Creating a New Story

Narrative Therapy.  This is what my therapist describes to me--a method of "rewriting" your story to include those parts of a life that may have gotten overlooked as I slipped into a groove that was familiar and I believed.

For instance, my story has become a long string of incidents where my desires or who I felt I was did not get validated and, more often than not, "denied support."  As a young child there was little I could do about that situation. Yet, as an adult I continue to follow that narrative, acquiescing to others wishes, demands, directions and even just suggestions; I saw them all as a authority I had to follow.

As I hold on to those points of the story they become the overwhelming plot points that I connect together. In doing this, trying out for the play, becoming student director, moving to Massachusetts with four kids on my own, applying for an MFA (and getting accepted), all of which took tenacity, courage and strength, become minor details.

In rewriting my narrative I bring those to the for front and, forty-eight years into my life, I make a plot shift or flip the railroad switch.  The story is then shifted to a different track and, in the end, I wind up moving along through different scenery and end up at a completely different destination,

That this idea coordinated directly with the reading and research I am pursuing about neuro-plasticity, and a recent awareness that I could go back and find the "good parts" of my life to hold onto and let go of the rest, solidified my theories.

I am not sure what the next step is.  I do know that even the "awareness of" has allowed me to consider and shift even in the last twenty-four hours.  The setback I have had of late has led to desperation and further depression.  But, as I sat in a room and heard yet again another "provider" for my son tell me about the dynamics between my son and I create a certain outcome, I could have fought it.  I could have gone into the story of how someone in authority is not validating my experience and telling me how to do something in a situation they are not familiar with.  Instead, my thoughts paused at that switch in the nuero-pathways and I considered, "Be right or be happy?"  I could continue to hold onto that belief and, like the monkey in the Aesop fable, never get my hand out of the jar.  Or I could let go, open my mind to those forgotten or unnoticed strengths ad work at getting both of our stories headed to a new direction.

It hurts. There is pride, disappointment, a desire to blame, trying to place the control somewhere else so I don't have to take the responsibility.  But the truth is what I have told my children, "At anytime we have a higher power who will help us let go of the past and become our best selves."  Free agency allows us to choose between holding on to the past or letting go and opening ourselves to healing and empowerment. 

Coming Clean

Back to Mr. King.  I had set him aside for awhile but today it was time to pick him up again.  And, wouldn't you know it, it was exactly where I needed to be. 

At the time of publication of On Writing Mr. King had spent twelve years clean and sober.  When he walked away from alcohol and cocaine in 1988 he choose his family and his life over what he was addicted to--he claimed his agency back.

Stephen King describes Misery, the story of a nurse imprisoning and then torturing a writer, and Tommyknockers, where aliens supply "energy and superficial intelligence" (97) in exchange for your soul, as metaphor's for addiction. 

I am an addict.  My addiction is connected to food and relationships. It is essential that I recognize the part I have played in my own life.  Was I responsible as a child--no.  But somewhere along the way I learned that handing over the responsibility to others in exchange for my agency made life "easier." The addiction to food closely followed, as I filled in the hollow places left behind from the pieces of me I exchanged for peace, love, attention--a sense of control. 

It is when I recognized these coping skill that I became responsible for them.  And I am pretty sure that those times when I seemed to "see the possibilities" were moments of recognizing there was a way out of the addiction. 

It is difficult to write.  Even more difficult to look at lost opportunities.  I tell my son we are not our past.  He misunderstands, and therefore points out our past experiences create who we are.  I explain that any moment I can decide to change who that is if I no longer choose to be that person.  I take what I learn, but as Charlie says in Perks of Being a Wallflower says, "...even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there." 

And as I meander about in this blog it is becoming clearer this is what I am doing.  I am choosing where I am going and resetting the route...it is not as immediate as reprogramming a GPS.  Instinctively I knew moving from the familiar path to a new one, through healing down to the molecular level, is a slow process. 

The few years I spent attending Codependents Anonymous I became familiar with the Twelve Steps.  Steps ten, eleven and twelve are rather a "lather-rinse-repeat" procedure:

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

 This change is a continuing process.  Stephen King wrote that he was convinced when he chose his family over drugs and alcohol he was giving up his creativity.  But he kept at the writing and, "Little by little I found the beat again, and after that I found the joy again," (99).

I am afraid I will make a mistake.  I don't trust myself much, because it is next to impossible to authentically present when I am trading me for the payoffs. 

But I miss me.  I have a picture of her.  I've seen her peek at me from time to time and then a difficulty arises and I lose view of her once again.  I am tired of trading her off.  I want to see the world through her eyes again.  I want to throw my arms wide open and own every  part of her.

The founder of the slow food movement, Carlo Petrini, said, "You have to give time to each and everything."  Will it take seven years?  I am not sure, however it gives me the sense that I am aware it is a slow change movement and have time to attend to "each and everything."
 
 

Why This Blog?

Trepidation is the best word to describe how I feel about putting this blog out there.  I raised the question to myself, a friend, and the universe.  This is how the universe responded:

You  must continue to take yourself seriously, you must remain your own witness, marking well everything that happens in this world, never shutting your eyes to reality  You must come to grips with these terrible times, and try to find answers to the many questions they pose.  And perhaps the answers will help not only yourself but also others.

                                                                                      - Etty Hillesum (Holocaust Witness)
 
I hear what she is saying. I will probably spend more time with the questions though. In Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke responds to the poets desires to know the answers, "Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

My belief is that dabbling in the questions may in time lead to the answers, but either way they are both encouraging us to seek.

I do not suppose to know the answers, or the questions for that matter.  I definitely do not claim to have experienced anything so harrowing as the holocaust or have the insight of Rilke.

In fact I struggle against that voice that asks, "Who do you think you are to even write this and share it with the world?"

Who do you think you are to express an opinion, raise a question, share an experience.  but I believe it is our silences that kill our spirit.  I believe when we are divided and separated to think we must do this all on our own we deny ourselves the opportunity to not feel as if we are the only ones who have experienced these things.  And miss the chance to see the possibility to overcome and see the other side. 

It may suit us for awhile to cherish our own individual difficulties.  To sooth ourselves with the belief that no one understands us.  However, when I have sat with other women, it is the recognition of their stories that helped me to raise my head, look in someone's eyes and realize I was not alone.

 
 

Is Play the Answer?

Do what you love and the money will follow.
Release your mind and the rest will follow.
Love the good life.
We are that we might have joy.
Life is good.

These are not the mantras I grew up with.  I think mine were more along the lines of, "No pain, no gain."

You know what?  Forget it.  I know paddling about in your past can get you all kinds of material, but why paddle about in the muck I don't want to replicate.  Why am I not diving into the moment of pleasure.  And, if I am looking for answers about writing, writing as play, why not those moments of pleasure I found in writing about the hamburger in 4th grade?  I mean, what was that hamburger doing anyway?

Going back further to my earliest artifact of writing I have--a poem.  It's probably about half a haiku and it dwells on birdsong and sunshine.  It was my first attempt to capture pure delight on paper.

Is play the answer?  Look at the semantics because believe me it depends on how it is defined.  And I've heard quiet a bit of definitions to the defamation of play...but, so have you.  But I am going with this list: delight, pleasure, passion, lift, joy, in the moment, laughter, love, innocent, bliss. 

Do kids wake up on a summer's morning looking to the day with trepidation of the play thing they will do that day.  Does their heart rate go up?  Do they question if what they do that day will meet the criteria, quota or please those around them?  Do they avoid it, procrastinate it, ignore it?

No.

They breathe in a bowl of cereal with there feet tapping out a syncopated rhythm and leave skid marks behind as they burst out on to this day.  This moment.

Can you imagine?

Waking up with the freedom of PLAY blasting through your mind--adventure, curiosity, freedom, questions, desire.

There is a note on my sons door: Do not disturb--scholar at work.

I am going to make one for mine: Do not disturb--writer at play.

Right In Front of Me

My mind wants to go with Kathy's prompt.  I stare into the woods looking for that one thing to describe or write about that is in front of me without naming and my will resists pulling me to the blog I want to get started.  Then the breeze picks up and lifts the upper branches of the Oak tree like a prayer flag sending my desires to heaven. 

The thing before me is this moment to let the ink flow along with my hand and mind.  Why not let it lead me. 

And what I get first is the distraction of a couple dozen mosquitoes who have noticed my bug spray has worn off and I am in a clearing in the woods where the breeze is not getting to and I am sitting still not creating my own breeze with walking...

It is open season--distractions are everywhere.

I sopped subbing two weeks before the end of school because I jut couldn't take another step.  That is figuratively speaking.  The real concern was I would be in a classroom of students and say something I would just wish I could have stopped behind my teeth before it tumbled out. 

I was tired.  Pushed to an edge after a year of school and working with my son, who once again had stopped going to school due to anxiety--I just stopped. 

And then I decided to do what I wanted.  Now you may think that my days would then fill with writing, reading and relaxing walks.  However, nature abhors a vacuum.  And, just like mosquitoes, the distractions set in.  Soon two weeks are gone and, yes, I am not so anxious that I feel close to coming undone, yet the writing is just not as easy as the reading and walking.  When I do write I find that having to turn my mind back to interactions with my family, or an appointment, are met with my resentment of having to leave my writing.

I am not a transition person.

So I return to that image this morning.  There were the retreat attendees meditatively stepping into the woods--bringing their thought to that moment.  they have a practice to bring their mind to where they are. 

Are they training to control their mind or enjoying where they are?  Are they the same?

What struck me though were the two children playing.  They didn't need training.  They were caught up in joy of the moment and needed no practice.  Do we forget this innocent attendance to here and now?  Is play the answer?

Maybe if  looked at my writing as my play...no.  Then I would just bring right along my guilt of "not working." I've been down that road many times.  So then I go off and visit possible other reasons--past words, experiences and I see those two kids playing again.  I see the line of white robed people and it is the woman, second from the end, that turns to me.  She acknowledges my presence with hands together at her heart, and, tilting her head, she offers me the recognition of seeing the divine in me.  I return that to her.  She smiles and falls back into step.

She knows how to be in both worlds.  She recognizes what is around her and she steps forward to where she is going.

And I am speechless.

False Start Number Three

The Montague Bookmill's motto is, "Books you don't need, in a place you can't find."

I found the place, and, in contradiction of their motto, I found the books I needed.  Roaming through its two stories I found books that seemed like a variation on a familiar theme. 

After finding these books I came home and pulled off the shelf Women Who Run with Wolves. This book seemed to track me over the years and jump off the shelf to lay in my hands.  I finally bought it once and opened it momentarily, to only give it away.  Once again it found me--this time in a pile of free books.

I opened then with good intent.  It was 2010.  About the same time I purchased Christine Northrup's Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, another book that seemed to be following me. 

There was a plan.  I was going to read these two books together.  Why?  Besides the feeling that these two books had something to tell me I opened the book and began to read:

While women's loss of innocence is often ignored, in the underground forest a woman who has lived through the demise of her innocence is seen as someone special, in part because she has been hurt, but much more so because she has gone on, because she is working hard to understand, to peel back the layers of her perceptions and her defenses to see what lies underneath.  In that world, her loss of innocence is treated as a rite of passage.  That she can now see more clearly is applauded.  that she has endured and continues to learn give her both status and honor.  (396)

I continued reading:

This psychic ability is often called processing.  When we process, we sort through all the raw material in the psyche, all the things we've learned, heard, longed for, and felt during a period of time.  We break these down into parts, asking, "How shall I use this best?"  We use these processed ideas and energies to implement out most soulful tasks and to fund our various creative endeavors.  In this way a woman remains both sturdy and lively. (396) 

 This is why the book had found me.  I was entering my tenth year of divorce.  I was a single mother to four children.  I had been involved in a non-profit group for the last few years as a volunteer that moved in a direction of recognition of motherhood and womanhood.  Believing more in my voice than I could remember for a long time I applied to graduate school. In November of 2009 I began a Master of Fine Arts program in Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky.  Then things went off track again:

Whether they are being too cool or too well-behaved, in neither state are they responsive to what goes on deep inside, and a sleep gradually cover over the bright-eyed, responsive nature....When a woman surrenders her instincts that tell her the right time to say yes and when to say no, when she gives up her insight, intuition, and other wildish traits, then she finds herself in situations that promised gold but ultimately give grief.  Some women relinquish their art for a grotesque financial marriage, or give up their life's dream in order to be a good wife, daughter, or girl, or surrender their true calling in order to lead what they hope will be a more acceptable, fulfilling, and more sanitary life.

 As I read back over these underlined paragraphs, marginal notes and place them in the timeline of my life, my heart breaks.  When life became challenging again due to, well, life, I turned to some people for assistance who directed me to another, more reasonable, path. 

By her sweetness, her warm and welcoming voice, her lovely manner, she not only attracted those who took away an ember from her, but so large a crowd gathered before her soulful fire that they blocked her from receiving any of its warmth herself.

The poor bargain she had made was to never say no in order to be consistently loved.  The predator of her own psyche offered her the gold of being loved if she would give up her instincts that said "Enough is enough." (398)

Right at the time I seem to have stumbled on the guidance and answers I needed to "find my voice" I sacrificed it.  In 2010 I made the marginal note, "HOPE!  Teaching is a means to the end-it is not the end after reading the following:

Over the long term there will be even better news yet.  That which has been given away can be reclaimed.  It can be restored to its proper place in the psyche.  You will see. (401)

 And then, I put the book away.  I stopped writing in my journals.  I went back to school for teaching certification the next semester as "instructed."  Much has happened since then.  Much happened before then.  Much  more is to come.  I am not sure what.

I do know that I came out the other side and am finally saying, "Enough is enough.  I am going to sit right down here--by my fire--and process."

 

 

Revisiting Joe

Losing myself in the life of Joe March I stumble across the place I may have picked up on the idea of kind gentlemen opening the world to a deserving young girl. Was it not the uncle in Secret Garden who provided the "bit of earth" and Mr. Lawrence who allowed Beth the opportunity to play upon the grand  piano.  Even Jo had an enormous library to peruse, full of atlases and globes, that had belonged to her uncle. 

Are we not trained from an early age in are literature that the prince will rescue us.  Even if he is old or a relative?  Did I have any other example for a way to meet my desires and secret wishes?

But I wrack my brain for more relationships that provide a path to "possibilities" that I read as a child and I come up with the man in Little Princess and the uncle in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  

Mrs. Havisham is exactly what she is, a spiteful, bitter woman whose heart is not melted or changed from the goodness or hope of Pip, and instead preys upon his innocence.  Somehow, the men benefactors end up kind hearted and handsome.  Even Jane Eyre's Mr. Rochester ends up kind hearted and handsome, to her, in the end. 

Is it any wonder my daydreams consisted of these men's extensions?

I would propose we need empowered female role models, but lets take it a step further and have them be one's that encourage a young women to use her voice and gifts.  The older books most often reflect societies view of women in their day.  The idea of a woman "earning her keep" or "having a voice" was revolutionary in Joe Marches world.  And both the character and the author, Louise May Alcott, were grappling with the idea of women's rights. 

I am getting to the part where Joe starts getting paid for her writing and contributing to the family.  I know I did not miss this when I was twelve.  Alcott is the one I credit for my wanting to be a writer. 

However, the conflict was there.  It still is.  I find myself in between analyzing what influenced the option I picked, doing as I was told, and changing my familiar pattern to the possibility that lies outside that room, choosing an authentic self.