I’m helping a rally in Congo Square this Sunday for Mother’s Day for the Kidnapped Nigerian girls – I hope everyone comes out to show their support and solidarity with these mothers and daughters and Nigerian community.
The Tao te Ching – the way – the method – the path.
Back in 2011, I sat on the stairs on the Andalusian coast of Spain and watched ants crawl up the wall and form a question mark. It was uncanny how the universe was painting my confusion for me to see it – detached and unexpectedly.
Yesterday, at aikido class – did I mention I am taking aikido? – there was a framed drawing of a question mark that looked exactly like the one the ants drew – uncanny you say? Well isn’t it all done by the same hand, I say.
Peaceful resistance – that’s what aikido is all about and for the life of me, I didn’t know what to expect, and now I can’t wait to go practice – it’s exhilarating and meditative all in one movement.
But when I think back to what the summer of 2011 was for me – I was going around and up the wrung and out I came into the vast new world with all the blood letting I thought behind me.
Little did I know it was about to get real – career, home, partner, hair – and in losing everything, I found me. I was under all those identifiers.
Falling down and getting up again never felt so good.
When my friend adopted Stella’s brother, one of the puppies from the litter that looked a little like her, I told her she should call him Stanley. But her son had other ideas for his name and so HedgeHog won out. HedgeHog came over for a playdate along with Tin’s friend and I watched in utter amazement as the boys roughed and tumbled and the puppies mirrored them right underneath the trampoline.
Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that is truly what little boys are made of.
Someone has put up signs around the city that say: LOVE
I don’t know who is behind it, but I’m going to get in front of it.
On May 2, 2014, I woke up and took Tin to school then I ran into a dear friend and went for coffee with her. Then I went over to my house and watered the plants and as I was about to walk back to the American Can where I’m staying for the week, a tall, dark, handsome man said to me, “Can I tell you how beautiful you are?” So I asked him for a hug and damn, if he didn’t give me the sexiest hug I’ve ever received from a stranger. He was surveying the street for the big project about to get started in the old church and he told me he was supposed to be on stage at 2PM at Jazz Fest but because of work, he couldn’t make it.
He’s a rock star in my book.
Then I went home and showered to get ready for Jazz Fest. I was in the mood to go to aikido class but there was no time and so once dressed, I strolled over to the bayou as I waited for my friend who was joining me. My friend was bringing my safety pin and first dollar bill for my birthday pinning. I had looked in my coin purse to see if I had a penny to make a wish in the bayou, but couldn’t find one, but when I got to the bayou, I looked up at the sky and down at the clouds reflected in the water, and something shiny in the grass glinted at me – a copper penny. How about that? I told God and the Universe with a laugh, you mess with me a lot dontcha. You keep trying to get me to realize that I’m indeed scrappy, resilient and that if I would just lighten up a little I would come to see the whole game for what it is.
Then I knelt down and thanked my parents and the universe for bringing me to this journey. The last 55 years have been nothing short of amazing. And I threw the shiny penny into the dark bayou and wished for the magic to keep happening.
As I walked through the gates of the Fairgrounds, into Jazz Fest 2014, I remembered what my friend always tells me as we head on the ferry to Nantucket every year – she says, this is the best part of the trip, when it’s all in front of you. This Jazz Fest – Second Friday – was the best, read again: the best, day I have ever had at the Fest and my birthday was a MIRACLE – a GIFT – a RADIANT LIGHT OF LOVE.
Magical. Miraculous. The absolute perfect day and I closed it out with Chaka Khan singing “I am every woman.”
I have to pinch myself to fully comprehend the totality of my existence.
