CHOOSING OUR OWN PATH: SPEAKING TRUTH
I infuse sun rays this month. I open myself like a wet butterfly, spreading wings to dry, basking on our decks, planting flowers, exclaiming over flowers in our garden. Not yet gone but going slowly are the chill days of November to May with their dark and cloudy rain.
RICH AND I HAVE BEEN VACCINATED!! At ages 86 and 75, we rejoiced at being able to receive the new COVID 19 vaccines (Pfizer). Our vaccination moment was a hallelujah! The event could be described as a CAR RIDE. We searched online for three weeks to find a place to be vaccinated. We found three places but no serum. Then suddenly, emails appeared in our boxes inviting us to come the next week to Sanderson Airport, a few miles away. We showed up at 9 a.m., dressed in arm-ready clothing and joined an ever-moving line of cars of elderly people like ourselves. Most cars held two people to be vaccinated. In 1 ½ hours we had moved to a big tent that held six cars. We rolled down our windows and 6-12 people received shots in arms at the same moment. We received the Pfizer BioNTech and returned March 25th for the second dose. No repercussions except sore arms but we received a great sense of relief and joy at being able to slowly rejoin society safely.
I’ve been thinking about TRUTH TELLING. In the Glenn Family, our parents were adamant about the importance of telling the truth. Mom threatened us by insisting that a lie would always catch up to you. I pictured a dark shadow hovering behind me when I lied. I have always been a TRUTH SEEKER and was drawn to journalism by this aspect of that profession. In J School at the University of Missouri in Columbia, we all worked on the local newspaper as part of our training. Our professors were insistent we have three reliable sources before we quoted anyone. Facts were paramount.
This year our monthly family book club is focused on books about women. Rich joined us in April to report on The Code Breakers by Walter Isaacson, the story of scientist Jennifer Doudna, scientific heroine with her work in Gene Editing, RNA, and the current discoveries that may change our lives with biological and technological discoveries as we learn how life works. As former students at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment in Yelm, WA, we’d studied about RNA, how it makes copies of DNA. We were excited to participate in taking a vaccine using this information. Rich and I grew up living in a country that required nonvoluntary participation in wars, dedication to law and sometimes being asked to rise above and beyond our own selves to do something to help others such as taking the polio vaccine.
LISTENING is another part of being a writer and a journalist. As I age, I have learned I do better to keep my mouth shut and listen. Although I have tried to become a wise person, I find few want to listen to me, so I listen to them. I’ve been working with Julia Cameron’s new book The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention. I discovered the Cameron books in the 1990s and often taught courses in Creativity based on them, especially The Artist’s Way where I learned to write morning pages every day (journaling), to take walks of creativity and to make special times to be alone with myself. In this new book, which I engage most mornings for a few pages, I am re-learning how to listen.
Our book for May is Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates. I went right to it when I learned that she and her husband, Microsoft founder Bill Gates were divorcing. What happened to that marriage, I wondered and set out to find the truth. In her book I found someone who has dedicated her life to working with women all over the world. She looks for solutions for people with urgent needs. She explains why this often leads to introducing knowledge of contraception and birth control and methods of safe birthing, despite the fact she herself is Catholic. She also addresses child marriage, lack of education for women and the balance of paid and unpaid labor among men and women. The breakup appears to have been caused by lack of trust and truthfulness. Evidently she was unaware of her husband’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, known trafficker of young girls.
I’ve also been watching the career of Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney. I am an avid consumer of news seeking it out through my IPhone sources like NBC and MSNBC news, CNN, Huffington Post, NPR, Politico, as well as several newspapers—The Seattle Times, The New York Times, The Sounder (Island information about the San Juan Islands) and The Mason County Journal. I also follow several major credible news channels on television. I read and consume all of these to help make a decision I can base on several sources to find what I can believe as truth. For years I remained an independent voter who leaned toward the Democratic Party. In recent years, I’ve been a dedicated Democrat but recently, I’ve been watching some Republican women. Our own Washington State representative in Congress, Jaime Herrera Butler, dared to vote to impeach the former President as did Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney. Both women dared to tell their truth in a party burning for the former President.
I know well that telling your truth can result in loss, havoc, vitriol. When I divorced my first husband, due to domestic abuse, violence and alcoholism, I faced ridicule from friends who threw eggs at our house, and from family members who could not accept that I lived in violence. I tried to divorce my first husband for six years, going back and forth in between three times of trying to leave. My lawyer, a petite young woman who stood on tiptoe to address the judge at the bench and who was just beginning her law practice in St. Louis when I found her, stayed with me through all of it. On my final divorce attempt, she begged me, “Susan, Go Through With It This Time!” I did. My life changed immediately. My future awaited me and rushed into my life. I’d already met Rich by that time through Al Anon and other treatment programs for families of alcoholics. We married soon after we both divorced, having been friends for more than three years. In June, we will celebrate our 33rd anniversary together.
I’ve also been reading A Woman Writing: A Memoir in Essays by Mary Lou Sanelli, a Pacific Northwest writer who describes her writing life, the ups and downs, frustrations and joys. She chose to marry but not to have children so that she could apply a sincere, devoted effort to bring that career into blossom. As a writer, I admire that courage and I know sometimes that path is what is required to become a good writer.
I applaud my eldest daughter, Mindy Hardwick who just published another book. This one is titled Some Stories Are Not Seen, a middle-grade story that takes place in a town along the Oregon Coast, similar to the one where Mindy often lives in Cannon Beach. See photo below. Book is available on amazon.com Mindy earned her MFA in writing for children at Vermont College and has written many books for children as well as romance series but I think this recent one is up at the top of the list for excellence.
As I sit splashed by sun on our deck, I recognize the trills of my favorite bird who has returned. I don’t know its name but I think it is a warbler. It’s song seems to be filled with words. Welcome back anonymous bird friend! The Western horizon here is bordered by the Olympic Mountains that provide a barrier between us and the Pacific Ocean as they lift snowy caps above the many-colored blue and gray-green waters of Hood Canal.
I am stunned to emerge from the great 2020 Pandemic to find myself at age 75, as if years gathered faster during the pandemic but I have just discovered that I am now among the elderly. I did return to yoga classes outside and can almost keep up. The rhododendrons are competing for our attention as they continue to burst their blossoms, sparking our yard with flower froth in magenta reds, bright yellows, soft purples and one vibrant orange. These 40 some rhody bushes were here when we purchased our Union house in 2011 but they were buried in three layers of plastic to hold back weeds. A nearby landscaper who became our gardener helped extricate all of them and they are showing much gratitude this year!
I’ve also been working on a series of poems about living by water. It’s working title is Wind Shadows on Water. For inspiration, I’ve been reading Kim Stafford’s recent book Seeing 2020. He captures his thoughts about the Oregon fires, the November election and the pandemic in his poetry.
LAST BUT NOT LOST—I last wrote that my younger daughter, Becca Hardwick, had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She has been through surgery, four weeks of radiation treatments, and is doing well. Becca is also a student and works at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment and was able to access their “Blue Healing” facilities and a doctor there as well. Thanks to all of you who responded to our calls for meditation, thoughts and prayers! Focus Works!
GRATITUDE! LOTS OF GRATITUDE!
