But...WHICH way?

This isn't the picture I am having framing.  At least, not today.  I started out with the intention of painting this picture I took.  In abstract form. Santa Fe style.  New Hampshire style.  My style. 

Allowing the watercolors to run and do their thing, as I enjoy doing mine, this was a fun painting.  I also flipped it upside down ~ another view...and sideways.

Me thinks it is a little heavy on the vibrancy but I enjoy it.  What do you think? Frameworthy?

Unpacking A Life

It wasn't just all the boxes.  All the tissue paper.  All the tape to unhook.  This was clearly a metaphor.  I was unpacking my life.  All these memories, stored for a time when it is no longer so painful to remember. 

 But this plate that was my Nana's from England was more than just an egg plate. I had carried it around for decades.  I couldn't help but stare at the flowers.  Inside the glazed floral painting was a message. 
                                                     
                                                          5432 Montbel Avenue.

It didn't mean much except that is rhymed.  I got a magnifying glass to see if there was more.  Behind the eaves.  One foot to the right of the door.  It was like the writing on a piece of rice.  And I don't even know why I saw it or that it occurred to me to enlarge it with a magnifier.  It was that presence the other night.  That shadow.  I didn't understand it until this morning.  Maybe it was the walk on the sand at water's edge.  It always gives such clarity. 

I asked a friend to do a look see.  After all, the house had just gone up for sale.  But was there something else I needed to glean from the unpacking. 

Stored for a time. 

It is safe to remember.  Now. 

I wanted to know more.

Falling

And then the e-mail came.  It was from her friend in New Hampshire.  She couldn't understand why I left the mountains.  Yet the nightmares continued. 


"It was simply just time to go.  I did what I needed to do there. A friend sent me a note once thanking me for all I did in the county.  He saw something in me I hadn't seen."

"I mean, with all the UFO activity there and your encounter.  Why leave?"

"Like I said, something inside told me I had accomplished what I needed there.  Something greater was pulling me here.  It was like the university was opening to everything. And another thing.  I never felt pulled into the community and I don't know why.  Maybe it is the way I tell the truth and people just can't, aren't ready to hear it.  I am revisiting that."

"Oh, I can't imagine that.  I love your honesty, fresh and pure.  And that laugh.  Geeze."

"I still look back with nightmares.  The isolation was almost unbearable.  I was done six years ago but it wasn't time to move on.  That is the way it is with me, a day late and a dollar short."

"We have the experiences we need.  That is why we have them."

"Yeah, yeah.  Can you feel my gratitude? But here is the kicker, the clarity I am getting, the raw honesty of it all, relationships, my garden, my house...all so much more clear.  I am truly grateful for that.  I also feel more honest and true with my life here.  Even this apartment, it is me.  This stage of me."

A dear professor friend wrote to say how much she missed our horseback riding.  The talks that would last for hours.  That her body wouldn't cooperate and allow her to continue to teach her Pilates classes. Wanting more of a community.  She is on her way.  I miss her.Before I left I gave her my horse jacket.  She had tears in her eyes.  She admired the jacket every time I wore it.  I couldn't think of a better person to wear it.

It was late and time to sleep.  The shadow appeared again last night.  I couldn't sleep.  Tossing and turning all night.  The vibrational change.  All the things to look forward to, my new friends, my dear friends who keep in touch.  Even my extended family.  What a joke but that is nothing new. People do what they do."

A heaviness filled the air.  Many were having difficulty breathing.  It isn't just COPD, people are gasping in their own thoughts.  The chemicals.  All too toxic.  But just as it seemed this would never change, a fresh clip of air filled the ocean and most of the eastern states.  Fall was in the air.

    

Tick Tock

She didn't understand.  Couldn't.  But these were left outside her door in the early morning.  She vased them when she awoke.

Her version of not so shabby chic.  Refreshing. Clean.

It was only last night when she decided to rearrange her living room.  It is a Scorpio thing.  Definitely.  Then she noticed the clock on the floor.  The pendulum off.  And fingerprints on the glass.  But who?

The clock had lost three hours.  She did remember hearing a door opening.  The dogs were unusually quiet.  Even drowsy.  She had to wake them up.

Beth wondered.  Why?

Last night she was up late.  Scrubbing all the pots and pans the movers took.  She wanted them spit spot now.  A new beginning.  More open.

She had seen the shadow of a form she couldn't make out in the early hours ~ about 3 p.m. or so.  Hovering over her bed.  It was not human.  More like a ghost.  She remembered what it said.

"Listen, look, learn.  There is a whole new world out there.  Welcome. "

Beth queried the voice in her sleep.

"Who are you.  Were you harmed?  Why are you here?"

"To ease the way," the voice whispered.

Jessy, her cocker spaniel began to whine ever so softly. And sleepy.  Jessy rarely whines. 

Beth knew something was up.

Batwoman

The forensic team confiscated the surveillance camera immediately.  No one ever expected the thief to be a female.  A dark hood and tight fitting yoga-like clothes were her costume. It appeared she had a dark ponytail, maybe brown hair or black.  The photo lab was working on clarifying her features.

On closer examination, the woman looked much like the swimmer at the seaside pool.  She was there nearly every day.  No records were kept at the pool to confirm this.  It was a pay as you go scenario.  There were no pool passes.

I'd be hanging out at the pool the following week.   Trying to get back to my own lap swim.  Swimming is unlike any exercise.  You work against or with yourself.  And water.  Everything is lighter.  After the third lap, another woman asked if I was alright.

"Did the huffing and puffing give it away?"

"No, it was your trying to get out of the pool and getting stuck," she said.

"I wasn't trying to get out actually.  I was lifting myself up to see if my rotator cuffs were painful.  That I was exhausted and gulped some water didn't help.  Thank you for asking.  Hey I have another lap.  Feel free to wake up the lifeguards if you see my bobbing."

The lifeguards sported red muscle man shirts with their names emblazed on the back.  A lot of good that would do if I were bobbing.  I was happy to have fellow athletes nearby. 

One more lap would do it.  And, I could chat again with the woman who was doing laps in the lane beside me.

"Do many woman lap here regularly?

"There are a few.  Mostly the under fifty crowd.  And of course, Batwoman.  Everyone calls her that.  She is a hard woman with almost porcelain features.  She is usually here at noon.  We may see her today."

Gotcha!

It was Jane's favorite lamp.  She would never, ever have damaged it. 

It was late when she arrived back at the condo.  Someone had been there.  She vacuumed the carpets on her way to swing dancing.  Noticed it immediately upon entering her unit.  Drawers were opened and the closets were ransacked. 

On the floor there was a wrinkled receipt from a coin and silver exchange in town in the amount of $10,213.  Silverware was exchanged as was an assortment of other items.  Just last week a neighbor in the surrounding community was missing the same items. But Jane didn't want to get involved. She stood in the great room of her new condo wondering, why me...why me. Why do I see these things and others do not?  Or, maybe they just ignore them.  She thought the former was accurate.

Jane had been at the Ashworth swing dancing.  It was nearly the next day when she discovered the intrusion.  The police could not get there soon enough. 

The blond woman at her new coffee shop talked about the Ashworth By The Sea Restaurant.  A hopping place.  Jane had the best time there.  Until she came home to the disturbance. 

Fortunately, she had just activated her surveillance camera.

The Quickening

Looking back, she never dreamed she would have a lifetime of so many opportunities.  Or, that she would  be so independent and with such spirit.  That she would see all she knew she must do and be able to look back and say, "well done."

But driving along the coast this morning conjealed it all.  She looked at the surfers waiting for the perfect curl.  A dozen or more of these adventurers.  Suddenly her life had clarity, unlike anything she had experienced before.  The undulating current, the rain, mist and sunshine.   Back and forth, hot and cold.  All in a cycle.  What affects what.

She thought about her personality and the personalities of all she knew.  The personalities that develop and destroy.  Consume and flourish.  She was glad to be here.  With family.

Chloe sat on the sat under the rocks.  Crying.  Her life had not been all that she had hoped.  Until she met the woman who would help her see her pattern.  The pattern of many.  The thoughts.  Needs and wants.  The unnecessary waste of time as we get our shorts in a wad over drama.

"You see, I am you.  We aren't unique," the wise woman told Chloe. 

"Let the tears flow for all that is, all that you didn't know.  Now is the time to learn. We have a second chance.  Take it.  You are here for a reason.  The universe requires you."

"But, how do we find our way in this messed up world?"

"Child, one day at a time.  No one gets it all. We get a piece of the puzzle.  Open yourself, get out of your ego.  Listen.  Before you proclaim yourself to others, be with yourself.  Take time to be WITH.  Remember the transcendalists?  The age of enlightenment.  They did the work. "

"Speak your truth.  Change the energy.  Do it now while you still have time."

The quickening is beginning.