I want to applaud the genius who put a coffee shop right next door to the car mechanic. KU-DOS! Also, coffee shop plays the best music. A moment ago, it was Billie Holiday. Right now it's Pink Floyd. And the barista looks like the 23 year old version of a great friend of mine.
I really hoped to write my entire show before this Friday, but it's looking rather grim on that front, I'm afraid. It is exciting that I've got this little creativity buzz on. I'm going with it.
We had a wonderfully low-key Christmas. We had an evening celebration at home with Grandma Doris and Uncle Mike and a simple feast, then we drove to Houston to celebrate with the extended fam (my side) at my Aunt Marie's house. Bodhi really hit it off and played well with his cousin Richie, who is just about two years older than Bodhi. They are both very gentle-spirited boys. But boys nonetheless. They wrestled, played with trucks and toys, and went on a rowdy cold outside walk with us.
It's so weird to think of celebrating Christmas, because we don't go to church, and I don't think Bodhi knows who Jesus was. He definitely knows Buddha, and Krishna, and Santa Claus; in fact, we got treated to a home visit from Santa at our friend's house just before Christmas. Bodhi was hilarious with Santa. He refused to sit on his lap (good going! I don't even need to teach him Stranger Danger, he already knows!) but was fine with sitting *next* to him. And when Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas, Bodhi had a list at the ready in his front pocket. He is going through a SPACE and ALIEN phase. And DRAGONS. Big time. So he got lots of space-related and dragon-themed booty from Santa. It was very cute.
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| Dragon Costume, Spaceships |
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| Sisters! |
Our drive to Aunt Marie's was uneventful. Fun. Repeated listening to "The Jungle Book," Bodhi's favorite. Both there and back. By the time we were on our way home, Bodhi was READY to go HOME. We stopped at Richmond State School, which is now called Richmond Supported Living Facility, where my younger sister Shanna lives. She is a sweetheart, though very profoundly brain-damaged. She has lived in this place since she was nine years old. We brought her gifts, and my mom and grandmother met us there. We had a little snack and hung for a couple of hours. My preference is to bring her home for Christmas, but it's not always possible. I love my sister so much. It is really hard to see what terrible physical shape she is in, but I'm so overwhelmed as it is I can't figure out exactly how to help her just yet. We tell ourselves she is happy, and safe, and content, and she seems to be, but I would love to have her living closer to us so we can visit her more often. Is it crazy to want that? I do think it's best for everyone if she is not living with us, but if push came to shove I think I could live with that. Perhaps having a toddler has made me think I am invincible.
And maybe I am.
Or maybe I'm just barely making it as it is.
I did the Maya Abdominal Massage self-care workshop training last weekend, and it was life-changing. Where to begin to tell you. How about that it rocked my world? The techniques are simple, but deep. It is a Mayan tradition passed down from centuries of Mayan healing and medicine. It has been passed down with blessings and with great reverence. The founder of this technique, Rosita Arvigo, has done tremendous work to preserve and save the rainforest in Belize, the site of countless herbal remedies that are being lost as they cut down the vast, dense acreage of the forests. I can't quite recall the statistic, but in a film we saw about her work, they said it was something like less than one percent of ALL the plants the pharmaceutical industry is researching are being used to create all of the known plant-derived pharmaceuticals. GULP!
I guess I'm just reinvigorated to live from my liberal radical environmentalist heart.
So anyway.
The workshop. We learned a self-care belly massage, and great details about the male and female reproductive systems, and the spiritual component of the healing, and the herbal component, all the benefits, contraindications, and anecdote after anecdote about Mayan healing. I'm a huge fan of solving systemic issues by mechanical means; that is, hormonal or digestive issues getting resolved by massage and bodywork with perhaps some support from herbs. Food and nutrition are key, just as they are in Ayurveda. I think if I didn't drink so damn much coffee I'd be a test tube. I'm that clean. Oh, except for french fries and cheese. And the occasional gluten free cookie.
So I've been doing my daily belly massage and well, it made for a very sweet cycle. I was running late on Shark Week, which was BUMMING ME OUT, and she came a mere three days late. Yay! I just want to continue to ovulate and bleed for another five years, is that so much to ask?
My gyno put me on estrogen/estrodiol for a week. I have to admit it seemed to help with my HYPERIRRITABILITY, but I'm considering weaning off everything except the massage and some rainforest remedies. I dunno, it seems worth a try.
I remember getting angry whenever I googled "first time mom over forty" and I got so many hits on "hot flashes and chasing your toddler, etc" I just thought: "That will NOT be me!" So here I am. Hot flashing, night sweating, hair trigger rage, and wrestling my boy. It is a sublimely strange combination. I do envy the younger moms, you know, the 38-year olds, who are not also dealing with the hormonal Grand Canyon. As in, deep chasms of rage/bliss/depression/helplessness/confidence. It's Space Mountain, baby, rolling up and down the hills in the dark.
Okay, there's more, but I have to put some energy toward getting my resume done and writing my show, This Body of Words, Spoken: A Post Partum, Pre Menopausal Quasi Retrospective.
Details HERE:
FRONTERAFEST!
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26th @ Hyde Park Theatre.
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