Tennyson wrote, “I am a part of all that I have met.”
Brooke Hampton said, “I am pieces of all the places I have been, and the people I have loved. I’ve been stitched together by song lyrics, book quotes, adventure, late night conversations, moonlight, and the smell of coffee.”
I love these truths because they explain my contradictions. I’ve had a myriad of experiences in nearly as many places. I have been blessed to meet a great many people.
“Mother Earth” by Galla Grotto
And while doing so, I was often wearing jeans – the uniform of my generation.
According to what we know about thermodynamics, bumblebees should not be able to fly. Tell that to the bee buzzing around your garden.
Be a bumble bee and vibrate to the rhythm of your impossible flight.
My yoga teacher says that our ability to walk is nothing more than beginning to fall and catching ourselves again and again. All you need is balance. Balance, I believe, is the secret to happiness. If you can offset the mundane with the magic, contentment arises. Being aware that there is both good and bad in the world, that there will be shitty days and shitty experiences followed by those little blessings of magic and miracles not to mention the times of euphoria and joy. If you can balance and keep from falling, it’s all good.
Sometime during mid-pandemic, I purged from my Facebook all of the chronically angry, sarcastic, more-concerned-with-throwing-sharp-barbs-than-uplifting people from my Facebook. What a blessing I gave myself to turn off those voices. I have my own angry, sarcastic, and pointed barbs to mute, I don’t need others broadcasting unfettered into my head. I believe we have an obligation not just to ourselves, but to others to promote the magic. Trekking through the mud and the mire slinging it about serves no purpose other than to make one feel bad and inflict that pain on others. Hurt people hurt people. Staying in one’s magic can be difficult because we’re all hurt people and there are as many ways to hurt others as to hurt oneself.
Life is tricky, stay in your magic. Don’t let the buzzkillers kill your buzz.
The man looked at her for a long time – beginning at her face and traveling down her body to her feet. His grin was salacious, and she visibly shuddered.
“Whatsa matter, darling? I’m just admiring you. Don’t be cruel.”
Glenna did her best to ignore him, but his slurred words and unsteady gate indicated an excess of alcohol that wasn’t about to be deterred.
“Aw, c’mon. Smile for me. You’d be much prettier if you would smile.”
“I have no obligation to be pretty for you or for anyone else,” she erupted. She knew better than to respond but she was tired of men who behaved as if she owed them something. And coming from one she didn’t know at all just punched all of her buttons.
“Now sweetheart, I meant no offense. You are just a fine example of womanhood and I’m just an admirer.”
“Go away. Now.”
“I can tell when I’m not wanted.” To her surprise and his credit, he did turn around and begin walking in the opposite direction. He raised his right hand, middle finger extended, without turning around. Relief surged through her body. Now that he was gone, she took out her phone and pulled up Maps. She was well and truly lost. Thank God for GPS. Her phone would know where she was even if she didn’t. She began walking a few steps in one direction and then another to get her bearings on the map. It looked like she needed to turn left at the next corner to get to her car.
I had plans to do so with a friend, but dammit all, she had the temerity to get herself killed in a motorcycle accident before we could execute the plan.
She was quite an inspiration in my life and I was just never able to bring myself to do the skydiving thing without her. And then in my late 30s, my chiropractor asked me, “Do you ski?” I said No. And he said, “Good. Don’t take it up.” And then I said, “I suppose that means skydiving is out too.”
The look on his face. Apparently, he was terrified of flying. You would have thought I’d suggested he remove a testicle or something. “Oh, God, no. No. No skydiving.”
And so, it’s a want that will forever be unfulfilled and I find myself mourning the loss. How many other I alwayswanted tos am I not going to be able to do?
W. Va. Fur and Root 