Go Ask Patti

Know this, Patti Smith, is not all yall's , cup of tea!
In fact she can not be confined to a cuppa.
This child of the universe, has led 10 lives, in this earthly one, and she is not done.
Singer, songwriter, poet, author, artist, and soul searching person. She has fascinated me, for decades.
I saw her sing, only once, and I do not even like her singing. However she had me in her spell, I hung on each word, and scream, uttered from that body and mouth.
Her appearance is minimal to a fault, she treads lightly.
I have read all of her books, and love her writing, she is just plain interesting, period.
This past Sunday there was a book review, from The Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith, in the paper.
I thought, wonder what they will say. I can not find the right words to describe anything about this 70 year old woman of the world. She says, Life is about perspective, even the most mundane circumstances.
Personal journeys, we all have a story to tell. Longing, Love, Grief, cautious Hope.( by Bryan Reesman's article) We have to surrender to her style and be inspired. ( wonderful review Mr. Reesman, I borrowed some of your words)

She was best friends and lover with Robert Mapplethorpe, for many, many years. Friends until his death. She was best friends and maybe lover with Sam Shepard, and with him when he lost his life to ALS.Ms. Smith is in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Many book awards have come her way, in countries all over the world. She fascinates me, and her new book, continued us on a journey together in reading.
Here below are some of the highlighted pages from me.
         1. You could count on him for anything. Anything except staying alive.
         2.Thirst will cease to be thirst and wounds will cease to be wounds.
         3.nobody knew the stories left undone
         4. Twenty-four percent of the population had elected the worst of ourselves to represent the other
         5.post election paralysis claiming us all
         6. I sat in the center of my own disorder. ( this is in reference to Polaroid photos)
         7.The Game pf Havoc, an uppercase game with a lowercase deity
         8.Do not act like you have ten thousand years to live
         9. Sliding the box back into its place I feel strangely off-center, a moment of sorrow's vertigo
(Sorrow's Vertigo, lord have mercy, powerful)
         10. Not just shards of love, as Sandy would say, but the whole goblet
          11. dreading the deceptively antiseptic corridors and invisible bacterial zones, that trigger an instinct for self-survival and the overriding desire to flee!!( long sentence Patti, but your description of a hospital, is spot on)
  Thank you for telling your story in so many ways, and for being born in my time.
  I end October with many thoughts, about how fast the days are, and how important it is to put pen to paper.
  Your words, your story, you never know who you will touch, teach, guide, or discourage.
  Elijah Cummings, told his children and friends, " I won't let you fall."
  How wonderful to hear.
  Clocks, turn back on Saturday or Sunday AM.
  I will have so much work to do, to take me out of this darkness and cold weather.
  Don't worry, I will only share my good thoughts with you. ( You know that is not true, I will bitch and moan, all winter. Know that is comes with love from me to you!!)( oh heck, I don't know if that is totally true either, just surrender to my journey, Patti style.)

The Idea of Place

My husband knows I like to read his Princeton Alumni Magazine, the articles are good and I like the listing of houses/apartments to rent all over the world. I have rented many a place from this list.
 Often he passes it to me, before he reads it, IF he reads it.
Wonderful article about Toni Morrison Remembered. She taught at Princeton since 1989, and this article talks about a Keynote address that she gave, October 25, 1996, for Princeton's 250th anniversary convocation.
    I will not type the entire address, just some things that jumped off the page to me.
She is talking about, the place, simple love of a place, the spirit of a place. She quotes Wordsworth's eloquent use of conceit that certain sites, natural sites, held genni which"spoke" to the contemplative passerby.
Ms Toni also quoted Geoffrey Hartmann calling, "continuum of wisdom of the dead and the energy of the living." In other words, the spirit of the place is animated by a reverence for the past that is forever mitigated by the present. ( Big words, big thoughts)
  Reading this caused me to think about places I have been, and will go. Houses that hold memories, yet have long been gone from our lives. Things, stuff, neighborhoods, halls, schools, parks, museums, churches, and Anne Franks House!!!!(where I fell out) Princeton is dear to me, because that is where I fell in love with my husband and Princeton.
  Right now we are trying to get my mother, Mary, to come live with us in Atlanta. She doesn't want to leave her belongings or her home, her city, her memories.
I tell her, memories you carry with you, and if needed pack up some stuff, and bring it with you. Whatever would make the move a little easier, her collection of ear bobs, stools, photos galore.
She enjoys being here, we enjoy having her, it is just so hard to let go of things.
This story about Ms. Morrison's speech, reminded me, that the spirit of a place that holds your heart travels with you, past, present and future.
 I just finished a book, called Ladysitting, My Year with NaNa at the End of Her Century by Lorene Cary ( I think that is the author?? I need my magnifying glass but its in the next room!!) ( close enough)  I love the term Ladysitting, and I loved this book.
We have to make space for people, breathe in the air, and make space. Grief needs more life and air to take in , we have permission to let people and things go. This Nana in the book, told her family that they took such good care of her, it was hard to die, when you feel so much love. ( I think we did that with daddy) Rejoice, is a word, often repeated in this book, and I love it.( I just love random words)
 It was a delicacy of resentment ( I love that sentence, amazing use of words) ( even out of context)
" Yes God is real," Mahalia sings so!!! ( amen!)
  Delight and Time, the wide-armed, fragrant mimosa to climb in summer, the fireplace to stoke in winter. ( its about choices, all day long!!)
 Princeton, Toni, NaNa, Ladysitting, all intertwined.
Patti Smiths new book, I will have to take an entire blog to give it my all. I hope you, whomever you are have read her books. Next time.
My place, right now, is typing this blog, listening to my husband shred something behind me, and being so thankful that his hip surgery complete and good. The day is gray, birds are singing, dog snoring, kids and grandkids, mom and Benjie, all good. Friends near and far, have a place in my heart, and grief stays tucked in, on most days. It too has a place.
 The Idea of Place, you take it with you.

I Did It

  Thank You Wyatt Heyward Baron for giving me the title to my blog, and so much to write about.
 
Even when a toddler is jumping from the top of a slide, to halfway across the room, to me laying in a hammock, he is proud, " I DID IT"
I took a breath, and said " Well, yes you did angel, but remember I told you not to." He ran to do it again. You try and keep them safe, and understand that they did jump really far, while keeping their teeth!!
 I moved the slide closer to me, so his jump was a little safer!! That way he keeps his, I did it spirit!!
 Uma rules sure are a lot different then Mama rules, of long ago.
 Later while tucking the morsel, in for a nap, apparently I was not doing the covers right. Wyatt may have screamed, "Dadtee" several times, when it clicked ( Uma can be slow) "Oh you want your daddy to cover you? Well angel, we will have to try, show me where the covers go, and explain to me, why you want the dogs blanket?" He pointed to his feet, so we tucked, and moved the pillows around, and I said, " How about me singing to you?" and he said, "OK" Then I asked, if he wanted me to sing Christmas Carols? and the angel child, said "OK" So we started with Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and he was out . I counted his fingers, and eyelashes, watched him for, more then a minute!! sniffed the dog blanket, to see how filthy it was, and wondered why he took it. Dog smell, is not all that bad!! Uma rules are, Out of the Box, three states over!!
 We go down to paint, after his nap, and yes the child has his own paper, easel and paints!! But he wants my paints, my good paints and pastels. Finally after we tried all of his chalk and paints, I agreed with him, mine were  better. So we start squeezing tubes, in a palette, also using a good sable brush!! He has a good eye, and will paint for a long time. He paints me, the floor a little, but tries to stay on his paper. He tells me, when he thinks he needs more water, and knows how to wet his brush. Cleanup is in the bathroom sink, feet and hands in, ( he is sitting on the sink, helping) He washes out his brush, and rinses his dirty water out, then tells me, where all the paint is all over the sink, so I can do that cleaning. Children are a sponge, they remember everything, you just have to teach them. I enjoy having a minute to watch him. Time for him to go home, and he is ready. Misses his mommie and dadtee, says his goodbyes, kisses and bolts. He loves his home, dog, and parents, and its cute to see. Hart, my son, his dadtee, takes home one of Wyatts masterpieces, its really good. The kid has a good stroke, eye for color, and expensive taste in paints!! and an Uma who is at peace with a mess!!
You Did It kid, enjoy every second, and then some.