Entering 2026 with Gratitude

 

Where Shadows Rest

He wasn’t afraid of the parts of her that stayed quiet.

And she never asked him to become brighter than he truly was.

They found each other in that gentle hour when the day grows tired and the world softens, when truths come out because they finally feel safe enough to exist.

His darkness was never dramatic.

It showed in the way he noticed corners before centers, in how his laughter arrived slowly, like trust had to open the door before joy could step in. People called him complicated. Heavy. Too much.

She had learned long ago that depth often makes people uncomfortable.

When they talked, it felt like sitting near a small fire on a cold night — not loud, not wild, but alive. He spoke about battles he had already buried, about choices that changed him, about a heart that learned how to protect itself without turning to stone. She didn’t listen with the intention to repair him. She listened to know him.

And that changed everything.

He didn’t pursue her in a rush.

He stayed. He chose. Calmly. With the certainty of someone who understands what it means to walk through darkness and still reach for another hand.

Between them lived a quiet charge — not demanding, not urgent. Just present. Shared silences. Looks that lasted a second longer than necessary. Hands that almost met and then waited.

He saw her hidden places and didn’t try to escape them.

She saw his and didn’t try to rewrite them.

And somewhere in that honest space, where nothing needed to be disguised, they found something rare.

Not a love that consumes,

but a love that stays warm.

Steady. Patient.

Like coals that survive long after the flames are gone.

She realized then that the deepest love stories are not the loud ones.

They are the ones you feel in your chest long before you ever speak them.

This resonated with me today. Sometimes, the journey feels like a roller coaster. Sometimes roller coasters are adrenalin and excitement and unchecked energy. Sometimes they are fear and exhaustion and trepidation. Today sort of feels like the latter, but the poem seems to resonate today.

That is all.

~Peace

Just like that....the end of 2024...

There is so much that I need to catalog, to process, I need to WRITE. I love, love, love paper journals, but at the end of the day, I am also lazy and it’s easier to type.

Sheesh, since November of last year?! Now, it seems, the way to catalog is open my phone to the pictures I took and go from there.

Since November 6, 2024, so much has happened. Democracy is gone. That’s another rant for another day, I am not giving that any more energy than I have to right now, and it’s hard enough merely to make it through curated content for about 15 minutes a day. I stay active where I can, give money where I can, and try to preserve my well-being KNOWING the motto is “The cruelty is the point.” SMDH.November last year began trying to find beauty where it was possible. There is a Chinese lantern exhibit that’s come to my town the last few years, called “Dragon Lights” and they seem to have finally figured out that holding this event in July where temps are often over 100, and it doesn’t get dark until after 9pm, is not ideal for this market =) That said, the lanterns are beautiful and it’s just what’s needed to soothe a battered soul

When the kids were leaving, we thought about things, and decided to take on a roomie. That roomie is wonderful in so many ways, and we now have chickens. I never knew chickens could be both so entertaining and also so infuriating. Being a part of chicken groups is great, because in some sense, you have to laugh at yourself, anthropomorphizing these small-ish dinosaurs who absolutely have their own personalities.

Behold, Tapatio. This sassy bitch ran away for like six weeks, apparently being a chicken is hard and she needed both a lark and a vacation, so she literally flew the coup and went on a walk-about. That she even came back is so amusing and I will never be able to look at this picture and not think of her saying, with this expression, “What?! I do what I want!”
We went on a long weekend to Napa for a Burning Man camp “Friendsgiving” and it was good. Got to see some peeps we hadn’t in awhile, but also the sadness of the passing of time and the lessening of some bonds and shared experiences while other bonds strengthen or are established for the first time. Picture is near the farmers market near where we were staying in Napa.

On the 17th, I got to realize a dream of getting to see Suzy (Eddie) Izzard. Good goddess, what an epic queen! LEGEND! So much admiration!

Later in November, my heart got to grow at least THREE SIZES! Dan and I went to Kentucky to visit the kids. Looking back at it now, it was a wonderful visit! While we were there, their dogs had puppies, so we got to witness the birth of more Doodles being brought to the world! Pics of the fam:

Actually at the end of October, for the first time in my life, I did a professional photo shoot. It was a highlight of women over 50, and we were to give advice to our younger selves. It was a fundraising project for partner violence survivors and I was proud to participate. The photographer and make-up artist were amazing and I felt seen and like she helped me see the beauty in me. Here’s just one, but I will cherish these photos always:

Early-ish December is for a tradition in my town where you drive around and look at Holiday lights. It’s fun, it’s even more fun to do with friends.

For Christmas, we went to see Dan’s sister in Vegas. We got to exorcise some ghosts of Christmas past. Dan’s sister really gets over-the-top, I think she now has 9 Christmas trees, that’s a little much, even for me.

We haven’t done anything for “New Years” in years. It seems almost like a lie in this dystopian timeline.

This brings us to the end of 2024! Onward…..peace.

It's been a long time since I've written here....

No one really reads this one. I think that's a good thing. 

Today I am processing. Today, there is grief.

My country chose a racist, misogynist, megalomaniac to lead our country for the next four years.  

The last year has been really, really good for me. I have learned things I didn't know I needed to learn, and I had more peace in my life than I've ever had. If there has been a theme, I suppose it has to have been acceptance. Maybe looking for the lessons?

I think there will be another post for the rest of this year. Right now, here, I am processing, and looking for a way forward. I know what that way is. In uncertainty, we control the things we can. 

1. I will pay off as much of my debt as I can before this administration leaves
2. I will focus as many of my resources as possible on working on and completing the off-grid compound.
3. I will make comprehensive materials lists and anything that needs to be purchased from China, we will buy it now before any tariff's can come in to play.
4. I will work towards divesting myself from the dystopian nightmare

And yet, even my angst has so much privilege in it. This came across my feed this morning, and it's absolutely true:

From Nishant Shah:

“As somebody who has lived in, negotiated with, been persecuted by authoritarian governments, here are four things to set as a reminder against the onset of despair; remembering over and over again that despair is the privilege of those who can afford it.

1. An election is only one of the many ways by which care is organised and managed. If the electoral mandate goes against your own, it doesn't mean that there is no way forward. It merely means that a rights-based, process driven, formal approach has been blocked but there are always avenues through which things you care about can be mobilised.

2. You have not lost. Elections might appear as competitions but we need to change that narrative. Elections are about seeing what a majority (however flawed that concept might be) believes is the right way of governing collectively. If you do not align with this majority, it doesn't mean that you have lost. It means that you have work to do, to make sure that you work together for things that are important for you and for them. 

3. If you feel that the system has failed you, remember that systems have always failed people. If you feel it is happening to you for the first time, it means that you have had privilege which is for the first time being threatened. If you always felt that you were attacked by the system, know that people before you have lived through this, thrived, and found other ways of finding care. If all of us took the time to process our emotions towards caring for others, it will develop its own momentum. 

4. You are not alone. This is no unique. It is not exceptional. Your narrative of what your country or people believe in and stand for, might have been challenged but this has happened before. To many others. Reach out. Within and outside, for others who share your experience and your grief. We will hold you while you figure out the next steps, but you are not alone.

My heart is with the people who are going to be severely and disproportionately impacted by the new mandate of the US elections. My head is with the people who I trust and know will make the changes to ensure the protections of those who will be most affected. My head and heart are with everybody who realises what a global shift this is going to be, but how it also marks another milestone in the swing towards futures that we dread.”

I just keep thinking, with the above, of my black friends and them shaking their heads at us, or my Native friends who are like, "Yeah, Americans lie and they don't know how to keep their agreements. And yet, we hope for better...."

I don't know what we deserve anymore. Maybe we deserve nothing. Maybe we deserve what we get the next four years....

There is no Peace.

An almost year of peace, tranquility, change and discovery…

 Gosh, now, as the veil becomes thin and we come again to the introspection that comes with the season, reflection seems to be upon me.

I just got back from New Orleans, for the second time. Even that was different. There is a human who has become a dear friend who owns the house we stay in, in Uptown, New Orleans. We found out a couple months ago that a health problem she had been advocating for herself for resolution to for a couple of years turned out to be cancer. As I type this, she is undergoing her second chemo treatment. I wish I could know she will be okay, but my energy will be directed that way for her…as long as she needs it.

I read a really interesting book while in New Orleans. It was about a guy that is a white collar criminal and gets caught for bank fraud, they send him to a minimum security prison that also happens to house the last of those experiencing Hansen’s disease (leprosy, as it’s commonly called), living in the nations only leprosarium, near New Orleans. It was a super interesting book, and it sort of gives me hope that even shallow, narcissistic people can change. Maybe not complete narcissist, but definitely self-centered in the extreme before being sent to prison.

And can we just take a moment of silence to commemorate how general ableist and awful American society is in general and specifically how awful it was towards people with Hansen’s disease, like, forever, and makes one think, where does individual “freedom” or free will end when it comes to a “common good”? I don’t know the answer to that, but I think the way those poor people have been treated is abhorrent. I am glad I found this book and read it.

Things are also very different for my life. For almost a year, we have had a roommate that has worked out generally very well. It’s someone I knew when I managed the hostel….someone I had previously thought hated me. Her marriage ended and she needed a soft place to land. I had a soft place to land, and needed someone who knew how to pay rent every month without fail =) Is it absolutely perfect? NO, but we get by, we do okay, I think we communicate well, and I swear I learn stuff all the time now.

We have chickens now, thanks to her!

We got a couple of babies when they came available this last Spring, so, the first picture is Marshmallow, looking at the camera, and behind her, Bob, who thinks “fuck your gender binary, I can be an awesome Bob!”. The next picture is Chaos is the super fluffy one, and the other one is Tapatio (ta-pae-she-o)…who is the disappearing chicken, hippy free-spirit. I hope she lives long enough for us to clip her wings and put her in the chicken house! She keeps escaping to roam free on the other side of the fence. They are fascinating and highly entertaining little dinosaurs. I do love them.

The friend has become a better friend, a cherished friend, someone who helps me on the daily, understand myself and the world a bit better.

A little bit ago, my daughter realized she had been in a depressive episode for awhile, and decided to seek some help. She is now talking to me again. After what will then be over a year and a half, we are headed to Kentucky for Thanksgiving this year, to visit her and my son for the holiday. Recently, she began talking to me again, and I am not sure how to respond. I mean, like, she’s my child and there’s a part of me that will always love her unconditionally. I think the way to deal with it is don’t worry about trust or overthinking it, be thankful it’s happening, hope some good can come of it, and keep loving her. I decided awhile ago that facing HER anger with my own was not going to be productive. She is entitled to her feelings, I am entitled to mine, and that’s a fine place to proceed from.

To start the year last year, I got a new tattoo

Also in January, I saw “Six”, the Broadway play about Henry VIII’s wives. It was meaningful for me and made me realize that while so much of history women have seemed invisible, really, we’ve just had our own stories and told them in spaces that were safe. How about that.

I also went to San Francisco with one of my best friends to visit her auntie. It was a good visit:

I had never hiked the Sutro tunnels, it was a great walk, it was sad to see all the homeless encampments, and there was an incident where I both fell down (again) in front of super hot SF firemen, and was then picked up off the ground by them, much to my embarassment.

I think I am going to end this now, and recount the rest of the year by month. This was sort of rambling and all over the place, but there you have it.

~Peace

When Self-Care Is an Act of Defiance...

Jibaro Soy by Mark Rivera - coming soon to Fourth Street in Downtown Reno!

 I was afraid this was going to happen.

I've crafted this amazing life. I've been hustling so long to keep my life and the way I like to live viable and support my family, I am now committed to these things, these people. Now, they depend on me, and I've made a commitment to them that I will trade my labor and time to help and ensure that their businesses are successful. 

Sometimes, I don't want to. There, I said it.

That isn't really real. That's tired real. I feel so very honored that there are people who trust me enough to allow me to do this and work with them, so they can be successful. This is the way for the future, I am sure. I have noticed in recent years there are SO MANY people that have to be scrappy and work multiple jobs, just to survive. That is so, so wrong. I wonder if people who worked 30 years to get a pension and were able to survive back in the day know how fortunate they are? I know people now who say they will never be able to retire. Some work only for benefits/health insurance.

This weekend, I spent an amazing time, helping produce an event for some of the most amazing minds in my sphere, who create the event I have been a part of for more than 20 years, Burning Man. I am a part of those people. I used to be a part of those meetings, but I'm okay supporting them now in a way that seems meaningful. That way is managing volunteers and somewhat "hidden" aspects of the event, to allow the production staff to focus on....the production. This is what I WANTED to do....

That meant a full week of work last week, taking the last two days off of work as annual leave for the day job, but working no less hard, and physically harder than I do most days in support of this event. I knew it would be rough because by Sunday, I was TIRED. Those tend to be long days...starting somewhere between 5-5:30am and not ending until after 8 or 9pm and if I was a bigger party girl, I'm sure I could have found things to do far into the night, but that life no longer really calls to me. 

Monday morning dawned and I knew I was exhausted. I didn't exercise because I literally woke up tired. LOL. In that soul-weary way that you do when you've worked hard, and also feel good about things. Then, all the things I'd been putting off came home to roost. There are some work things I'd been procrastinating on...mostly writing my own annual review, which I've been salty about all year because of some things that happened near the end of the year that made me feel like larger powers don't know what my department is, they don't know what we do, and they have little respect for us...until something happens and we can't work well or efficiently and then there is hell to pay. F that, and yet....four more years until retirement.

This post is all over the place. I haven't posted in awhile and I need to maintain the self-care and clarity of thought that comes from committing my thoughts on to "paper", be that virtual or actual, because it allows the energy out, and allows me to let go of it, to move on, to process in a way that I can't do while it's all still just in my brain, ruminating around up in there.  

Anyway, my heart is full...the group of volunteers who stepped up to help me with this thing kicked so much major ass, they were super impressive. They showed up, on time, and gave of themselves because it's their community too.

Yesterday afternoon, so many things blew up! I had made a commitment in the morning to attend a dance class that I love to attend, but I was also tired tired tired. A friend who's business I am helping in addition to an event production company I help both had crises at the end of the day. Thank you, universe, for putting those things in front of me, with "THIS HAS TO BE DONE NOW", because as with many things in life, sometimes the biggest part of success is showing up and being present. By the time I was driving to get my meds last night after 6pm, I exhaled and thought, "Thank you, Universe. For putting these things in front of me and forcing me not to go to dance class today. You knew I was too tired. You had my back..."

Now, future endeavors dictate that I figure out how to get there without the Universe's help and say "thanks, friend...I would love to go to dance class, but I need some rest. I'd LOVE to do all the things, but I am one human and one body, and today, this body needs rest."

I got up this morning feeling like recovery is happening. I worked out, I had coffee. I breathed deeply and welcomed the day. 

Peace.

Grief is a fickle mistress...

Today feels like a big 'ole ball of emotional train wreck.

Good news (there is almost always good news haha) - Two snow days and a looming 3 day weekend for MLK day, and it feels like mini-vacation with five days off! Woot!

I just sent Dan off for 10 days in Florida to visit his friend Pam, have a bit of vacation, and get paperwork hopefully completed for a Jeep we bought from her a couple of years ago. In other Dan news, he FINALLY saw a doctor who SAW who he is and received an upgrade to his disability rating. January saw the start of that new retirement check and it was a much needed relief for me. 

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to a wood chipper destroy a tree in our next door neighbors yard. Dan had mentioned to me recently that the tree was dying and needed to be removed. We had talked about...the original owner of that home, Mrs. Priest, I am sure she's gone now, but I'm sure she's twisting in her grave. She kept such a beautiful yard! They were a very traditional family, perhaps the only I remember growing up, where Mr. Priest went to work every day and Mrs. Priest tended the home and garden. She always had immaculate flower beds, neatly trimmed and seasonally appropriate. kept the edging in her flower beds trimmed with the utmost care, and mowed her lawn every week with a push hand mower. They were Renaissance people. She never drove, and she always wore a dress, never pants. At least three times a week, she would walk to church at St. Alberts, the Catholic church a couple of blocks from our street. 

I KNOW, with the logical part of my brain that everything has a life, a life-cycle even, and likewise, that everything dies. However, what happened today feels like another thing that is a part of my history that will just be gone. When I looked outside and saw them chopping up that tree, I just started crying. 

In many way, I feel like I am literally cleaning out my life, my house, my existence. In some ways, as I get older, this is inevitable. I keep telling my son that I don't want to leave a mess for him. Part of this, I think, is natural, as we get older. I am in my mid-50's. I try to live healthy, and hopefully I have many more years ahead of me, but the bottom line is, if I live as long as my mom, I have 22 year left. The clock is ticking and I have so much living still to do! There is lots and lots and lots of grief, feeling, and loss to unpack and process!

I just read something that resonated deeply with me. "I am in a humbling process. The root of the word is 'humus' -- the rich material of leaves and exoskeletons and waste all lovingly broken down by mycelial and microbial action into the sweet, fertile darkness of soil (mis-typed soul...coincidence?) that births life on this planet. 

I am welcoming the humbling process as I bathe my true self in love and give myself the time and space I need to truly thrive in deeper ways." FG

That's all, today.

Peace.

 

As 2024 Begins....

 Like, I was ready to see it go, but man, 2023 was a good year for me. A year of realizations. 

There is so much hope! 

I really hadn't realized how sick I had allowed myself to get or be. I think in some ways, we need to be obligated or should seriously take stock of ourselves like, I don't know. Yearly? Every five years? Realizing how much of myself I had subjugated? Lost? Forgot to realize or analyze if something is working for your highest good?

I hadn't realized how MUCH of myself I had hidden, made smaller, to make other people happy. How much I had "let things go" to keep a sense of peace that didn't exist anyway. Realizing the ways in which I was being horribly codependent because, once again, I wanted someone I loved to be happy. 

In essence, seriously, fuck all that shit, man. 

In the end, it doesn't matter when it happened, how I noticed, or how long it took. What matters is that now, I am the FUCK AWAKE, I am all about it, and I am now living MY life, for ME!

Today, I am finishing a rad new tattoo I am working on. Crow has been in my life for awhile, and has been calling me....cawwwwwing at me to wake the fuck up!

Thank you, Crow. Thank you, to that therapist I went to a couple times on my employee assistance program, who when I told her part of my story, she looked at me agog and was like "Grrrl, you got some stuff to work on." I think that was my first clue. I mean, holy fucking shit, I thought it was all my fault! I must be a terrible person because my child thinks I am. What did I do? I was firmly ALSO in victim mode and stuck high up in that drama triangle. 

At this moment, I have a firm sense that everything in my past has led me to this place. Has led me to the part where I am ready to claim my life for ME and claim all the happiness I can suck out of the time I have left. 

This year, I am making a commitment to getting to know myself better this year. I am paying more attention to astrology and planetary alignment, and also tarot cards, divination and having a stronger sense of spirituality. I ordered some shelves to be able to create an altar in the main room of my house. I purged an old curio cabinet that came from a ranger friend who passed away. It was a good piece, but had gotten broken and was just holding stuff with a bunch of emotional baggage. Now, it's gone!

My yearly horoscope themes this year are HEALING (first quarter), Focus (second quarter), Connection (third quarter) and Courage (fourth quarter). We will see how these continue to play out. 

Goals for this year include:

• CONTINUE THE PURGE! 
• Bring the whirlwind of the upstairs space to the downstairs space. Purge clothes and personal belongings. The goal here is to LIVE TINY. Get ready for the bus. Only keep those things that continue to serve us.
• Finish cleaning out the garage
• Purge the attic and get anything out of there that no longer serves us. Can we turn this in to living space?
• Continue with the process for the back yard.
• Be able to use the outside/porch space as additional living space
• Journal a minimum of once a month, with a goal of once a week. Have both paper and online journals in a few different places =)
• Make a commitment to quarterly revisit where I am and if anything needs to change. 

And, here's me....exhausted, after having made 8 dozen cookies for my long-time cookie exchange. Like so much of life, once the thing is done, it's awesome and you're glad you did it, but slogging through to get there feels Herculian, until it's done =) 

Peace.