Saturday, January 23, 2016

Mish Mash in a New Year


The moment I read this I understood the change that's taken place and is shaping me again. I've always been an optimist but in the last few years I've had challenges that have tossed me every which way. Even now things are not quite balanced in my world. But I read this and I knew that I am back to the  me who pushes through and appreciates. Time can heal. Hearts can bounce. 


 The last month has been a whirlwind. I am writing this from Colorado but I started in Florida at Disney. My last post was all about that trip, but this post is so much about transition that it's fitting to begin with these children, minus Reese who was so scared of these giant mice that there was no way she could endure this picture. 

I love these children. When the oldest, Ryan, was born, I told my daughter Jessica I would love him, of course, but never as much as I loved her. She smiled then and said, "That's okay." In that moment we both understood and exalted the unconditional love of a parent.

Now I know there are different kinds of love, each deep and true. It's still true that I love Jess so much  I can't imagine anything competing with that. But my heart's expanded. There's plenty of room in there.


So what does a new year mean? Especially a new year where I'm eager to be astonished and productive? I've moved to a new town, surrounded by a bay and ocean, where the way light bounces off the sea is astonishing.


I'm determined to finish my book this year, to shop it around to agents and publishers and I dream of it in print by the end of the year.  And if nobody nibbles, I will publish it myself. I have more to learn about the matriarch of my novel: she is gutsy and resilient, that's for sure. But does she crack and fold too? I don't know that yet. But I will. 


A week after I got home from Disney, JB and I were on a plane to Colorado to help her sister through knee replacement surgery. The plan was for me to stay a week and JB five weeks. I was sure I'd use the month JB was gone to write and possibly finish this slippery book. But I'm not home yet: complications and an extended hospital stay and now an East Coast winter storm. I'm heading home on Tuesday to my own version of snow. 


 Colorado is beautiful and here in Colorado Springs, the Rocky Mountains are everywhere. The singer songwriter John Denver has a prominent role in my new novel and as soon as I remembered that, I've been looking at "Rocky Mountain High" with new awe.  Many men here wear leather cowboy hats and look weathered and almost everyone is polite and helpful. The Springs is a very conservative area, very unlike my own politics, but I'm easily avoiding that fact.


I found this on Facebook and I think it's just adorable. HAHAHAHA. 


Mr. Ryan had his ninth birthday before we left and I put into action something I've told him a hundred times. About money. "Ryan," I say, when you get money for a present or you earn money, keep a third for yourself to spend however you want, save a third, and give a third to someone or some cause that will help others." 

JB and I put a $ 20 bill in each envelope and put the three envelopes in a shiny new metal pencil case. Jess sent me this photo a few days ago and it made me glow.

 Here I am these days.


Colorado is a legal marijuana state. Some cities regulate sales by limiting it to "medicinal sales,", but there are also retail shops every where. In our common spirit of adventure, JB and I walked in to this store, Emerald Lakes, were asked to show identification, and were escorted into a large room with tables displaying and demonstrating all kinds and all prices of choices. I asked the young woman orienting us if this was a transition job for her and what she hoped for ahead. She said, "I want to grow marijuana. I need $ 15,000 to start off and I don't have it. But I know from working here how much money you can make growing it."

It might have been her glassy eyes, but I felt sad seeing and hearing her. I wondered how her parents in Ohio felt. 


Because we've spent a good deal of time hospital visiting and helping out, JB and I have eaten out often here in Colorado. This is a french cafe, charming in every way. We met an older couple here who couldn't figure out our relationship. The gentleman first asked if we were sisters. No, we said. A few minutes later he asked again. "Friends or business partners?" Even five years ago I might have hesitated. But I said, "We're partners. Been together thirty years." And for good measure I added, "We're a couple…"

He was taken back but gracious. He had grown up in Massachusetts and we told them we were from Boston, and now Cape Cod. So after they left the waiter told us they came every week for dinner and we asked if we could buy them a drink in advance. "Sure,' the waiter said, "But she doesn't drink."

So with good wishes "from the girls from Boston," these folks will have one martini on the rocks and one velvet cupcake on us. I'm pretty sure they'll enjoy it all as much as we've enjoyed the giving part.


And finally, in a few days I'll head back to Provincetown. A great local photographer named Sue Ballard took this photo, a common scene of the Provincelands. This is the magic I will return to.


I should add that American politics are absolutely scary nuts and the world is in turmoil. I'm well aware of that and I'm very distressed by it. But finally, I'm back on my hopeful grateful feet. I hope this is true for you too.

love
kj

22 comments:

  1. I love that quote. So much that I wrote it in my little book (made by a blogger friend) of my favourite poems and quotes ever.

    The medicinal marijuana is a tough one. I am 100% in favour of legalizing it for medical purposes. When my mom was dying it was the only thing that brought relief. However, there are a lot of people out there that just want to get stoned. You know, the unemployed burnouts that haven't bathed in weeks with the dreadlocks? They are making it difficult for people with legitimate health issues to obtain it.

    What happened to the flea? Ha!

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    1. hi birdie, i made a copy of that quote too. i plan to frame it--a great reminder.

      my feeling about marijuana is that it is extremely helpful for pain and medical conditions and also fine for recreational users. i think the stereotype of stoned hippie types is no longer representative of just regular people spanning all generations who might use marijuana in the same way that a person might have an alcoholic drink. i'm glad your mother was helped and i wish more people were not turned off thinking the worse of it.

      thanks for stopping by, best wishes
      love
      kj

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  2. Love the photos and the quote. I used to have beagles that looked just like those two in the photo.

    Hope the book goes well.

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    1. thanks, deb. the book is moving like molasses. i need a long stretch on my own to finish it. !

      happy about your new bed!
      love
      kj

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  3. Why didn't you say you were married....? I've wondered that. So glad tho that despite problems of organization, things appear to be going well. Send love to you both, xoxo

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    1. good question, mim. i guess i walked gently with the gentleman for whatever reason. it seemed like the best thing to do.

      i'm soon home. happy about that.

      love
      kj

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  4. I think your and my favorite quote book would be near identical! Although besides parent/child relationships and dogs, I've yet to find a relationship that can maintain such unconditional love over time.

    I smiled at your money story. My mother always made us do the same thing with the thirds. It is a practice I still continue and have tried to impress on my daughters, although one of them thinks that giving to Lord and Taylor is considered charity : )

    My daughters have asked me to smoke some weed with them. I think they thought I would be shocked (as if their generation invented getting stoned) So I said "Okay, but I think you'll be disappointed. I'll just eat 10 brownies and then take a nap."

    After watching the Weather Channel last night, I do hope that you will be returning to magic on the Cape.

    I also start this new year hopeful and grateful and open to be astonished. And a red velvet cupcake wouldn't hurt either : )

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    1. hi 8! i so agree with you about who gets our unconditional love!

      i love everything about your comment here. i'm pleasantly surprised your Mother taught you about the thirds. and your daughter is my daughter; that's for sure :^)

      I think our house made it through the storm in good shape. I'm told all is well. I had fears of getting home with no heat an a leak in the kitchen ceiling!

      hope to see you this hopeful grateful new year.
      love
      kj

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  5. A lovely post. Beautiful pictures. I saw a skit on SNL where the object of the game was "Don't Chime In". I practice that a lot, especially with things that don't concern me. At this point in life, I find myself wanting to connect with everyone. After all, God is the Great Creator of diversity, so I want to embrace it all. Sometimes it's just hard being in human skin on this pretty blue planet. Lovelovelove, Deb

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    1. thanks, deb. 'don't chime in' is good advice. in my local and daily interactions with people, i'm happy and blessed with good people of all beliefs and backgrounds and ages. but on a world scale, i worry and i wonder what's best to do or not do. atrocities have happened in history when being silent was the wrong thing. and yes, that last observation of yours, our human skin and this pretty planet, is so true.

      i want you to write more. and more.
      and i love seeing you here again.
      love
      kj

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  6. an intense start of the year for you. Have a good trip home. best of luck with your novel.

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  7. Beautiful photos and a touching update. Here in Oregon, 1/3 of pot sales goes to the state. I don’t use pot at all anymore because it got to where it would put me in such a hole that I need two days to crawl back out. That’s enough to kill anybody’s desire for weed unless you’re like the comic character who said, “1,213 bad trips, but I’m not giving up yet.”

    My latest post was one that I'm curious how you will react to, that is whether it'll put a wedge between or, or whether you'll see any truth in it.

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    1. Snow, one joint costs $17 and that was mid level.wow, costly.

      I'm surprised to hear you've stopped using pot but it sounds like it was a good decision for you.; who wants to crawl back out of anywhere.

      No wedge from your post; just not my cup of tea!
      Love
      kj

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  8. Looks like your life is quite load. Also, I envy you a little as it is my childhood dream to visit Disneyland. But still, I had no possibility to visit this place. Hope one day)

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    1. Hello and welcome. I hope you will make it to Disney one day. I do believe it's worth once in a lifetime
      Love
      kj

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  9. so very happy to be at your blog again!!! And lovely to read all this. Glad that you are home, kj, and I hope jb's sister is feeling better soon. real soon.

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    1. hdwk! Hello! You know I hope how very welcome you are here. I like knowing how you are as well
      Love
      kj

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  10. Wonderful post,kj, I really enjoyed reading it. Such beautiful photos, too.
    I'm going to have my reconstruction reversed next month, in hopes it will somehow ease the pain. No guarantees.

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    1. Barbara, I so hope all will be well with you. I wonder if that surgeon holds some responsibility for the pain? Take care
      Love
      kj

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  11. Back again...

    I hate it when people try to pin a person down like that man did. When I lived with two women—they were Peggy (my nurse wife of 44 years now) and Vicki (a doctoral student in sociology at the time)—in a group marriage, the neighbors went crazy trying to figure out what we were about, and we didn’t want to tell them, and this led one man to become more and more aggressive about it. If he hadn’t been a neighbor, I would have called him on it, but I tend to stretch as far as I can with neighbors, so I let it pass. For a man to keep after you like that man in Colorado did suggests that he was the kind of person who needs to tie things down into a neat bow from which there’s no escape—to label people as it were—in order to feel comfortable, and it seems to me that there’s a basic insecurity behind that.

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    1. Hi snow, the man meant no harm. JB and I being partners was foreign to him: it hadn't entered his mind. He was gracious.

      Love
      kj

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  12. It almost surprises me that there are people who are still surprised. Nice of you guys to leave them a gift for their next visit.

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