just in the last hour or so, a GRAND STORM
direct lightning strikes, Thunder Man LOUD, everything runs for cover. Sky Water. and now a brilliance of Light at the Rim.
This morning i woke to thinking about the Bath Ladies. I guess because it's possible that Travis, the Old Cowboy's Shower Guy might be leaving to go to Heavy Equipment School in California. This brings Blanca to mind. The Bath Lady for the Hospice Program we are deeply Into now. If the Beloved Travis goes, Blanca will come.
I first met Blanca when Alz B had her first knee replacement. I met her again when Alz B had her second knee replacement. Haven't seen her since. But my mind knows her very well.
She appeared at Alz B's home out of the blue as part of a home health team. Alz B was not yet at the Old Folks Home, but following a downward spiral in that direction.
Blanca. A Large dark woman with Vivid wine red lipstick and large complex dangle earrings. The first time, me thinking i needed to mediate between a belligerant Alz B and a quiet new Blanca,…
wrong.
Firmly and swiftly Blanca herds the protesting and snotty Alz B into the bathroom. I hear water running then seemingly in the blink of an eye, the whir of the blow dryer. Alz B is escorted, all spiffy and lotioned to her chair and Blanca says into the air, Thank You, i will be back on Wednesday.
Bath Ladies. Going About, bathing strangers. Kind. Efficient. Capable.
I wake this morning, thinking how meaning FULL this is. How of GOODness and Greatness it is to Bathe people who no longer can bathe themselves.
and i begin working of my Cloth of Protection…you might know where this is going if you have been around long enough.
Meaning. Use. Nothing Big, just what it is. Meaning. Use . An everpresent pulsing thread. There is Blanca, somewhere in Socorro County bathing someone. Here am I. Stitching myself a Cloth of Protection. Cmon, grace…..
but then there is an email. Go look. HandEye. Google HandEye Magazine click Textiles…the article, New Possibilities by Wendy Golden Levitt.
and there
the Tay Cloth. On a drum with small hands. To see this in this beauty FULL essay by Wendy, this Tay Cloth, lying on the drum, the hands, also is to heal me. Works to heal the thing in me that is forever wondering about MEANING and my place in and of a Meaningful Life.
Over the course of the many years of my life, I have allowed myself to become good at many things. But that underlying thread of that question of Worth, remains. I am old now. You'd think i'd have "gotten over it". But i need to admit, not. So this essay, this Story i read ,of course, makes me feel such honor and Goodness that Wendy included some of the cloths i have made as examples of Textiles she and the children use…..for the Work….to Heal…..
but today i look at the Tay Cloth on the drum. In the past, Wendy chose Cloths and once requested a Cloth for a particular purpose. But the Tay Cloth…i sent. The Tay Cloth representing something in me and something that the Being, Tay dog, represents in my life…this cloth…i didn't know about. Would it be,, uhhh, too much? Too uhhh, too raw? Unacceptable?
i am so HONORED that Wendy's Children find things in these Cloths. That there is Common Ground for Us, kinship through Cloth itself. It allows me to be OF them.
it gives a space…for that question that always arises…that parental question…
"who do you think you Are?"
They are dead. my parents. but i continue to ask the question for them.
More tomorrow.
ADDENDUM
i forgot
as far as it got today. The Electrical Co op came and made their marks. The phone people came and made theirs. So…tomorrow, the back hoe. It is VERY up against the fence. Very.
and the Cloth….that helps me answer the question of why me?, why not, All You?
the sky is finished. All afternoon, the Earth. But i think this is going to be It. Thread. Brown Thread through a single strip of cloth. Tomorrow.
windthread 
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