It’s been fifty-five years since Marle and I were freshmen in high school wishing that time would speed up. Our wish came true because it seems like we blinked . . . and here we are – back in Palm Springs turning 70 instead of 15.
Palm Canyon Drive looks different …
….. and so do we!
I want to write more about yesterday … but I have to post this draft right now if I want it to appear on May 9th, 2016. Yesterday was most definitely the most interesting May 8th that we’ve known since 1960. It was Mothers’ Day and although it didn’t go as we had planned – it was magical. We came in from the pool at about 10 PM … and slept wonderfully after a perfect day.
Today didn’t go as planned either. The first thing Marle noticed when she took her suitcase out to her car this morning was that my car wasn’t parked where she thought I had left it before we went downtown last night. Turns out that while we were sleeping so well … someone decided that they needed my car more than I do.
I’m not sure how it happened – or why – but it the lesson seems to be the one that I think of as Session #2: Mapping Your Direction and Dealing With Change.
So now, tomorrow will be about rental cars, insurance claims and deciding how we can pack everything differently for driving back to Brookings next week ….
……. to be continued ….
_________________________ May 10, 2016 – 6:15 AM
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around what happened on May 8 … and why. It’s the “Why?” that always gets me in trouble. For now I’ve just saved some random thoughts and I think I’ll just leave them here and move on …. at least for now …
CLICK HERE: Thoughts on May 8th (1961-2016)
It’s May 8th again … just one year later … and I’m having trouble processing all that has happened since that “magical” day my car was stolen. Marle told me that day that she was surprised that I was handling it so well. What’s occurred to me quite often since then is that I usually function pretty well in the middle of a crisis. Or at least I feel like I do. What happens, though, is that when the crisis is over … I start feeling uncomfortable – bored – discontent … and if I’m not careful I will create another crisis.
Something about that pattern shifted for me last year when I walked out and saw my car gone. It wasn’t really the car that did it to me … it was the fact that I had packed the car with boxes upon boxes of “stuff” that I felt like I had to sort through before I could “really” write anything to submit for publication. Then *poof* … no boxes … no stuff … nothing to do but write.
I’m not here to say that I have published a book this year … but I have written a couple of things that other people have posted on their blogs … one in The Atlantic on-line … and I did finish a couple of things to give to people at ASCD in March. But I can say that I feel a lot lighter most of the time and writing has been more fun this year.
That said … this May 8th is “special” in a whole different way … and it’s been very difficult. Richard and I are planning to go to Eureka tomorrow morning to take Shannon in for surgery on her lips. She is not doing well and I’m not at all sure if she’s going to be able to pull herself up this time. All I know is that not only is there nothing I can do to help her … but I’m a very large part of the problem since we tend to “feed” on each other’s emotions.
OK … since I’m pretty sure that only Marle is going to be notified that I’m posting this, I’ll leave it at that … and hope that May 8th 2018 shines a little brighter on all of us!!!!
Thanks for the reminder of a wondrous May 8th, Bette Lynn. How did all those years slip away so quickly?
Here’s to our next May 8th….in whatever gin joint in what ever corner of the world we decide to meet.
Marle
LOL … now it’s here twice and I have no idea why! Oh well … Always something new to learn …
It was nice remembering better times this year! YES … looking forward to 2018 (for more reasons than one) … that is if the Evangelical Voting Bloc doesn’t raise it’s ugly head again! I just posted a rant on the FB group for INDIVISIBLE97415 (our zip code.) It’s been almost a year and a half since I saw the handwriting on the wall when I posted “What’s the Evangelical Voting Bloc” on Meanderings. The fact that we’re hearing nothing means that they are waging another “stealth campaign” like the Eagle Forum did in 1991. It makes me sick … but if you go to the TOPICS on this page it’s a pretty good list of who and what needs to be resisted! http://eagleforum.org/
LOL! I’m really on a rant today … this feels like a private email to you – since no one else has commented on this …. Don’t they celebrate MAY 8th????!!!
Thanks for the reminder of a wondrous May 8th, Bette Lynn. How did all those years slip away so quickly?
Here’s to our next May 8th….in whatever gin joint in what ever corner of the world we decide to meet.
Marle
What can I say??? It’s been six months … ONLY six months? Seems like a lifetime! I’m reading over everything that I’ve posted on this site because I’m getting ready to leave Brookings once again. The South Coast Writers Group is having a pot luck on Sunday Nov. 20 and I’m getting the brochure and daybooks ready to give them before I leave. Since this blog site was my commitment for 2016 … I’m deciding if I want to add the link to the letter I’m writing.
The answer is YES. The poem I may or may not read at the pot luck is called “Gratitude Comes in Twelves” … and it’s really about recovering from a really terrible year. Remembering the MAGIC of May 8th makes me realize, once again, that …..
“Everything will be all right in the end … and if everything is not all right … then it is most certainly not the end!”
Yesterday Marle wondered why I was taking the loss of my car “so well.” I had lots of explanations and thought I was doing fine. Then I woke up at 3:30 AM this morning and it all hit me.
I’m at Araby alone and becoming more and more aware of the importance of letting go. (Must listen to that song from Frozen again… ) I’ve been unwilling to let go of the boxes of stuff that I always thought I needed to use for the books I thought I needed to write. Now I’m questioning all of that …
What did I lose with the car?
The CD’s that Rich made for me of “our” music.
The Keys to Literature Notebooks from my last class in 1998. (The ones their middle school teachers didn’t want to bother with 🙁 )
The Writing materials from the CLAS (California Learning Assessment System) – and UCLA Writing Project in the 1980’s
… and a lot of things that I’ve organized into chapters and thought I needed to deal with before moving ahead with either Growing Leaders or L2W / W2L.
Can I move ahead without them? Really not sure right now …. do I really even want to? Why?