My magical meeting of both of these women occurred almost to my lack of awareness.. I had just moved to a small island in Puget Sound in Washington State. I knew no one and did not know if I would meet the compatriots I yearned to share my life with.
Cyprienne called to tell me Raven died May 23rd morning in a voicemail. To my regret I failed that day to answer this message, as I do with many voicemails, a resistance, yet for me to totally understand.... until today..my many recent losses and my need to let go... again... 4 times this past year...
As I age my family of friends are diminishing each year. This circle grows smaller in diameter and will continue until it reaches myself at the center.
The BIG LET GO
At this center is where we all will join each other again. Raven would have loved the direction my art was heading and most importantly was alongside my understanding of this circle of our shared SPIRIT. This light in the CENTER has grown only a bit brighter since she moved on ahead of us.
I have a TOTEM creature as Indigenous Peoples have coveted to become a guide on their journeys. It is the Raven. We first met on my move from Vermont back to the NW and my family roots. They graced my yard as I parked and loaded the moving van and I would find them around the van as I came out of the motels each morning!?
RAVEN my friend was to be a companion too and to keep going.. "all is well" no matter where it leads us to, including my leaving the island with great heart ache. My last meeting on Anderson Island with Raven foreshadowed her decline in health, as was my own health from the lockdown at that time.
We all are connected yet at the same time must fly our own pathway till we land on the spot we can claim as only our own . Raven made her choices and I honor those even if we no longer can be in view of each other.
My variation of an age-old joke askes, "which crossed the road first, the chicken or the egg?" With age comes some wisdom? Answer: "At the same time!" He acknowledged that this may have been my best joke yet to create. He said he would share that one. "My master class was complete!"
We are all connected to each other and
"No beginning, no end."
He carried all the many jokes with him that have lightened my load over the years.
We only talked of the most important issues for us both in the last months. Not to waste any time for laughter about our country's tribulations, the worlds future and our own destinies.
The uncertain climate and political future, he would not experience, was his main concern for his grandchildren, most of all.
His next journey was very dim and dark to him, until we agreed that
he was loved and gave love.
Albert Einstein came up and I asked him if he knew why he was a physicist? "To find out how God thinks." And now with our explorations we can take a selfie of our home.
I concluded to see what God sees.
Mirror image of a nebula from Webb Telescope
As my Blogg askes about love and God, I reminded him LOVE is our creator shining through us to give to others. I let him know in one conversation that he did not have to believe in God. Jerrys love for me kept me on this earth longer at a time I could see no other way than to "Get Out". I said this was my proof.
Many times we shared about his loss of his wife and daughter and his failures.
What he learned may have saved my life.
Jerry was a grateful man who loved to eat, and my last contribution was my rich banana bread. As a former cook and caterer having Jerry as a neighbor was a treat to share my culinary dishes.
Our last meeting, along with his two surviving sons, was short and yet very sweet.
When I received the news on Labor Day afternoon. I drove out to the oceanside and reminded myself that life is so precious. Any of my heartache will now remind me that love is the source of this pain and the joy in our relationship.
A three-day harvest in Plymouth was held in the fall. It would take some natives 2 days to walk to the festivities. This is the story told to me in our elementary school textbooks. It tells of natives and colonists sitting down peacefully for a meal of thankfulness for the season's bounty.
This event was followed by attacks, killings of hundreds of natives, and colonists as an expansion upon native lands increased. for decades and eventually, for centuries, killings, genocide, continued until land confined reservations were mandatory for the "first Americans".
Abraham Lincoln designated an official Thanksgiving Holiday in the fall of 1867. It was to celebrate the end of the civil war and all our nation could be thankful for.
***
The native Americans in this country consider this holiday a "Memorial Day" for the many who fought and lost their lives to save their land and the freedom to live on their chosen ancestral lands. this sounds very much the same as our Memorial Day ceremonies all across the nation in May of each year.
How each family celebrates this holiday can be very similar, a turkey, pies, cranberries, and each culture with added treats. My family is chosen and is whoever lives nearby.
Thanksgiving for apartment neighbors 2019 in Port Angeles.
Expanded this year to neighbors on the streets of my neighborhood 2020
"Doc and Bunny my partners in serving our neighbors"
***
This year in a pandemic we are asked to not travel as 60% of citizens usually do to be with family. This year there was only a 20% reduction in travel. We will see the cost for these holiday reunions in the next month to come in total new cases and sadly the new family deaths. Family members that will not attend the 2021 holiday. How can I see the blessings amongst my friends and families when gratefulness is so needed?
***
" I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain.
I wanna know have you ever seen the rain,
comin' down on a sunny day'?
This song by Creedence Clearwater "struck a chord" in me when I wanted to understand why this holiday was so different for me this year. It is easy to point to the pandemic as the source of so much disruption in our routines, traditions, or life as we demand and long for it to be.
This world is now full of frequent storms, fires, and natural disasters. These disasters have come on the eve of this holiday too. Many have no home or family injured or dead. I see nature teaching me, as God wants me to understand and experience, I am not the master of my world. I am the caretaker of this world given to me to enjoy, not destroy. I am grateful for all those that continue to strive for climate change solutions. for the generations to come.
" Someone told me long ago
there's a calm before the storm
I know its been coming for some time
When it's over, so they say
It'll rain a sunny day
I know shining down like water"
***
So, what has love got to do with it?
***
Can I find a way to be grateful, thankful for the rain? Yes, when I know the sun will come up again and even in the sky, both can be seen together as the song says, "shining down like water". A grateful thankful heart comes from love. Can I find a way to be thankful this year, when the rain is relentlessly falling all around me.? I have lost one friend, 92 years old, Adele, to this virus. She was one of the first to die in a nursing home in my state of Washington. The sunny bright spot for me is that I was fortunate to meet her and know some of her stories. Hers was a long life.. Our common friend and my brother, Jerry, 88, is still going strong as ever though many miles from my home.
Jerry as a world traveler
I have the thought that this chaos may actually be a calm before the next storm in my country.. Hunger [ 1 in 6 families 60 million], political divisions, racial equality demands with unrest, and economic inequality [ more trillionaires being created] are festering like an old wound being scratched and reinjured and bleeding again.
Our President-Elect Biden in his Thanksgiving address to the nation on November 25th pleaded that we bring "LOVE" to the political arena... To come together and heal and see the opposition. in our partisan politics, and find our common values moving forward. This is a sunny day to hear these words from our newly yet contested winner. Now it will be each American to follow through [ or not ] and work for the changes needed to slow this coming, [, already here? ] STORM.
"Yesterday and days before
Sun is cold and rain is hard
I know been that way
for all my time
til forever, on it goes."
In this country we live with motos of "The American Dream", " And Equal Justice for All,", " Right to Pursue Happiness", and religious freedom. These can be understood as a luminous sun on the horizon, yet felt by many here as only a dawning reality. The struggles many citizens have in the USA can be felt as a rainy drizzle or a torrent and flooding storm based on their skin color..
My faith has been my guiding light in these dark days. Masks, distancing, and finding ways I can reach out to others at the same time. My blog is one of the ways technology has opened some "lockdown" doors. I look more to music and reading the WORD to find my way. Sometimes it feels like I can find the "light switch " for comfort from my fears and stressful moments. On the pages of the Bible, or in a songs' lyrics, or a smile on a stranger's face or a friendly text or the wagging of a pet's tail.....
Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened,
I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, For I am gentle and humble of heart, and
is the sound of mirth and joy....giggles...titters..chuckles...merriment...expressions of happiness...even some of these less spoken words cause me to chortle!
I am posting today in tribute and celebration of my dearest friend and brother Jerry A. A true Master of "one-liners". No matter my mood, he can and has pulled me up from my emotional depths and to get my belly to rumbling. Those who know me well, my midriff would be very noticeable in a hearty laugh! I do try to delay, at times, Jerrys' gratification with my hysterical laughter by acting as if the joke, comment went right over my head. Much easier I might add over the phone. So now I will give you a tickler: His sons asked dad, where do you want us to scatter your ashes when the time comes? his reply, "Surprise me!"
In the '80s at a New Age workshop, a handout revealed the list of NW indigenous Inuit tribe's favorite human attributes. At the top of the list was "humor". So I ask my question about love....and I remember a quote from Robin Williams, "basically when you laugh you have to make a fool of yourself." And I submit, I can only do this when I love myself and feel loved. Life can be full of so much apparent seriousness and I do mean apparent. Fear can have and create a life of its own. Humor is and comes from a place that sees or knows there is a bigger picture. This is where my other question, "What has God got to do with it?", comes into view. Romans 15:13
In memorial, I am going to mention a dear friend and my super fan, that I miss dearly, Marjorie.. We spent her last three weeks together, 24/7, and created nicknames for each other. Mine became easily chosen for me, as "My Jewel' and mine for her was "My Sunshine", after a 3am pain pill was needed and she broke out in song, "you are my sunshine!" Each day we found together something to smile or laugh about, and these were our gifts to each other. She spoke up one afternoon, as two of her sons, Paul, John was visiting, along with daughter Karen, at her bedside. We thought she was soundly sleeping. Suddenly over our laughter, she spoke clearly, "doesn't she have the best laugh!" Next, I did a laughter quote search on google. What surfaced fits perfectly here, "A good laugh is like sunshine in a house." Indeed Marge. William Makepeace Thackery
Look for updates of this posting during the National Emergency for the next 15 days. An observance of love, service, and laughter with each other!
March 19 update:
Toilet Paper
Toilet paper, a shortage, and a potential threat to the American way of life.!? Wow who could have known. This hoarding of an item needed for one's own personal comfort with no regard for others' current need, and leave the shelves empty. As Gandhi so eloquently puts it, "The world has enough for everyone's need, but not everyone's greed." Thus the empty grocery shelves in one day of panic over this pandemic. So my laughter on this subject is coming from the image of the ones who have chosen a very small view, over a greater one of love and rest in the faith all is good for now. This round small viewpoint by some, sitting safely tucked away and secure in the recliner watching FOX News 24/7.
March 20 update
COVID-19 Checklist
C … "Cookies, cookies, cookies, and more cookies!" For me, for my friend Betty as we sit and sip our coffee, and for Teddy, I made him doggie biscuits. Do not forget to enjoy the sweetness of life with the ones you LOVE.
O...…….."Overcome we shall" Yes I am confident, attitude is up, immune system up and then I lapse into a place of denial as though all is ok! " Come on over and visit," I have time on my hands. Why not. Enjoy technology, it is there to keep us all connected..
V....Visualize the news...turn off the sound on the TV. Turn on the captions. Many commentators LOVE the sound of their voices. Gone are the days of going outside to fetch our newspaper with bedhead and being able to read at our leisure the factual information we could refer to later for updates as needed until the birdcage needs a new liner.
I.......Identify the real enemy here. FEAR. If our POTUS prefers to call this a "War", then I will refer to a wise leader, President Roosevelt. he reminded us, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself". His contemporary rallied with "Fear is a reaction, courage is a decision.". So choose the road of the HEART.
D....Driving means getting out my license and checking the birthdate on it! If it says I am over 60. DO NOT GO ANYWHERE...unless absolutely necessary..so far nothing has been!.
1...………………..Number one thing to remember? Everyone else. We are in this together.
9... NINE hours of REST REST REST get plenty of sleep. I go down at 11 and get up at 8...9 hours of time away from all the talk, media, and decisions of the day...this is my checklist for the pandemic. Bless you, all..
March 27 update
First Responders needed
What does that mean for me as someone with 30 years of experience as a caregiver and Hospice doulas? Here I am in isolation and at high risk and cannot be on the front lines. So I have asked how can I give care from afar with the skills I have? I am a seamstress and have the tools and cloth, so masks it is. I will be able to fill a need in a way that will keep myself and others safer and connected. I urge you to find a way to be a "first responder" in your own way to someone in need. Walk a dog, go to store, mail a package, pay a bill, set up skype on a computer for someone in higher-risk or ill.
BE A LOVE RESPONDER.
March 30, update
"Physical" Distancing
I want to discuss this phrase used to describe a safety measure to keep the virus from reaching one's personal space......I want to say that is the safe distance......and it is a physical one......we can keep our social contacts in so many ways in this age of technology. There is no need to have a social distance. A social, loving contact with each other will ease the stress of not knowing how we are all coping in this time of isolation. This stress from not knowing, being imposed on us is far more dangerous than the physical one. Stress can cause other forms of illness and general feelings of "unwellness". Keep in touch for the wellbeing of others and for yourself. And I suggest you even go a step further and take this time you have to be creative in how you reach out and express yourself.
Blow a kiss from your phone, learn to skype and go crazy in a costume with the grandkids, put a bow on the meals you deliver, include the pets people may be missing. I know you can find ways to keep the feeling of that distance becoming as close and loving as possible.
Practice Social Closeness
April 1 final update
NO LAUGHING MATTER
Today begins the 30 day extended stay at home request by the federal govt or "Lockdown". I am rather surprised that I will be posting now about this pandemic in my "Laughter" post because what I am about to tell you is no laughing matter. A pastor in Florida held Sunday morning services for a 500 person congregation. Families during the service practiced distancing from other families. The curious statement broadcasted on the news was about his argument that this new virus was being "overblown". Like the flu, it already kills thousands a year! So I went to the CDC for the facts and I was "blown over."
Here they are for Oct 2019- Mar 2020 9 month season
[based on reports and projections of past seasons of 8.5% of population, 27million}
reported cases of illness 28-54,000,000
medical visits to doctors 18-26,000,000
hospitalizations 400-730,000
deaths from the flu 24,000-62,000
This is what the statistics can be for the flu and also how it impacts the healthcare system on top of the current needs for the pandemic with Covid-19. This is with no flu "stay at home" in the general population other than taking sick leave from work after you get the flu, getting the flu shot yearly, as many do, not all.
Now look at the figure for hospitalizations for the flu and imagine them being similar for Covid-19 without lockdown. Add this number to the hospitals dealing with the flu already. Now, look next to the death rate for the flu. This is where the big awakening needs to be impressed upon us all. The death percentage is 12 times (the update is 40 times) that of the flu. So the number without a lockdown, distancing, business shut down, hygiene practices, and law enforcement, statistics could be, not 24,000-64,000 as for the flu, the estimates could skyrocket to
288,000-744,000 DEATHS for Covid-19.
We are at 3500 deaths today, (mid-March prior to lockdown 95, April 20 update with three weeks lockdown is 43,000) the 9/11 figure, since the January record keeping. Two weeks into the stay at home orders for high case areas. Projections are still being calculated at 1-200,000 deaths in the US before this disease runs its course. This is 10-20% of a possible figure above with us following faithfully the lockdowns and safety measures asked of us all. We are 3 months into possibly 12-18 season till the vaccine is available. So the estimates of 100-200,000 deaths are possible..And so clearly this is NOT THE FLU.
Be careful with your life and others, you are all precious.
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