things feel different.  I don't know why.

A  disconnected space.   Bright.  Clean.  but somehow in the middle of some kind of Before and After.  I have not thought this through at all,  so it's coming as i sit here and type it out.  Might want to re read and change things.

It is clearly coming from the visit.  When all the Usual stopped for such a short time,  but Stopped.

I even felt estranged from my connection with Out There,  the Goats.  Everything took place in words. In talking.  In talking in the house.  Away from the rest of my everyday world.  

A lot of it has to do with Remembering and realizing that there is so much i just don't remember.  That she did.  For instance that we,  the guy i lived with then for 10 years,  the kids ages maybe 6 and 3 or 7 and 4 helped her move all her worldly belongings from Michigan to Missouri.   We DID go a few months later again just to visit on our way to Florida.  Which i do remember.  But the moving part, it's a blur.  It's there,  but it just dissolved.  And i realize that that's the way with a lot of things that happened or that i did in my life.   Many things i just let go of,  that kind of flew off into the far away as i swirled along.  

identity

in the conversation,  i heard myself saying so many time that i  "always wanted to _____" .  But haven't.   "Would really like to ___________", but i can't.

those above two lines should be in NEON.

and sometime in the conversation i told her how Alyssia has come to say  "If you really wanted to you could, couldn't you?"   in connection to the thing we say to each other when one of us makes a flat out statement:   Is that True?  

She picked up on that.   Specifically,  my saying i can't make the trip to Missouri.  The Goats,  Tay.  blah blah.    

If you really wanted to,  you could,  couldn't you?     What's the real answer:    Yes.

She drove straight through from here home.  One day.  I COULD. 

So What's the Deal,  i ask Self?  What's going on?

………………….look up from typing here,  see the Giant Sacaton grass plumes swaying in the Wind,  and remember about how i saw on Sunday an adult Great Plains Skink at the reptile and amphibian exhibit room….how i've only ever seen the juveniles here,  but sometimes have seen a blur of fast movement that now i imagine to be an adult.  They are elegant,  sand colored with black and copper/brass design.

i think how i COULD rearrange things here so it's like the Cactus Garden there at the Refuge.  I've always wanted to do that since i first saw it 15 years ago.  I've always wanted to do that.  I haven't.

That thing about Diorama that has lived inside me since i was a child.  I COULD create a Diorama to live in….like the one i imagined as a child and off and on through my life

 

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This.  with hides or felted walls in Winter.  What would i use on the roof?  I could figure it out.  A camp.  I COULD live in a camp.   I always could have.  Could now.  Are the I can'ts True?  No.

somewhere in this thread of thought this afternoon as i floated in the disconnected space,  i remembered that skirt that daughter had given me for a birthday present maybe 20 some years ago,  from a thrift shop and the elastic waist band was worn out.  I never fixed it.  I could fix it i thought  and went into the stacks and found it and fixed the waistband.  

 

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T shirt material.   I used to decorate myself with clothing.  A lot of it i made.  Ethnic/Tribal.  things deconstructed and reconstructed.  For years now i've worn the "uniforms".  Denim jumpers in Warm.  Levis and zip hooded sweatshirts in Cold.   

I COULD decorate myself again.

I COULD

teach myself to make pottery

teach myself paper making

 

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teach myself to make rag rugs

train Tay for herding and Field

put in a drip system

become better at Drawing

make new kitchen cabinets with salt cedar doors

put in a new floor in the bathroom

put in walls and window frames in the ROOM

paint that floor

Volunteer at the Bosque del Apache Refuge or Sevielleta and meet interesting people

IDENTITY.

i can change my current Identity.

watching the world adjust to the New Reality of President Trump,   i don't have a whole lot of confidence in much of anything.  So ….. How to Live?   There MIGHT be a miracle.  Maybe.  But i see us as hopefully going down the tubes.  So how do i intend to LIVE?

ADDENDUM

 

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Volume 1 published in 2006

 

 

 

 

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18 responses to “identity”

  1. Cindy from Georgia Avatar
    Cindy from Georgia

    We were saying this just tonight – Anything could happen. Yes.

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  2. grace Avatar

    Cindy in Georgia…
    THANK YOU, THANK YOU AND BEYOND THANK YOU….
    LOVE…..

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  3. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    Ditto to Everything you said. As far as my list of want to do’s, i did them in my mind. And that over wrote alot of areas that had previous memories stored.

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  4. Mo Crow Avatar

    “just going” with deep integrity and heart listening to the spirits of place no matter what’s going on, through the thicks & thins of it all, that’s what I’ve learned from you and Jude and all this wonderful circle of brilliant magic people
    namaste

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  5. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    The only trouble with lists like this for me is that actually, though only a sentence each, each demands both resources and time…usually a lot more time and resources than one thinks while saying or thinking the sentence. What I might have done, which road I might have traveled, who or what I might have valued…speculation. Of course, now, so long as I understand and accept my physical, emotional and financial limitations, anything can and might happen. But Noam Chomsky practically predicted the rise of Trump long before his name even came up…so analysis of the underlying facts might be useful. As for magic, it exists in the realm of chance. That’s what we mean when we sing along with Lennon “Give Peace a chance”. The skirt is lovely and it’s lovely you fixed the waistband. It might not have ever come to mind but it did…and you responded.
    Endgame is a two-volume work by Derrick Jensen, published in 2006, which argues that civilization is inherently unsustainable and addresses the resulting question of what to do about it.

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  6. Liz A Avatar

    I love the symbols on the skirt … and the idea of decorating oneself. Yes to that!
    And the list … what is the next fun thing to do? Because yes, we can do it all.
    This post made my heart sing. So I’m going to go look at some of my lists and see what’s next.

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  7. handstories Avatar

    I know those two neon lines well. last night, was remembering back to the days when Janie & I put branches in each of our living room doorways, strung with twinkle lights, and cloth everywhere, and homemade chandeliers & we wore glitter- created spaces…our lives were like stages. maybe “can” is hope with action? what a difference.

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  8. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    It always comes back to before and after …. before this after that. What we are left with is what is. With the help of you and the amazing woman whose words are shared here daily I’m learning that it is enough. Doesn’t mean we can’t want more … do more but at the end of the day it is enough. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving… I will spend my day giving thanks.

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  9. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    I wanted to mention that I am trilled you pulled out that skirt..it is a beauty with sentimentality. I can totally see you wearing it.

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  10. grace Avatar

    love this…”i did them in my mind”.
    i did them in my mind.
    yes….it’s true, isn’t it.

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  11. grace Avatar

    time is what is always weighed. All those things (just some of many) on the list above require very little in the realm of limitations other than time.
    and yes…this is BIG to me right now. To EDUCATE self…analysis of the underlying facts…
    Jensen’s books….civilization….AS IT HAS BECOME…IS unsustainable. We need to evolve BEYOND. It’s Time.

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  12. grace Avatar

    it’s fun to think about for a moment or too, but really, my life dictates my selfdecorating. The skirt will be the new morning wear, over/atop the leggings. Till i go OUT to begin the work of the day, then back to levis.

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  13. grace Avatar

    “our lives were like stages”…this is BEAUTY FULL ~

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  14. grace Avatar

    yes. the reality IS….at the end of the day is is enough.
    At the end of all those days, it was enough. and this
    is GOOD.

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  15. grace Avatar

    told daughter about it today.

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  16. debbie.weaver Avatar

    Oh yes the must do list, the things to be done sometime list and then the imagining list all the would like to’s going round in ones head.
    The if’ I only had time’, ‘if I was brave enough’
    Love the skirt and that book, which I look through but never do, another item to go on one of my lists.

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  17. grace Avatar

    through the thicks and the thins
    like these words very much

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  18. grace Avatar

    they are all just possibilities, really, no shoulds,
    and i’m thinking in the moment that though possible,
    i chose differently. Chose.

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