Seaside

We won’t be traveling to the seaside this spring. I stumbled upon these photos and my heart broke with this actualization. I love the warm sun, salt air, and the smell of botanicals. Who doesn’t? I believe most, if not all, feel called to the sea. The sea carries the same elements our bodies do: sodium, chlorine, magnesium, sulfide, calcium and potassium. Returning to the sea has become a yearly Mecca for our land-locked family, a re-immersing that balanced our systems, both physical and spiritual. The sound of water and wind mute the thoughts that worry us. Soft sands cushion our falls when we fail at our attempts to walk on our hands. Warm winds invoke a playfulness that remains dormant more than I’d like it to. Dolphins swim to the shoreline for a closer look, perhaps to see what we are laughing and squealing at. We laugh at nothing but the joy of being alive, well and at the sea.

We will find other antics to celebrate the return of warmer times. Also, the year isn’t over, yet. The world will always be our oyster and magic resides within the folds of uncertainty.

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Mom’s Friend

 

me and momma

 

Mom’s friend calls me often. 

“Is your mom with you?”, she always asks. I’ve had to explain to my mom’s friend over and over her the complications involved and that scenario.

“No, Mom is not with me, and it’s highly unlikely that she ever will be, ” I answer, trying not to let onto how annoyed her question makes me. It’s not her fault. She doesn’t understand. She’s only being hopeful.

“Ah, well, I don’t know why you say your mom doesn’t remember. She remembers,” she says and then she tells the story for what feels . “She hasn’t forgotten! She remembers the time we went swimming and all of us friends had to hang on to one tire to stay afloat!”She tells me this story for what feels like the millionth time. 

Then I have to explain, yet again, about how it’s the newer stuff Mom doesn’t remember, and about Alzheimer’s and how there is no cure. 

Mom’s friend does not listen. Either that, or she has Alzheimer’s, too. 

Coincidentally, I recently came across pictures of my mom and her friend swimming with the tire.

   
 
It’s almost Teo’s first birthday. I can’t tell you how many times this year my heart has hurt because of how much I wish Mom could be here to share in all the joy her grandson brings. Somehow, there’s got to be a way to bring our lives closer together. Yearly visits aren’t cutting it, and saying goodbye is always hard. The perfect solution is out there somewhere. I just know it.

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To Lola and the Titas, Who I Know Are Here, and I Thank Them

Our ancestors are here. Their light shines through us and we illuminate like the fish bones my Lola would pluck from the crown of my head. They would appear there if I accidentally swallowed one. Then, Lola would feed me perfect bites of fish and rice from her soft hands, assuring I would not swallow another bone. I only remembered this when I found myself doing the same for my own children, fingers to their lips.

I understand why I crave food that reminds me of home; I miss my mom and the family that came with her. I swallowed her stories so long ago that they are mostly lost to me now. But when I make food my ancestors like, they return and I remember. They cling to my clothes and trail behind me wherever I go: garlic, vinegar, soy. They linger in the thresholds, sometimes drifting out into the street, enticing neighbors to ask: What’s cooking? And, I can’t answer, because it’s too awkward to explain to someone you hardly know:

You smell the ghosts of food cooked two days ago. I am happy to share the leftovers with you. But, please be prepared to listen as each bite rises from the crown of my head, like steam from hot rice. I’m not chewing. I am talking, and all the tiny bones that hurt to swallow are now illuminated by light.

I bet you won’t ask what’s cooking next time you are passing by and wonder. Or, will you?

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Untitled

Interesting to observe

Other interesting lives

And what others find interesting.

 

Don’t you miss Mexico?

I asked him.

I wanted deep conversations.

He wanted to be left alone with his work.

 

My body and all its liquid

Massive.

Stark and naked

I am always startled to see it.

Full glory

and grace.

He tells me I’m beautiful.

Then there’s beauty I haven’t developed a pallet for

yet.

 

Hungry

On the outskirts

Mourning for their proximity

Distanced now.

There was never a choice in the matter.

Many said we’d forget about the dogs

Would cease to love them.

 

We move through days

tethered to diapers and feedings

and we love the chore.

The smell of humans

Skin to skin

an aroma

that once it hits you

never leaves,

will always be

fruit

vegetable

meat

water.

It all boils down to water.

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Say What You Want To Say

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Grief aches near my heart, rises up into my shoulders and throat. It contracts, becomes full, and opens. The sound of my sob shocks me. It is unrecognizable. Each morning, each night, and all the way in between; it’s uncomfortable. I … Continue reading

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Jungle Room


The plants have all been moved inside. 

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Life, Love and Letttus

   
    
   
   
 I make a terrible gardener. I’m afraid of bugs and spiders, and I’m  never completely comfortable touching dirt. But the good Lord knows I tried. 

I started with a vigor, clearing the land, laying bricks, planting seeds. I tore up weeds before they crept up too far. And Teo, he was just a babe. I’d have to dart outside as he napped, monitor tied around my neck, and dig in the dirt. Somewhere along the way, I began to link the tilling of my garden with the rearing of Teo, as if the two were intertwined; reflections of one another. I know this is a silly thought, and probably hormone related, for as the hormones waned, and the plants began to grow, and Teo became the sturdy baby I knew he would someday become, I relaxed. I let the weeds grow wild as Teo learned to crawl along the dirt and grass. Flowers grew tall and bountiful, some taller than myself, which isn’t saying much, but 5’1″ is tall for a flower if you ask me. 

No longer fearful of the outcome, I sit beside it. It smells like marigolds and water. I listen. It’s a home for crickets. And it’s where I get my tomatoes these days.

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Dad In Missoula

  
In all honesty, whenever I hear that one of my parents needs my help, my initial reaction is anger and resentment. Anger for all the times I’ve been thrown in jail for being an “unruly” child, or thrown out on the streets for being a “slut”. Anger because my father abandoned us for a younger, prettier family. Resentment because Mom and Dad were both in denial that they would ever get old and need to be cared for. They never planned for this. Dad used to always tell us that when he was ready to die, he would go out into the woods, lay down and die.

Right now, I feel I deserve nothing but to be enveloped in my new baby, but the needs of my parents are around every one of his milestones.

I understand my anger towards my parents is an attempt to convince myself that my parents don’t deserve my help. Selfishly, I want to simply live my life with carefree ease. Who can blame me?

I call Dad in the hospital.

“I heard you fell,” I say.

“No, that’s not what happened”, he responds. “I was driving through Missoula, trying to get home. I had to stop to rest, and I happened to stop here, at Providence Hospital.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re being taken care of, Dad,” I reply, as my eyes well up with tears. He is thousands of miles from Missoula and hasn’t driven in years. It’s never fun or amusing to witness the frail confusion of someone you love.

“I guess I didn’t realize how tired I truly am,” he tells me.

I remember something I read by Abraham-Hicks, that suggested that the best thing you can do for a person who is not doing well is to envision them in his or her highest, most resilent, healthy state of being. I go to one of Dad’s many boxes of photos I’ve inherited to find a picture of him in his youth to meditate on. I open a box I’ve never opened before to find two journals. In them, my parents have recorded my actions and outfits for the first two years of my life. I read some of the entries. My anger lifts like a fog and my resentment melts away. In their writings, I clearly see how human they are. In their notes, they love immensely and they are flawed, just as we all do and are. 

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Cat Baby

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Last night, I dreamt Teo was half kitten, a black and grey tabby. He was substantially adorable. I wish I could show you.

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The Promise

fawn_web

Bill’s been sanding floors.

It is hard work, he reports.

Teo and I stay away those long hours he’s sanding. When Bill’s day is done he’s covered in wood-dust, coated like a soft fawn.

These days, when it’s just Teo and I, I often feel there’s so much going on within 600 square feet of a home and I find myself speaking and thinking in fragments:

Insane.

Cluttered.

Lost.

So much love.

Poop everywhere.

Pee everywhere.

Dog hair: everywhere.

Tame your fear.

ProtectTeo_web

Fear, a survival instinct. Next to it sits the feeling of utter joy. I’ve never been happier as when I’m when I’m carrying Teo on my hip through our apartment and his hand lands on my heart as the dogs trot around my ankles. No, I’ve never been happier. I want to protect this happiness and the feeling drives me mad. I search for faith. There was a time when I was certain there was something beyond what we can see and hear and touch.

I once wrote a shape poem about that time:

Budgie

I prayed before

bedtime that God

would help me find my

yellow budgie. I had

let her out of her cage.

Perched her in the hibiscus

tree that’s kept in my room

(Mom says it’s because my room

gets the best light). Instead of staying

perched like she was told, she flew off

to somewhere I couldn’t find. So there

in the dark, with my hands neatly folded,

I promised to never doubt God’s existence

if He would please bring me my budgie

(and Egyptian Cartouche necklace. It has

my name spelled in hieroglyphics). I shot that

prayer up like a laser beam through Heaven’s

clouds and my plea flooded all the rooms of

God’s castle. After an hour or so, God agreed

to take me up on the bargain, and I was startled

by the sound of flapping wings. I turned on the

light to see my budgie flying around the ceiling

before he tumbled, wings open, behind the big chair. I never knew birds could fall. I leapt out of bed and pulled the chair from the wall and there was my budgie looking

up at me.Her legs tangled

in my Egyptian Cartouche

necklace. I untangled

her and put her back

her in her cage.

She seemed relieved

to finally be home.

God doesn’t always

agree to my bargains,

just sometimes, every

blue moon or so. And

when He does, it

always surprises

me. And I don’t

know why.

I guess as time moved on and life became even more precious, my faith slowly diminished. It’s not completely gone, I’d just like to beef it up some. I feel like if I don’t, I’ll never be able to let go of this fear and therefore, I won’t be open to receive love and light.

Do you have miracle story that helps you remember why you have faith to begin with?

Faith_web

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