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because of the conversation going    round   

i began the day by going to look into the Archives here.   I always love it when those who are good at that sort of thing…Link me to a certain post.   i love it and appreciate it so much,  and am always surprised by what i  find there.  Glad it's there.   it's a happy thing.   But otherwise,  i have rarely gone into those archives.   I just don't.  And this morning when i went back to 2011 and began rolling through the months….

i didn't like it.

mostly,  i looked at the pics.   reading the words was too much.   i didn't want to.    Some of the pics gave me a Longing for the desert,  for New Mexico,  some,   for that Place there in particular.   I left so much behind.  And not just things i realized.   For the first time,  i got a glimmer of how it is i leave Selves behind.   Whole selves.   Selves that take years to fall into place in that kaleidoscope way i always reference….this is a Big Thought.   it's only partially thought.  it will take some time.   I ended up writing down the different selves that immediately came to mind and there were,  of course,  5.   i smiled.  yes.    those selves are uhhhhh,   well….how i tried to explain it to mySelf was…..it's like a book.  a novel.     there are characters.   distinct  lives.  Maybe it's kind of that thing of a while ago…parallel lives…but these are not parallel,  but  one after another…..what's the word for that? there's the   Falling Water self                                                                                                                                                                                                  the Fern Home Self,  including Oregon, Arizona,  the return to Michigan and New Mexico                                                                        the dark years                                                                                                                                                                                                                  the Spirit Cloth self which would hold Magic Diaries                                                                                                                                             this one,   this Hill self  which i am becoming

this is hard thinking.   i wasn't expecting it.

what was "offered" right away was the fact that i have always put my Whole and Entire beingness into whichever self i am living.   I AM that.  totally.   and when i move.   from one into the next,   the one i move From is Complete.   I don't know how to explain that.    "complete".   but it is.   And in very certain ways,   certain things are over.   completed.   They are "archived"  in that slide show of my mind.   parts of them come to me when i need them or want them….need to learn from them.  THE ALL of them is always there somehow,  but i don't need more than the slide show.    

the pics above.    After all this,  i set out to haul more of that manure/bedding straw to B Garden.   spread it on the cardboard i put there.   I have two more trips i think.  then will pull logs on that sled to border this new 2021 bed.   There is huge pleasure to this.    After i finished,  i just sat.   that's all.   just sat.   and after a while,  some bird spoke somewhere overhead.  it took a while to figure out where….because i couldn't see any bird.   But  then….there it was.   it was a hummingbird.  i'd not known they spoke this way….

on the way back i stopped at Nogal's Forest and went IN.   this,  because yesterday when i needed to go inside in order to clean his water tub,   he didn't shy away,   but instead came up.  and i spent time scratching his ears,  touching him everywhere,  slowly,   quietly,   no agenda.   and he stayed.   being touched.   wanting it.  this is new.   he will come to the fence but has always run when someone comes inside.   Which is not good for Evacuation.   It takes forever to trap him…it takes all 4 of us and  Alyssia ends up having to physically carry him to load. 

 it's more than she should do.   There is no need for this.   it's habit for him and the result of not consistent physical contact.   Today,  i sat on one of his downed tree trunks.  Puppy arrived to join us.  We were Together.  I'd brought stale tortilla chips.   i just stayed.   a long time.   he came and went.   then came again.    While i sat there i thought about all the above,  about why anything is happening and the slide show clicked in.    Letting go of the A Garden,  the Wall Garden,  that felt like a failure,  but was,  maybe?,  in fact,  a moment of release.  Just like him.  Stuff from habit.   In this case,  the doing of things because of wanting to constantly TRY.   TRY to Accomplish.    and letting that go,  to Let.   to Let what can happen,  Wants to happen,  Happen.   To live in the Present.   moment to moment.   Feel it.   Breathe.   Notice.  Be Glad for what is.  

 

 

 

    

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22 responses to “the Un Expected”

  1. maria Avatar
    maria

    reality story

    Like

  2. Dana Avatar

    I did the same thing this morning….went into my archives to see where I was before. It was like falling down a well. My former selves don’t sort themselves as clearly into places as yours seem to, but I feel like I am contacting other iterations of myself. Your post reminds me of New Mexican you, which is the only other you I have glimpsed…

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  3. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    As one who goes into your archives and brings the link here, I usually do so in reference to your cloth work so that others can see the story journey, the backdrop to your wonderful cloths…

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  4. Mo Crow Avatar

    Nogal is such a handsome goat!

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  5. jude Avatar

    My older selves sometimes fall away so easily they hardly seem like me. The cloth self persists but there are so many kinds of cloth. In looking back only such a tiny bit/ I realize I have let go of many parts of me and now old enough to just forget. This does not make me feel sad, mad or glad. I do not feel too much about it except curiosity.

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  6. Liz A Avatar

    I have been feeling homesick lately, missing the Hill Country house … I’m glad I have the blog to look back on, that I can revisit the self I was back then, even when it makes me sad
    I did start to read your blog some time ago … went back to the beginning and slowly read my way through a number of years … I wanted to know you better but now I realize that there was/is more than one you, that we are indeed every age we’ve ever been … composite creatures, collages of selves

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  7. Deb G Avatar

    As I look back, one thing I am realizing is how constant I am about some things, what I want and value, how I spend my time. I also see some changes and have been wondering about the why. I think a lot of letting go. Also some tiredness (not just the last two years of Covid).
    I absolutely understand what you mean by selves. Moves certainly do it and I know I left one self behind when I moved from Seattle. I even felt it happen at the time, can pinpoint the moment.
    Habits thinking about that too (still thinking about rituals, traditions, celebrations and habit is part of that too).

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  8. Joanne in Maine Avatar
    Joanne in Maine

    I haven’t gone back to read the YEARS of Daily Notes…I was Library and Quilting Me. I was Greenhouse and Master Gardener Me. Now I am stay at home and do nothing Me. Before that….No blog then.

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  9. maria Avatar
    maria

    Jude curiosity for the next , beautyful words i recognice them

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  10. CatherinE Avatar

    I feel like my self is continuous – maybe because I keep a paper journal. Now I wanted to get rid of my old journals. They are too many and too much. Something has changed lately, I’m coming out of my shell I guess.

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  11. Faith Avatar

    I have never thought much about different selves. Probably had only a vague notion of them. Reading this makes me want to delve into them more. Maybe figure out who I am. Jude’s comment about selves falling away made me think we are like onions–all one, but separate parts connected at the root. But maybe for some it’s more like tree rings–distinct, but more cohesive than onions. And then there are facets, which are different sides, as opposed to layers, of the same. … My brain is running away with this…
    I think ‘consecutive’ is the word you were looking for.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes….very much so

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    it’s an interesting exercise….i tried again today.
    i miss my New Mexican me, but that me was
    completed.
    i still am thinking about this….completed.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    and i love so much that you can do this….i am
    floundering whenever i’ve tried…
    when you provide a link, it’s not just for others,
    but for me. It means a lot.
    i am grateful.

    Like

  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    in the pic they had just touched noses…i missed that by
    a nanosecond….
    and yes. He is Handsome….not so much as his father
    Buckwheat, but close.
    He is the only Buck we will “use” now. We’ll see how
    it goes. He’s very much a gentleman with the doe s, maybe too much so.
    it seems we are deciding to go for it again…it would
    be this next month. It would be good to get a couple
    doelings. the herd is aging.

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    i’m trying to understand myself…what i meant by that post.
    A lot of it has to do with the actual MOVING….beginning
    totally again. Beginning in totally different contexts.
    the me inside is the me, but the Life lived was very
    different. yes, no sad, mad, glad, any of that, but
    realizing.

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    that curiosity is what’s important

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    as i said to Jude above…the actual change in CONTEXT
    …leaving places, arriving places, creating entirely
    different was of living
    i like very much the words…collages of selves

    Like

  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. moves. and in my case, how i lived. entirely.
    Livlihood. Everything changed.
    and yes. some things remained True, through all of it.
    It’s what i Go with today

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. going back to read. a Trip.

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  21. grace Forrest Avatar

    i will look forward to your something that is changing.
    Coming out of your shell…i instantly got pics from
    that Slide Show in my mind…our hermit crab that we had
    when kids were young. How courageous she was, just
    suddenly, one day, OUT….her vulnerable self, walking
    around looking for what was next. We scrambled for days
    going everywhere would could to find new shells that
    she might find suitable. We loved her.

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  22. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. consecutive. it came to me at 1am. i got up and
    wrote it down.
    i think i feel like i do because i changed Everything those
    5 times. the only thing that remained the same is that
    naked self, like the hermit crab, i said to CatherinE,
    that animal body with human heart

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