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Hard Truths, Sibs & the Universe

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Heloise Jones
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kitten-gosling*
“The mystery of grace is that God loves Dick Cheney and me exactly as much as
He or She loves your grandchild. . .The movement of grace is what changes us,
heals us and our world. To summon grace, say, ‘Help!’
And then buckle up.” ~ Anne Lamott, author
*

Each day ends with a string of opened tabs on my computer. Articles gleaned from Facebook and elsewhere. Before bed I skim thru, save potentials to mac’s Reading List. Mostly they go. The other night, one pulled me like a magnet. Despite it being reeeeally long and having a graph in the middle. Despite being way past my bedtime, I was compelled to read it. “I Know Why Poor White Folks Chant Trump, Trump, Trump.” A well written, well researched rare historical sociological review based on economics and psychology. By an author who knows these poor white folks intimately, being a member of the white underclass (her words) herself. She hit my interest nerve. . .the subconscious whys of people and the complexities of context.

The article might’ve ended there, another note in my mind-files, if not for National Siblings Day plastered on Facebook the next day. Pics of loving, happy (lucky) sibs huddled together that I usually note with a wonder what it feels like, now elicited the thought I am the ‘Liberal’ my sister hates with a virulent vengeance.

It’s a true mystery to me how we’re so different. Times were hard for periods in our lives, but my family was never what you’d call white underclass. My parents looked like me. The hard experiences in their lives not on the surface of their personas and appearance. My father, born in New Orleans, quit school and ran away when he was ten. By the time he was seventeen, he’d traveled around the world three times with the merchant marines. He couldn’t spell worth a lick, but had beautiful penmanship, and taught himself everything from geometry to rebuilding a car engine from pieces, from books. He read anything that interested him, including a large volume on the siege of Leningrad. He believed in reform over capital punishment, and unselfconsciously used the ‘n’ word to my great consternation. He sold commercial real estate, was in his sixties before the missing molars in his mouth (pulled years before) were replaced. My mother was a first generation American born of Armenian refugees. Her father built a shoe factory, which carried them thru the depression intact. She worked as a full-charge bookkeeper. Loved to jump in a car, drive. We were democrats. Kennedy lovers.

The kicker. . .I’m the family’s black sheep. But my sister (eighteen mos. younger) is the staunch conservative Ted Cruz republican. She despises the president I admire for his class, intelligence, style, family values, and sense of humor, spoofing himself. Expresses full-blown contempt for ‘liberals’ online. This sister who stayed in Houston after high school, married a nice guy four yrs. later. Adores her grandchildren and cares for them with devotion I call holy. The one who once told me she never felt abandoned those times we were left for days to months with relatives and friends because she had me. Who became the only child home at fifteen, after I left. The one I heard my father tell on the phone was the daughter he always admired and loved most, when I was 41. Who believes she’ll rise with Jesus on Judgement Day, being chosen as among the 144,000, but her All One World, different paths to the same God sister and the other seven billion on earth will not. And who’s said many times since we were kids she was jealous of me. I don’t get it.

We talk on occasion. I sent her grandma’s jewelry. Called, held space for her the morning after her best friend and husband died this past month. Her best friend. So huge. Called a few days later, heard the memorial service was filled with grateful people he’d touched. Warmed my heart. She mentioned a visit. That I may get a call she’s in the FL panhandle. It’s been twenty-three years. Feels way more complicated than time with my other republican friends. The ugly parts of our history so close, demanding we look at it. More than an encounter. We love each other, but. . . Call when you’re in Louisiana, I said. Do you see where I’m going here?

We can explain differences that take us one direction or the other, try to understand. Can get close on lots of fronts. But we can’t really figure all the whys. There’re contradictions everywhere. Even those who come from the same household can seem like they stepped off boats from different worlds. It’s hard coming together, even with One World thinking and all our wishes for happy, close sibs like we see on Facebook.

The author in the article says blue-collar working class folks don’t have the time to read economics books, or history books related to economic changes. They rely on narratives, imagery, vague statements and promises to figure out who the ‘best’ candidate is. I’d argue it’s the same for most people. The fact that so many make fun of missing teeth and misspelled words on signs instead of asking why people don’t have healthcare or better education the proof.

I’m over the hate and rhetoric, the name calling, the self-righteous lines in the sand without big-picture taking. In the end we’re all brothers and sisters on this planet. Key word, human. Let’s just say ‘Help!’, buckle up and build a country that belongs to all of us, where no one ever feels like what the gal in the article says those folks chanting Trump feel like, ‘just a poor motherfucker no one cares about.’ We can. Starts with thinking it. Then, stepping into the Heart.

What do you think?

Another small journey. Getting to Wise.
A Writer’s Life.
*

A secret: I don’t relate to the label ‘liberal.’
A favorite:  Lots that Anne Lamott says.

Photo: unknown

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Loving Yourself. How Hard Can It Be?

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Heloise Jones
4

The Goal of Yoga (No, it’s not the handstand)

The yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal. Standing on your hands is not the goal.

The goal is to create space where you were once stuck. To unveil the layers
of protection you’ve built around your heart. To appreciate your body and
become aware of the mind and the noise it creates. To make peace with who you are.
The goal is to love, well. . . You.

Come to your yoga mat to feel; not to accomplish. Shift your focus and your heart will grow.
~ Rachel Brathen

*
winter low tide2What’s usually underwater, now easy pickin’s.
*

When I read those words, I didn’t see the word yoga. I saw Life. I thought, there’s volumes written on each point – self-help, psychology, spiritual. I’ve read a lot about each of them. I never figured how the heck I love myself, though. I can look into my eyes in the mirror, say the words I love you, but I haven’t located the feeling inside. Not the way I feel love for the world or another person. I wonder, does Dalai Lama say he loves himself. Mother Theresa, did she? Muhammad? Jesus? Or is it implied in messages we see others as one with ourselves. I don’t know.

I don’t think either of my parents learned how to love themselves, either. My mother, a first generation Armenian-American, worked beside my traditional grandmother in the kitchen from the time she was three. Married an older man to escape when she was eighteen. But he was hard, sometimes abusive. She returned to her mothers’ home with her baby. When I was seven my grandmother moved next door. She was my mother’s best friend.

My father ran away from home when he was ten. By seventeen he’d sailed three times around the world, and joined the merchant marines. He taught himself to read, studied everything he needed or that interested him, including the siege of Leningrad. Somehow these two people who never experienced a childhood got together in their mid-thirties.

I remember John Travolta saying he knew he was lovable. His parents thought he hung the moon, he said. I walked across the room, they’d applaud, he said. I had lots of evidence my parents loved me, too. I believe they did. Thrilled when I was born, they felt proud of the smart, artistic, perfectionist child I became. Having my father’s curiosity and sense of wonder, I was his favorite. I had passion, emotion, strong will, but it never translated into me being lovable. Not until long after I left home at seventeen did I think about the days, weeks, sometimes months, I spent with relatives and friends. Only eighteen mos. old the first time mom sent me off. Sometimes my younger sister with me. I asked my sister once if she ever felt abandoned. No, she said. I always had you.

My first husband, a Viet Nam vet, was love at first sight. So smart, funny, and full of demons and issues long before war. Eventually he told me to shut up in front of his lifelong circle of friends. When one of them wanted a business partnership, ingratiating the wife was important. Surprised I wasn’t the mindless bitch he expected, he spread the word and the circle enfolded me. I attribute him with saving my life. Eventually my husband hit me, a lot, and stayed out all night. You didn’t talk about those things back then. At some point I started writing the weekly grocery check for $5 more, stashing the money. When I got a 25cent/hr. raise, I hid that, too. When I knew I was strong enough, I took my seven yr. old son, the $325 I saved and left with a set of dishes, a rocking chair, and a rug. Each night I stared into the dark, so scared I couldn’t breathe. It was a year before I decided my friends were either nuts for liking me, or I was. I taught myself to hear kind words by turning them all into glass figurines in my mind. At the end of the day, I set them on the table so I could see them, accept them. I trained myself to say Thank You. But I still didn’t get I was lovable.

It’s only now, lifetimes later, that I have an inkling what loving oneself is. After decades of reading, workshops, trainings to understand the world and human beings. Years of contemplation, working on myself. Learning to recognize what stuck feels like, what space inside feels like. What making choices, shifting focus, reframing means. After letting go earning my breath. Letting go apology for knowing what I want. Decades connecting to Spirit, the Universe, God. Letting my natural-born compassion seize my heart without fear, accept I may be weird, and that’s okay. I don’t know why some people get it young and I didn’t.

The other morning a thin misty fog hung in the air. The really wet kind. I almost didn’t head to the bay for sunrise. But the small voice said go, there’s something there for you, As I crossed the street to the park in the dark, a woman said hi as she passed. Heavy-set. African-American. I noticed her voice, how she answered with more than one word when I said ‘how are you.’ I circled along the wide promenade by the water, paused to take pictures, walked past the thick mangroves. There she was, on *my* bench. Rather than move on, I asked if she minded I sit. I always stop here, she said. I could go into our conversation. How I learned she’s a social worker, her thoughts after seeing so much. Her mama’s wisdom. How she kept saying the word choice as she talked about parenting and life. The main thing, tho, was we agreed the generation that frustrates us in so many ways is the one that will save us. That beautiful both-and of humanity. And we both felt we got a Blessing that morning. If you’d asked me then if I love myself, I would’ve paused for the feeling, said yes. Yes, I do.

How do you love yourself?

Another small journey. Getting to Wise.
A Writer’s Life.
*

winter low tide1Low tide seemed to stretch halfway across the bay, the birds with it.
Winter low tide, they call it.
*

A secret: I never bought into the thought you have to love yourself before you can love others. I think love works any way it can.
A favorite: That time in the circle of Friends sharing music, books, discoveries, concerts, food, when I first learned how community feels.

Thank you, Susan, for that morning on the bench.

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Posted in events, family, life, spirit, strong offers | 4 Replies

Stuff Piled Up. Face the Sun.

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Heloise Jones
2

That place is different for everyone – that place where you can breathe easy,
be yourself, feel spacious both inside inside and out. That place where you feel enormously grateful for all that you have and excited for everything yet to come.
Only you can know where that place is.
Only you can swim there.
~ Amy Tingle (118: Paradise, or How to Breathe)

fresh water west*

This morning, 6:15, off to the bay for sunrise I left the radio on as I backed the car out. I usually turn it off. But Saturday I accidentally caught the tail end of On Being. It was wonderful. This morning, older Arab men buying young Egyptian girls as throw-away brides. The girls sold by family and brokers. It was two blocks before I switched it away. I wasn’t even listening. I’d sunk into wondering how it must feel to be that girl. How trapped she must feel inside. The violation of her body penetrated. At the end of my drive, I walked the long way to the water, saying Gratitudes aloud the whole time. Because Gratitude under the last fade of stars feels especially holy and heard, especially when things feel hard.

I know my problems are first-world problems. A former landlord’s plans to steal $800 from us, with travesties as justification – $24 for mismatched lightbulbs, $39 for shipping charges we could’ve driven five min. to avoid, rent charged for days after we vacated, silly pictures and blatant lies. Someone said to let his pettiness go. $800 and being abused don’t feel petty to us, though. There’s always something worse or better to compare. And my husband and I are arguing, in ways we’ve not argued in thirty years marriage, for the third time in as many days, in ways that make me want to run away or fly high into space. And my hard drive crashing to dark screen tonight, the laptop with my creative files. This after a stressful move. After months of other stuff. I’m calm – call the lawyer, drive off for errands, close the lid – but the truth is I’m swimming like crazy these days.

And I have a choice which direction to go, even as I say ‘this sucks.’

I’m pulling out my artifacts of better things. Things I do, like from two weeks ago when I sat in the chiropractor’s office, early for my appointment, and a man waited with me. His expression strange. I wondered if something was wrong with him. He rose, went to the counter. ‘This is a complimentary visit, right?’ No, and she showed him what it would cost. He turned to leave without the adjustment and without thought, I rose, ‘I’ll pay his visit.’ He wanted my address to repay me. I wanted to give him a gift, asked if that was okay. I learned he’s lived with severe chronic back pain for years. They caught me a week later at the door, handed me the sweetest Thank You card in the most beautiful handwriting. It had stickers of a sunflower and butterfly on it, and that touched me deeply.

Things others do, like the little cards made of construction paper I discovered in my mailbox in Asheville, twice. One says ‘U R AWESOME.’ The other, ‘Dear you, hope you have a GREAT easter. from, me.’ Someone teaching their child to spread love was my guess at the time. I loved that. Kept those cards on my desk where I could see them. I’ve moved 3 times since then, but some things are rout in my organizational mind. I can find them.

Gratitude helps, too. With Gratitude I can remember how it felt to breathe easy. Can remember that feeling of spaciousness inside and out. Remember I have books to write, and I love writing. That the birds have returned to the bay. Hundreds from all the water tribes. Remember after I climb into bed my AppleCare’s still active. Remember moment by moment to carry me thru. And as the main character in The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean said, “We’ll just go straight and eventually we’ll get there. What I mean is that we’ll get somewhere. Out of here. I mean, logically, we have to get out as long as we walk straight. I’ve done this millions of times. Whenever everything’s killing me I just say to myself, Screw it, and go straight ahead.” Yep, I’ve done this millions of times. Straight ahead. Facing the sun. Like the sunflower on the card.

Tell me. How do you face the sun when hard stuff piles up?

*
Nasa shotThe Australian coast, from space.
Far away.
*
Another small journey. Getting to Wise.
A Writer’s Life.

All I ever wanted in life was to make a difference, conquer the universe,
travel the world, meet interesting people, find the missing link, fight the good fight,
live for the moment, seize each day, make a fortune, know what really matters,
end world hunger, vanquish the dragon, be super popular but too cool to care,
be master of my own fate, embrace my destiny, feel as much as I can feel,
give too much, and love everything.
~ Tatsuya Ishida

A secret:  Be Here Now.
A favorite:  My organizational mind…I found the little construction paper cards.

Photos:
Jonathan Bean – freshwater west, United Kingdom
NASA – Australian coast

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Posted in events, family, life, spirit | 2 Replies

Whittling Down to Essentials

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Heloise Jones
3

As you start traveling down that road of life, remember this:
There are never enough comfort stops. The places you’re going to are never on the map. And once you get that map out, you won’t be able to refold it no matter how smart you are. So forget the map, roll down the windows, and whenever you can, pull over and have a picnic with a pig.
And if you can help it, never fly as cargo.
~ Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson)
*

blowing pollen

*

We’re moving New Year’s Day. Yep, a holiday. Home’s been up for me a while. But this move, not expected this way. Not with so many unknowns in our lives, with so many intentions that need time and space to put in place. Not during the holiday season when an extremely tight rental market gets tighter. With the door banging our backsides as we leave. I was scared at first, got angry. This house full of charm and natural light built 1910 is rotting from neglect on the outside as we’ve cleaned, cared for and maintained her. I’d lost the delight of the porch to dark damp and peeling paint from leaks breached in the ceiling and sidewalls, unattended for many months despite dozens of emails, texts, contractors solicited and met, reports and updates written to the landlord, the other half of the roof draped under a tarp. There should be good faith, I thought. In the midst, I could see myself focused on what I didn’t want, knew I had to shift, focus on what I do want. Remember I manifest miracles. I wanted another story.

So, once again, I described my ideal home. This time mindful as I wrote each line item. Seeing it, feeling it, rolling it around inside. Omitting items like size. A feeling of spaciousness written instead. I wanted my mind’s borders to roll back, soften. Physical space is important to me. I’m sensitive to it. And I wanted essentials. I started following fleeting thoughts, looked in places I’d once rejected. One dawn I walked to the bay with Gratitude on my lips and a radical (for us) idea emerged. The simple act of saying yes, why not without asking how brought the shift I sought. What I desire in home. Peace living in my intentions for the coming months. Beauty that feeds me. A kitchen that’s easy, that I love, because it’s where I launch my day with a glass of water, looking at the sky’s light. After my dawn walk, where I begin my Doing of the day as I steep a small pot of fine tea, add a tad of honey, creme to slightly light. A place I feel abundant, cared for, not stressed or distracted. Space inside and time to write, create in quietude. Dream, envision, be bold with offers. A place I take back my life. No longer fly cargo.

So, tho it may look conventional from the outside to be moving to a small, immaculate townhome after living nearly my entire adult life in historic neighborhoods, for this live and let live unconventional gal it is not. I can gaze upon water steps out my door (a long strip of a tiny manmade lake). I’m in the center of where I live life in St. Pete, where traffic’s easy. And tho it requires 3 minutes (timed) in the car, I’m close to the bay for morning walks. I surprised my husband with the choice. Essentials, I told him. Writers write.

What’s Home mean to you?

Never be so focused on what you’re looking for
that you overlook the thing you actually find.
~ Ann Patchett

*
Another small journey. Getting to Wise.
A Writers Life

PorchOnce bright days on the porch.
*

A favorite:  How the heart opens wide when the mind does.
A secret: To someone from North Carolina, most Florida lakes are ponds.

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I Am Not Neutral on This

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Heloise Jones
4

This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate— once the crying of confusion stopped— seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies.
~ from the story Gate 4-A by Naomi Shihab Nye
*

Not-in-my-name

Muslims speak out against ISIS and terrorists
*

I’ve been circling ‘round and ‘round the edge of anxiety these past few days. The unspoken terror of the unknowns of livelihood and home in my own life merging with a burgeoning awareness of terror across the globe. Oh Paris, Oh Beirut, Oh Kenya. Oh Turkey, Oh Yemen, Oh Nigeria, added to Oh Gaza, Oh Sandy Hook, Oh Roseburg…my heart exploding with each one. And now sabers rattle, bombers speed aloft. Words of hatred, revenge, calls for arms and Islamaphobia pepper Facebook. ‘Them vs. Us’ flags raised. Borders closed. And in all my reading, the salient fact that less than 2% of attacks were religiously motivated.

I am not neutral on this.

Ya know how Oprah asks what thing you know for sure. I know if not for letting refugees from Syria enter this country, I would not be here. If not for help from what I’m sure was more than one Muslim, I would not be here. My grandparents, Armenian Orthodox Christians, met on the boat as they fled genocide through Aleppo. My mother was a first generation US citizen.

As a young girl, Armenian aunts, uncles, cousins, and those who are family but not blood populated my life. Smells of middle-eastern cookies and breads, melted butter, savory meats and soups filled the house for full weeks before holidays, funerals, and parties where Armenian music played background, people rose to dance in circle at least once. I remember one summer in Boston people crowded a small house shoulder to shoulder for three straight nights, the shock that all those rotating faces were related to me by blood generations deep. And it wasn’t just about family. There were Armenian picnics. Hundreds traveling to gather, play, eat, dance, speak their native tongue to strangers. Words I’d never understand because in my house that language was for my mother and grandmother, their private code in the presence of us kids. Arabic their backup when we caught on. A strange twist that would help sever me from my roots at age nine, when the family split in two. Leave me insistently in search for some spark inside I might recognize whenever I meet another Armenian.

I remember two stories my grandmother told. Small boys hiding under their mothers’ skirts in failed attempts to avoid slaughter. A young cousin taken as wife to a Turkish general who waited a year for the right time to murder him, escape on foot across Turkey to freedom. I read more later, know horrors were kept from my small ears. My brother, thirteen years older, was not spared. He didn’t like it when I traveled in Turkey two years ago. I went to experience the place, the culture, and I wanted to understand why what I know firsthand and from books (including the report from the US Diplomat of the time who resigned in despair) is so different from Turkish claims. I didn’t share I was half-Armenian with our guide. I observed with an open mind, loved what I saw of the country and people. And I listened closely the day he announced he was going to talk about the “Armenian issue.” Got my answer: The events of the entire decade before Armenians sided with Russia in WWI no longer exists in Turkey’s version of history. A partial truth of wartime justification remains, effectively indoctrinated through education. How familiar.

“…we are all in the midst of this every second. we are all held up by a million actions and people and unknowns every moment in utter connection.”
~ Rachel Ballentine

As of this writing, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Texas, and North Carolina have banned Syrian refugees. So wrong. Refugees will go thru an arduous process of screening by the state department, will most likely 100% comprise families with children. Refugees who have seen Hell. Because be assured, no person puts his/her child into a boat that’s as likely to sink as make the shore if what they leave is not worse. No person carries a child hundreds of miles on foot to starve or rot by disease if what they leave is not worse. I’ll entertain no arguments these are dangerous times, we must do it. I am not neutral on this. I have no room inside me for fear. Neither does the planet. Do you?

*
Another small journey. Getting to Wise.
A Writer’s Life.

A favorite: The taste of my mother’s lahmajoon, which I found in a small place in Turkey. I ordered two.

*
To reduce fear and understand more about Islam,
join others in thoughtful dialogue (not debate).
Vital Dialogues: An Introduction to Islam and Islamophobia
facilitated by Patti Digh, Nov. 22 – Dec. 13. Details here.

 

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