This morning, for whatever reason,  i could not stand it one more day.   For almost a full month,  since April 15th,  there has been silence in the road.   Even when neighbor Margie's son was there on weekends,  she hardly appeared.   There was no "looking in the direction" of her son and i either when he was out.   Nothing.  Nada.  and  it was just slowly getting worse on this end.  I looked for a word that would describe the feeling.  Paralysis.   Whatever was happening in the day,  was immediately framed by not knowing what to do.  By not knowing any way to have things be ok.  By feeling that my "world" here was in a kind of Limbo.   It was the last thought before sleep.  The first thought upon rising to consciousness in the mornings.  It wove through Everything.  Paralysis.  To the point i couldn't even speak of it.  A few people would ask…Hows it going?… and all i could do would be to kind of look off.    And spending time with the Goats was hard.  What might become of us????

So.  This morning i wrote her a note.   Only facts.  no apologies,  no begging.  Just facts.  I said that i would be moving the Goats into the Way Back.  That i would not leave them there for prolonged times,  but move them Back and Forth.  That keeping them in the Front Pens was wrong to me.  That i had asked MANY people and for the most part they agreed that food cannot absorb smell.   That i had asked many people to smell this Place and that all agreed that it was Good.   And that to me,  the Goats are Jenny.  My daughter.  Margie knows Jenny.   and that I would not let Jenny down.  No matter what.  I didn't sign love or my name even.  Just that.  and i put the note into a plastic grocery bag with my almost full bottle of Patchouli Oil and an unopened (bought by accident)  box of Satya Sai Baba Patchouli Forest incense  (i burn Nag Champa).  and when i left for work,  i stopped and tied the bag to her gate.

i got home from work and the bag was gone.  i did a few things and the phone rang.  Her.  She talked of being so relieved that i broke the silence.   That really,  she can't smell the Goats.  That it was that one day,  and she doesn't know why,  and that she cannot stand it how it is.  There was exchange and we agreed " to just Bury It".    Her words.     It all was "just a dream".  Her words.   and i said Bueno.  that i would come by later.   and i tried to take a nap but couldn't.  the Energy of the paralysis remained.  it was so stong for so long it had become entrenched and i kept telling myself it was Over,  but as soon as i'd said that,  the energetic level of it arose again.  This is really interesting to me.   The Intensity of Response to Great Threat of Well Being.   i am watching.  Looking.  Watching.  Feeling.  

a little while ago,  her sister called.  She was at Margies cooking dinner and did I have some flour?

Yes.

so i walked over with it and we hugged.  we hugged.  and promised to always figure out a Way.

 

IMG_8980f

and here we go.   All you (me) have to do is put two pieces of cloth together.  Just that.  and it all begins.  The two know and ask for more.   so, ok.  and yes.  am Listening.  ok.

 

 

 

 

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38 responses to “How stuff can go”

  1. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Two cloths do not come together unless they are of equal texture or there is such a difference that the opaque, immovable, heavy piece is balanced by a different cloth entirely. Now a transparent piece of cloth would have at it, letting everything come out, come to the surface but transparency can be fragile. A translucent piece, now that is a different cloth for a translucent piece brings in light but details are perhaps not all that clear and sometimes, clarity is not the answer so much as the opening to light. Maybe that is how it needed to be, light into a situation that cannot be readily explained…the relief you feel must be profound.

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  2. Karen Avatar
    Karen

    Solutions are so wonderful. Peace.

    Like

  3. grace Avatar

    Cloth/Life
    Life/Cloth
    What WORDS, marti, that you have strung together here, like beads of a mala….
    you give me Images. Images. Images.
    This All is NO SMALL THING….you see it….

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  4. grace Avatar

    Solutions.
    more, even, when Solution comes of it’s Own Accord.
    all the solutions i came up with in my MIND,….did not
    encompass whatever was happening in neighbor Margie’s mind.
    so…
    we waited.
    Maybe it is in the Waiting that a solution can form of it’s own accord?
    Again..
    The Eight Fold Path as i was taught:
    Right Action: seeing what needs to be done. doing it.
    many times, nothing.
    and then
    Right Intention: to see how things really are. No need
    to intensify/reduce. As Is. invite
    realities as is.
    Right Effort: avoid harmful actions/ideas. DO NOT CAUSE.
    full participation in a light way. Fear
    and Desire.
    Right Attention: Complete attention.
    there is nothing here but a body
    a though
    a phenomena
    a dismantling of personality

    Like

  5. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Tears. You know if I were writing this story as fiction, that’s exactly how I would have ended it. The hug and the promise. Couldn’t be better. Huge grin of gladness now. And yes, isn’t it facinating to get a vision of our inner workings like “The Intensity of Response to Great Threat of Well Being. i am watching. Looking. Watching. Feeling.” Wow. Yup, that’s it. We are so informed by our wiring sometimes, to see it like that is a gift. Whew. My day began with some bad news about a heart attack in my extended family, and I’ve been feeling low all day, so to read of this excellent, human story of big heartedness just took me way up to happy. Thanks dear one. PS. The mail brought me a copy of “..A Thousand Thank You’s” to top of the night.
    That’s how it is sometimes–
    ‘up to heaven and down to hell’ a thousand times is immediately thrown into balance by this post and A Thousand thank you’s from Canada!

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  6. dedri Avatar

    I think you are wonderfully brave. Love the fact that you found a way through that was not hurtful to the neighbor or the goats. (I worried more about the goats than the neighbor.) Bless you for being such a light to us all.

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  7. grace Avatar

    dedri…LOVE to you for saying this. I COULDN’T do something that was hurtful for the Goats. They rely on me. They
    are so simple and beauty Fully simple. They rely on me
    to find a way in this Artificial human mess.
    To Find a Way Through…
    To Find a Way Through………………..
    Thank YOU

    Like

  8. grace Avatar

    your words here require some time. and i am kindof
    done in
    for today
    so…Tomorrow. Beautiful and Beloved Tomorrow……….
    love to you, Michelle…………

    Like

  9. Judith of N. CA Avatar
    Judith of N. CA

    A few years ago when someone was trying to explain to me that I was experiencing a panic attack, I so wish they had used your words of “the Intensity of Response to Great Threat of Well Being”…somehow I get that….thank you, Grace.

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  10. ² Avatar
    ²

    no emotion
    just action
    honestly
    that’s really care
    and love
    respect your self
    and human
    and animal
    big HUG

    Like

  11. Mo Crow Avatar

    Oh Yeah! Yay! Hooray!

    Like

  12. Linda Avatar

    Relief seems unreal at times

    Like

  13. Nanette Avatar

    Your neighbour, your good, long time friend, must have been feeling paralysed too….and perhaps felt too a great threat to her well-being….that she had driven HER good friend away.

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  14. patricia Avatar

    you’ve modeled something invaluable here. and the energy from it ripples on and on and on….

    Like

  15. Julie Avatar
    Julie

    This all makes me so aware of how powerful our utterances are and how much easier for all had
    Margie waited before she spoke to you since “it was just that day.” I agree that the lesson is in waiting but for me, it is waiting before launching disruptive words. If I were in your shoes, i would feel like my head was spinning around in its neck! Fortunate for you both that you are You,

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  16. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    This is magnificent.

    Like

  17. Martine Avatar

    So good you have peace back……….

    Like

  18. jude Avatar

    when i was little, we had close neighbors. we kids played together, mom’s were good friends. then one day, the older boy bit me during a silly kid fight. my mom was so upset she bit the kid back, not really, mind you, just left teeth marks. he ran home and then they never ever spoke again for two years. one day my mom made a pie, went there. i found them on the grass, crying and hugging. and that was that. friends forever till she died. mom always told that story.

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  19. handstories Avatar

    oh, grace, that you were able to move in your paralysis is so huge. to nudge that gate open just enough for something to pass through.

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  20. Susan C Avatar

    It’s such good news, grace. Also scary that it’s just that easy to almost lose someone. Because it’s so hard to speak first – but so clearly worth it.

    Like

  21. Valerianna Avatar

    I had an image of rooted grasses blown by big wind. I don’t know why, but something about flexibility… great news, good to follow instinct and write.

    Like

  22. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    Ahhhh lovely Grace, onya. ox

    Like

  23. grace Avatar

    Marti…it’s the Next day now…Tuesday…and i am still
    here. Sitting quietly with your words.
    and they are True words. Transparency yes, can be
    fragile, but it also does not dance with nuance. with
    complex layers of well, Stuff.
    the sense of translucent. and yes. because clarity
    wasn’t really possible. Opening to Light was.
    “Maybe that is how it needed to be, light into a situation that cannot be readily explained”. Yes. beyond Yes.
    This is really important. so much. because sometimes
    there IS NO explanation that can be understood by All.
    it just can’t. but to let Light in. to Open to Light.
    Light is accessible to all.
    Thank you.

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  24. grace Avatar

    this is good then. there was no sense of panic here,
    rather than a deadening. nothing could flow. but
    to know it could be similar to panic….this is good
    and fills in something about the experience of Helplessness.
    Thank YOU, Judith….Thank YOU……….

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  25. grace Avatar

    i love your HUGS. they Hold me. give me Goodness.

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  26. grace Avatar

    yes. Gladness. yes.

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  27. grace Avatar

    it did. yesterday. but today, the day after, it is
    very real. and today, the relief brings a sense of a kind of….hmmmm, a kind of…..well…responsibility.
    I have been let loose. so now what?????? What can i do with what i now know???????????????

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  28. grace Avatar

    Nanette…you are absolutely right…we are good neighbors.
    we are all we have, down here at the End of the Road.
    Friends, yes, in an odd way. maybe not so much Friends,
    but two women. Two women who live alone. Who both have
    had LIVES and now live alone, at the End of the Road
    across from one another. This is what we are.
    and your are exactly right. she DID feel that.
    and this is what we have to work with from here on out.
    Not just the “words” of it, but the experience of it.
    and so…in that way…it was very very GOOD.

    Like

  29. grace Avatar

    waiting quietly, feeling like it might be the End of the World is hard. This is the Second time i’ve done that.
    This time, i knew more. The next time…well…who knows.

    Like

  30. grace Avatar

    Yes. Words. Words spoken into an innocent ear…or even
    not so innocent ear…
    Words have Great Great Power. I know that even more now.
    Margie is and will be Margie. We are very very different.
    but.
    we ARE our community here. in a lot of ways, even tho she has a large family “around”, it just the two of us, here,
    at the end of this road. we have great meaning to eachother.
    and so…we will go. I took her, along with the flour,
    a mint plant and a tomato start.

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  31. grace Avatar

    i’m still “seeing” it

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  32. grace Avatar

    yes. yes it is. oh. YES, it is.

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  33. grace Avatar

    Margie and i will be friends forever till we die. we will.

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  34. grace Avatar

    the Gate HAS to stay open. no matter what. the gate HAS
    to stay open

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  35. grace Avatar

    not so much to “lose” her….but to lose the Well Being of
    the Goats. that was at the heart of it for me. Me and her,
    well…stubborn women with very different contexts. It was the Goats, that really have no context other than Living
    Clear

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  36. grace Avatar

    it is the correct image.
    both she and i are ROOTED here. very much so. and the
    WINDs of Stuff…they blow and wreak havoc, just
    wild and to cause anything and everything at all, leaving
    the choices to the recipients of their Beingness…so
    yes. the image is as it is/was/is.

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  37. grace Avatar

    Margaret..i am always so happy. so glad. so, well,
    reassured. that you watch here……………..
    Love,

    Like

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