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this is unnecessary and probably inappropriate to  put here,  but in the name of Transparency,  i think, So What.

Spent the day at the Old Cowboy's house.  It's  Done.   A modest amount in the center of the garage to go to the dump.  A lot of cardboard boxes to smash and tie for recycle.  Otherwise….except for his brand new lightweight transport wheelchair and his beloved wheeled walker thingy that go to Hospice this next week,  everything is gone.  Well,  a small box of his slippershoes,  his teeth.  His glasses.  I was going to bring them home today.  They will be buried at the Raft here,  but somehow,  it was a Not Yet.  So they wait there.  I don't know for what. 

Outside there is now a real estate sign with a "lock box" for the key to the house…to 
show

Feelings.

So unless something changes,  which it probably won't,  his

Home

will be sold.   

The money from that will go to my GrandDaughter Alyssia.  For Whatever.  

There is some other money.  That will be divided between my daughter, son and floundering grandson.

Hopefully,  there will be enough that i will buy that piece of property next door to me.  My buffer against the world.  We'll see.

And when it's over and Done,  i can go back to being me.  Whoever me is.

During the Dust Bowl,  Old Cowboy's mother and father,  Leroy and Flossie,  set out from Clayton New Mexico for Colorado.  They arrived at Steam Boat Springs and with the help of someone,  bought land and a small herd of cattle.  They were "bankrolled".   They lived and raised that herd to a very very Good herd.  They raised their only child,  the Old Cowboy,  who was from birth challenged by significant physical handicaps. But they taught him and he learned.  Then Leroy just died one day,  on the couch in their livingroom.  Old Cowboy,  in his 40's and his mother Flossie kept the ranch going.  It wasn't easy.  And when Flossie died,  Old Cowboy,  in his early 60's sold that ranch to become ski runs and condominiums.  He floated down here to Socorro New Mexico and that's where our story began.

i know the whole of the story,  the Before and then of course from when he got here because that's when i began to know him.  I know how all his money and all his Stuff were Everything to him.  And today,  all that knowing was very much with me as we finished it all up.  

Not long before he died,  he had a space of total clarity when he said…."  i will die,  and no one will care."  "it won't matter".  

i so clearly remember this moment and how there was such an urge to say Stuff.  To say nice stuff.  But i didn't.  I said some thing like….  people will care in their own way.   and in a certain way,  no.  it won't matter.   Our lives matter to Us.  as we live them.  this is when there is mattering.  In the living of it.  When that's done,  then……

so i did what i did today.  What comes of it comes of it.   What he might think about what will come of it will be in question.   He always said that i should take any money and buy a new car.  Buy a new house.  Get stuff.   I have no need.  So…i will pass it on.  I will bankroll others.  What they do with it in this day and age is for them to know.    I talked to him about all this today.  I know he listened.

 

 

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43 responses to “so what”

  1. julie Avatar

    I would love to hear more of his story. For me, that is really all that is ever left, the story. And when you tell, when you become the story teller, it blows his ashes all the way across the world. I bet he would like that, knowing that us girls in dots on a map of the US, Europe, Australia…all those places…that we were here to catch the. dust of jis stories. I for one cant resist a story that includes a character named Flossie!!

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  2. julie Avatar

    PS. Make sure you keep enough to get that land, I want you to have a Buffer.

    Like

  3. grace Avatar

    Flossie kept her extra money frozen in ice cube trays.

    Like

  4. grace Avatar

    i do. i do too. want that buffer. it’s all i want.

    Like

  5. Patriciaspangler47@gmail.com Avatar
    Patriciaspangler47@gmail.com

    I cannot tell you how I’ve longed to come here. To this place of poignant sanity. Yes buy the buffer. And yes,please tell more of his story. I do ‘t know why but it does matter somehow.

    Like

  6. Mo Crow Avatar

    this is just so poignant… (((Grace)))

    Like

  7. faun bonewits Avatar

    there were others there
    people you could not hear
    spirits who care
    so you both would not be alone.
    being there talks louder than words.
    I’m sure he listened
    and heard more than you said.
    those ur words that fall in the silence
    untied and free
    May his journey bring him to a place of happiness
    at least somewhere interesting.

    Like

  8. Jacqui Avatar
    Jacqui

    There is a richness to life that money can not buy. To love and be loved, to see beauty in small doings, to matter and do what matters.
    Love to you Grace.

    Like

  9. pardalote Avatar

    His story matters, and the sharing matters. I’m sure he would love that you shared his story and so it is woven into the Earth, into the minds of people All Over. Please share more of his story when/if the time is right.
    And yes YES YES to the land that is joined to your land. For the goats, for the land, for you (and yes for you is still GOOD and right.)

    Like

  10. Nanette Avatar

    ….and keep a little extra for you to keep feeding your goats, for lean times.

    Like

  11. NancyK Avatar

    tell your story
    we need this
    it helps us understand the road traveled
    all those images the transition
    wonderous passages of
    being and doing

    Like

  12. elizabeth Avatar
    elizabeth

    It is the stories that matter. So happy for you to be able to get the land for a buffer.

    Like

  13. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Our lives matter and when we are gone, stories and memories remain and the footprints that we left along the way. As you spoke to Robert yesterday, I know he listened as you went about the day. Family and friends and especially our children and grandchildren hold our stories. The bittersweet in this is that you had told us long ago that his daughter died so I like to think that no matter how he felt about certain aspects of life, to know that your children and grandchildren will be given a hand, bankrolled from his legacy, is a fine memorial to Robert.

    Like

  14. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    It is all in the telling….Grace you tell it so well!! Heartfelt storytelling comes from those we meet along the way….they never did! I love what you have planned from the sale of the house…a story that will be told.

    Like

  15. Liz Avatar

    OCB lives on in the stories you tell … in the end, that is the only thing of true substance any of us can hope to behind.
    But about money and your very good impulse to share it. Yes, that has much value to those you love. But money can also buy space (land), time (to be freed from work away days), and ease (to be one with cloth whenever your heart desires). These things will have much value to those who love you, too.

    Like

  16. Liz Avatar

    Take 2:
    … hope to leave behind

    Like

  17. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    Oh dear Grace, there is so much in what you have shared . . . but what I keep coming back to is “And when it’s over and Done I can go back to being me. Whoever that is.”
    I think I recognize that longing. How many times I’ve said to myself, “If I can just get past this, I will finally be who I really am.” A place of simplicity and calmness and creativity.
    But all the pieces in our life, when they’re “stitched together” and layered by the passing years, they were really one cloth all along. I was just never able to step back far enough to see the “wholeness” being made.
    Much love to you, dear heart.

    Like

  18. grace Avatar

    it’s a story of how an entire lifetime was
    spent

    Like

  19. grace Avatar

    once again, it was one of those that i woke during the
    night and wondered about myself

    Like

  20. grace Avatar

    this poem you write….thank you for it…
    words untied and free
    and then…a place of happiness…at least somewhere interesting..
    OH, i just love this thought…
    THANK YOU!!!!!!

    Like

  21. grace Avatar

    well, we mattered, both of us each in our own
    chosen way, almost in spite of ourselves
    in it’s way, how really strange it was/is.
    and LOVE back to you, Jacqui

    Like

  22. grace Avatar

    yes….that. to some it might be foolish, considered to be
    a waste…but i need to do it, for these next years that i
    feel like i am holding in the palm of my hand….

    Like

  23. grace Avatar

    i love that expression
    lean times
    and i will. i have thought of that. to keep feeding them,
    to take Care of them. I have enough already for myself,
    i need nothing. But for them…yes. Just in case. They
    weigh heavy on the scale of Just in Case.

    Like

  24. grace Avatar

    our stories….bright and not so much, how they help Us
    know things…
    i go back to that book Marti gave
    Two Old Women

    Like

  25. grace Avatar
  26. grace Avatar

    he would like it i think, if he could let himself…but he was so so tied to
    Holding on to it until death. He would view this as
    extravagant and foolish.

    Like

  27. Mo Crow Avatar

    Have a look at Erin Keyes recent installation/distillation about the making of myth and story – “Absence – Nothing Comes From Nothing”-
    http://erinkeys.com/category/blog/
    NB her blog is handmade and takes awhile to load

    Like

  28. grace Avatar

    she’s young. 27. Raising two young ones on her own, one
    that she has Taken In. And now committing to some degree
    for the little one of her brother’s.
    and again, she has that “Lupus like” auto immune challenge.
    my hope for all the kids is that they can use whatever there
    is to establish a HomePlace, down payment, it is what to me
    makes life easy….having a Place to go from. But there
    are no strings for this. I just would like to feel that i
    made it Possible. What they do is what they do. They will
    make their own stories.

    Like

  29. grace Avatar

    we’ll see. it’s yet to be known how much there is…
    so no point thinking about it too much.
    but i have lived most of my Time. The way i needed to.
    and i am content….
    I have such an iron work ethic…we’ll see what i do with
    the Work Away. I have no clue yet about how it will feel
    with the responsibility for him gone…all that space,
    real and in my head, now empty and Open.
    i am really looking at it all. This being a very significant
    year for me. How will i honor it?

    Like

  30. grace Avatar

    you are right…One Cloth all along. This is totally True.
    and now i am at what feels to me to be a threshhold, a door.
    it’s a really Great moment
    and love back to Your Dear Heart

    Like

  31. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Giving with no strings….is the best kind of giving!!

    Like

  32. Nanette Avatar

    the care and just in case are very important, that’s what makes you a good goat mother, anticipating future needs. xx

    Like

  33. grace Avatar

    it is. They all know my story, how my intention was NOT to
    take a Place, but to go with the Wind. And how over time
    it only felt like repetition. BeautyFull repetition, but
    none the less….so they have watched.
    but what it has meant to them is their own.

    Like

  34. grace Avatar

    am good at care and just in case when it is to do with
    sentient beings that i partner with

    Like

  35. deb lacativa Avatar

    Did you ever get a chance to tell him of his celebrity here?
    And before you go funding those unimagined dreams please of others, no matter how beloved, tend to yours, as he wanted for you. Get that thing that’s so important to you, that buffer. Then you can pass it on when you are finished with it.

    Like

  36. Nancy Avatar

    He matters, mattered because he matters to you and therefore to all of us. His story is a good one, worth telling and remembering. Your buffer will be rich with it.

    Like

  37. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    this was amazing and interesting ..thank you for sharing.
    gentle day cynthia

    Like

  38. saskia Avatar

    A multi-layered tale, his yours ours
    the sharing
    it matters

    Like

  39. joy in az Avatar

    Discovered your blog thanks to a link from spirit cloth so I am new to your story, just the past few months. I’m enriched being here. (me figuring out how to do this life thing) The work you do here, of transcribing Life… it is so holy.

    Like

  40. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    The whole story includes how it felt, and really, only the one who felt knows that. That’s why I so love illuminated memoir, and fiction that manifests the inner life of the narrator. It is certainly ‘something’ to pass through an others life, to be a part of it for a time.

    Like

  41. faun bonewits Avatar

    hugs((( you)))
    You’re welcome

    Like

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