about “interconnectedness and social values” and i get that. i really do. but still the sense of unease persists–that son wants to shut off his phone. turn end-of-life matters over to you. only wants to visit once a week. i don’t know him of course. know nothing about where he’s been or where he’s headed. but i do hear that he wants to pay you, because he can, pay you, to take on a task he no longer wants or can do. for whatever reason. and i said i’m committed to letting go of judgment. still there is a sense of something that is unsettling.
    and i’m thinking about a recent situation where i had to ask for space. had to say no. and was reminded that it was o.k. but that i needed to do it with truth and kindness. not just for the other person, but for myself as well. and this is a different paradigm for me because of a lifelong tendency to put my needs last–as not as important as . . . . and i’m seeing the illusion of that for myself. and i’m starting to uncover the genesis of where and when that concept became fixed.
    didn’t mean to go on and on. but apparently this really struck a deep cord and there is a lot to consider here. to consider with truth and kindness–you. the goats. Alz B. and son. sending you lots of love xoxo

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  6. Deb G Avatar

    Agree with you that The Good Life Lab does have a strong regional flavor but I did find a few new things to try and even more so, an attitude and approach worth exploring. Not necessarily new, but another perspective. I want to read more of Helen and Scott Nearing’s writing (I’ve read a chapter or two that was from Living the Good Life but not the whole book) now. As for the rest, sending you a big hug!

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  7. grace Avatar
    grace

    the words that stand out here, after several readings:
    when that concept became fixed
    looking at this. fixed is the key. fixed one way or
    another, rather than each singular response to each
    singular request.
    thank you for this….Fixed……it’s the key.
    to try to keep it fluid, moving, so everyone can breathe.
    Maybe i agree, for a month? maybe we alternate? thing is, maybe he is looking at the reality that this can go on for much longer than we might imagine. there are residents at the Old Folks home that have been there for years. are still there. treading water. Alz B. is
    in Hospice but it’s anyone’s guess. and this is something
    that i am watching…that is prevalent now. how many are in this, on both sides. those for whom the end is “near” and those for whom their lives are also taken by that nearness. maybe we can share the burden of it.
    but what is important is that each request be seen as singular. each decision made individually. in one instance the response might be the opposite it would be in another instance.

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  8. grace Avatar
    grace

    more key words
    comfort isn’t always available
    and yes. the red thread.

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  9. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…the Nearings. i haven’t actually read that whole
    book either.
    and it’s the attitude. yes. the understanding that it’s
    about Just Going ….. again …..moving steadily and
    with openness to what can Become without having any idea,
    really, because it is New.

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  10. beth Avatar

    Balance. Such a hard thing.

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  11. Mo Crow Avatar

    holding the end of a red thread here and sending strong good vibes through the ether…

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  12. jude Avatar

    it’s hard to know what is just enough.

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  13. grace Avatar
    grace

    in this case it will be easier because it is my Working
    Cloth…meaning, it’s the story of how it is right now,
    or, how it feels to me right now. and there is all that
    is yet to come and doesn’t have a way to be portrayed
    because it isn’t here yet. so…it can just be empty.

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  14. grace Avatar
    grace

    pulse to pulse

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  15. nance Avatar

    of anything really…. sometimes you know from practice but when its new… and you are finding your balance… you have to move slowly and test each movement.

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    that’s pretty much how it’s called. only the freeway
    sign says the whole thing.

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    am getting better at it tho, and i LIKE it.

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  18. mimmin Avatar
    mimmin

    yes, keep things edgeless and bowable to the winds me feels

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