This is what was bequeathed us:
This earth the beloved left
And, leaving,
Left to us.
No other world
But this one:
Willows and the river
And the factory
With its black smokestacks.
No other shore, only this bank
On which the living gather.
No meaning but what we find here.
No purpose but what we make.
That, and the beloved’s clear instructions:
Turn me into song; sing me awake.
~ Gregory Orr (How Beautiful the Beloved)
When he looks at her
His face fills up with joy
And affection
And respect
And tender appreciation
For all that she is and does
He angles his body towards her
In any photo, he is near her
When I first said this,
Others said I must be wrong
That I didn’t understand
That he couldn’t be feeling what I thought
Acting as I thought
As I was sure he was
But I know these mannerisms
That look of love
And awe
And profound ease
Because he wore it with me in the first years of our marriage
He stopped showing me this face
Removed it, as though it were a mask
And turned himself towards her.
She is now the sun
And he the sunflower
And I am the diminished
Darkened face of the moon
On a cloudy, starless night.Copyright © 2015 C. Mitchell
Fleeting
Life’s web of relationships
And its exigencies
Dependency and needing
Worrying and wanting
Waiting or escaping
All made valid by the smile
The clasp of a hand
The warm moment of connection
When you
And another soul
Are miraculously,
Unbelievably
Together in the same place
At the same time
Both of you present
And
Together
Before the moment,
Inexorable as moments are,
Slips away like a hat caught in the breeze
Dancing off to a new place
A new connection
To be worn by two other
Fleetingly attached
Souls.
To celebrate Tolkien Reading Day, I read one of his non-Middle Earth works, “Roverandom”, a short story about a dog. It was charming, although not at all in the style of the Silmarillion, my favorite… But there were, as always with Tolkien, so many beautifully written passages that I could see it all, as though it were unfolding in front of me.
It’s always lovely to read something new (to me) by an old favorite. Thank you, sir.
This morning, I woke from a dream with a simple resolution and promise to myself:
I will never again “try to make it work” with people who aren’t eagerly and actively also committed in this common endeavor.
Friends, loved ones, business associates (although you have to be a bit more elastic in business, but there’s a limit), everyone.
I am becoming comfortable in my own skin and I don’t need anyone here with me unless he or she has something to contribute that’s positive and sourced in love.
Period.
And if this sounds like a manifesto (womanifesto?), then yes! ❤
This is as far out as Snaps will come this morning… I feel like it’s Ground-dog’s Day every day here. If Snaps sees his shadow, it means 20 more minutes of sleep time after he drags the blankets back over himself. I love that my dog is indolent; he suits me better than a companion with too much energy!
So, I was going to write more frequently, and that didn’t happen. 
Sorry… Here’s what’s going on in my head these days.
I’m really trying hard not to write self-pitying narratives (or angry narratives, or whatever construct comes up) about my life right now. With everything that went down in 2013 – early 2014, I created a massive narrative and it calcified, gained weight, and pressed me pretty much flat for a bit. And I was getting tired of carrying it around, to be frank… it was a lot to support.
So I’m trying to be more present in the moment, and whenever I find myself building a story about my life — and that’s really what WP was about, for me, a place to tell these stories — I stop myself and try to release whatever emotional damage I’m doing to myself at that moment. I try to *not* build another intricate but heavy flying buttress onto the cathedral of All That Shit That Was Last Year. And it seems to be working.
I’m lighter, less burdened. Less unwieldy. Sleep comes more easily, because my brain isn’t running as many circles around itself and its embedded despair. I’m more able to enjoy small moments of serendipity. All of this is great. However… I’ve always been a small-time raconteur, the Girl With The Story. And now, I’m just the girl floating down the river.
No story. Just me, existing.
…
It’s a little strange, to be honest. I’m not sure I was meant to be quite this Zen. I may have to find a happy medium. — On the other hand, what was this year about if not redefining myself? (You can’t see me right now, but I’m striking a Freudian pose and stroking my non-existent goatee. It’s attractive. snicker)
So I may need to figure out what to do as people ask me “how was your weekend?” and, instead of launching into a story about someone’s bra becoming a boomerang during a wedding ceremony, I simply say, “Fine” and smile at them happily… then awkward silence ensues. lol Oops. Sorry. I was supposed to do my trick there, wasn’t I? 😀 Well, why don’t you tell me a story? I’m all ears. (and Freudian goatee. I may have to get one, because seriously people. I love having an imaginary one. And the faux German accent is tits. Tits, I tell you.)
I often have this sense that I’m askew. That I’m, somehow… sideways. At a party, I often feel I’m the one standing apart, aside, observing, not really part of the group. Or if I am part of the group, it’s often through a concerted effort. An intentional meld. I get the jokes a second too early, or a minute too late, or not at all. Or I get them wrong, somehow. Oops.
I’ve been watching “Parade’s End”, which is wonderful. Just wonderful. But I just finished it, and the happy ending left me… crying. Miserable. Askew. Because although I’m happy for Christopher and Valentine, and despite having zero sympathy at all for Sylvia, I am left wondering: was I the desperate, horrible wife who didn’t *understand* my ex-husband? Who didn’t *get* him, who didn’t try to meet him halfway, who refused to love him or understand the things he loved and then finally, just… lost him? Had to go, had to move aside to make room for him, his fresh new girl and his fresh, unspoiled, happy, UNCONFLICTED new beginning? Was I his horrible past?
And even though, no, I truly do not believe that, I find it difficult right now to watch such things with an unblemished enjoyment. It’s a blow. It’s a sorrow. Because I am the wife, watching my husband – who grew cold, and quiet, and uncommunicative with me in the final years – find a new life and a new joy with a younger woman. And it is hard to see that relationship played out as a triumph – even though I know, intellectually, that it’s not me, not me, not me.
It still, somehow, hurts me. Is me. Is him. Is her. (I never really knew her before, but all the years of photos of her in his lap, under his arm, snuggled against him, before we were divorced – the fact that he took her out for New Year’s two days after I broke my ribs in Florida in the car accident, just over a week after The Incident in India that was really the final end of our marriage, so while I was laid up in pain at my parents’ house, he was out with her for New Year’s… I think all of that has made her a “Her” in my head. I regret that. I think she is probably not a bad person. However, there it is. “She” is “Her”, and probably will be so for a good long while.)
Anyway. I was thinking about this, and wondering when I started to notice this particular slant in myself. And I realized, it was “Love, Actually”.
I saw it with my mom. It was supposed to be this great feel-good movie — but I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed through everything after Alan Rickman cheats, because I had just, shortly before I saw it, truly understood that Ex’s behavior had crossed a line. Before, it had been suspicions and discontent. Gossip and concerned warnings from other people. But shortly before I saw “Love”, the feeling in the pit of my stomach congealed into a horrified surety that wouldn’t properly leave me until… well. I still feel that way, sometimes, even though we’re divorced, when I’m surprised by a photo of him with her. I breathe and smile and let it go, because that was the whole *purpose* of the divorce. But it’s hard to retrain your heart and your glands and whatever part of your brain processes feelings of betrayal.
Anyway, I couldn’t tell my mom what was going on, because I’d started the long – oh SOOOO long – process of lying, of hiding what was happening, of making Ex look good to everyone around while dying inside… so I just sobbed and sniveled into my Kleenex and tried to pretend it was just sentimentality. So many people love that movie. I hated it. To me, the movie boils down to that one storyline; and it’s not about love. It’s about betrayal, and failure, and being utterly sad and alone in a crowd of happy people. It’s about the terror of truly understanding for the first time that someone who’s supposed to be the closest to you really doesn’t care at all, and is going to hang you out to dry, and you’d better figure out a way to make it work, and triple-quick, because otherwise people are going to notice and ask questions. And then there’ll be trouble.
It’s the story of my life from then until the end of my marriage. Thank god I am rewriting the story now.
Anyway — back to Parade’s End. I’m in a much better place now, and I did enjoy the mini-series a great deal. I think Benedict Cumberbatch is wonderful in it – the whole cast is, really (OMG, anybody else who watched “Boardwalk Empire”, did you recognize the actor who played Al Capone / MacMasters?!?!?!!!?!?!!!! I about died when I figured out that was who that actor was!!) and all in all, I enjoyed it more than “Love”. But… I can’t wait until I can just watch love stories again without that pang, or without the possibility of them just going completely sideways. I’m wistful about it. I know the day will come. I’m hopeful it’s sooner rather than later. :}
Was supposed to return to my own home from my parents’ yesterday, but lingered to attend a concert with them, and my sister. It was lovely: on a patio, by a river, and one of the musicians was a friend I’ve not seen in – brace yourself – 22 years. (Yes, that’s two twos there. He was counting it out, and I said, “no, don’t, really,” and he finished the sentence with “it’s been twenty-two YEARS!!” and I believe I actually wheezed aloud. Lord.)
Well. I didn’t know he’d be there, and I’d been practicing dance right up until the moment Mom said, “Really? Are you not ready YET?” and no, of course I wasn’t, I hadn’t showered or anything; so I put up my (greasy) hair and threw on a pair of jeans and a dark jacket over my dark T-shirt and put on some lipstick, because, OK, that’s something — lol — I really didn’t want to lose a moment of dancing time… so there I was, disreputable and not looking *at all* my best, when… around the corner, and I SWEAR it was in slow motion, sashays this tan, suave, formerly-dorky kid I used to know (DID I MENTION IT WAS 22 FRIKKING YEARS AGO?) in college. Daaaaaaaaaaaaang. He was looking foine.
(If you do not know this word, it is “foine”: like “fine”, but finer. When “fine” smells good, and is shaking its butt a little when it walks, and smiling that gorgeous confident smile, and has a twinkle in its eye, and radiating goodness from the inside, but just a little bit of the naughty attitude? That, my friends, is how I define “foine”. And you say it like it’s typed. Oh. And you have to make this face:
–and yes, I keep that photo laying around. I’m not wearing that much makeup tonight. I tried taking the photo tonight and it looked variously like I was drunk, having a pleasurable but one-sided seizure, or having sexual congress with a mallard. So I whipped out the stock photo. VANITY, THY NAME IS GIGGLEPANTS.)
I digress. Hotty McTrafficStopper had just swung around the corner, earrings glinting in the sunlight, the cherubim and seraphim were whistling in approbation and St. Michael had dropped his coffee on Satan’s foot, which Satan had completely failed to notice because he was busily arranging his features into the “DAYUM that boy is FOINE” face, and I was really wishing I’d taken a shower. Oh, well!! I’d have to make do with my charm and just a soupçon of pheremones and DAMMIT, was that a wedding ring, oh bugger me standing, yes. Yes, it was.
Well, shit.
Sigh.
I was still SO HAPPY to see him! We chatted, and yes: he is happily married after 20 years (oof, there’s another one of those 2s) and has daughters, they’re gorgeous, and he’s still a great guy. And YES, I made a total idiot of myself babbling, because he IS an old friend and I was happy to see him. However… I am pleased to say my brain made the transition over to, “maybe he’s got a friend since he’s not available” without too much grey matter carnage.
But really.
lol
Poopsicles.
Oh, seasonal allergies: you suck.
That is all.
(ah-choo!!)
Gigglepants 