Hello Relatives, Friends, Students, Teachers (since I am learning much from your messages):
The message below, from a friend in Spain, gave me the hook to update you from our little hideaway in Toluca Lake, an enclave of homes each one as unique as a thumbprint, covered with bougainvillea and magnolias.
When I was a young girl, someone gave me Japanese paper flowers, non-descript little bits of folded paper; dropped into a glass of water they miraculously came alive and unfolded into flowery shapes—beauty growing from seemingly nothing.
Poems, too, are paper flowers, making invisible thoughts and secret images flower on paper into words. --Christiane Ledakis
Yes! Yes! It is why poems speak to me and for me, and why I am drawn to sharing those that are relevant.
The last few days were drama-filled (Stephanie described what happened in the previous post). I am happy to report that the procedure I underwent fixed the problem, and I feel human again and yesterday continued with round two of chemo. While the drip-drip-drip went on for hours at the doctor's office, I was finally able to work again, and I had my first real meal of chile rellenos last night. I feel (relatively) fabulous, so much so I'm writing this at 5 a.m., unable to sleep from the excitement of seeing my husband, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren so happy.
Although unwished for, there is much to be learned from this harrowing experience--and one of them is the power of LOVE.
My comment on Suzanne's latest blog (click here) in which she used the metaphor of a bowling ball cracked open only to reveal love at the center, I describe our discovery of a rock-strewn beach famous for its huge balls, some of which have broken open--to reveal the most exquisite crystal patterns. Alone on the beach because of rain and fog, we photographed for two hours, alone as tour bus after tour bus stopped and quickly drove away. Here are a couple of photographs to illustrate Suzanne's metaphor:
And here's one of my favorite poems:
Late Fragment
--Raymond Carver
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
With love and thanks,
Gabriele
When I saw these rocks on the beach broken open to reveal their gorgeous patchwork pattern, I was reminded of the story that Joseph Campbell tells in his book "The Power of Myth."
ReplyDeleteHe's talking to Bill Moyers about how, in our journey through life, our ultimate task is to slay the dragon within--to "break him up," permitting us to "expand to a larger field of relationships."
Campbell relates the story of Jung's patient, a woman "who came to him because she felt herself to be alone in the world, on the rocks, and when she drew a picture for him of how she felt, there she was on the shore of a dismal sea, caught in rocks from the waist down. The wind was blowing, and her hair was blowing, and all the gold, all the joy of life, was locked away from her in the rocks.
"The next picture that she drew, however, followed something that he said to her. A flash of lightning strikes the rocks, and a golden disk is being lifted out. There is no more gold locked within the rocks. There are golden patches now on the surface.
"In the course of the conferences that followed, these patches of gold were identified. They were her friends. She wasn't alone. She had locked herself in her own little room and life, yet she had friends. Her recognition of these followed only after the killing of her dragon."
Thank you, Gabriele, for showing us the beauty that is locked within the rocks, real or symbolic, in this world. As always, you're our guide to deeper truths and greater beauty.
And I love that you're in Toluca Lake! Gary and I grew up in Studio City, just next door, and we set up many a lemonade stand during hot August afternoons.
Love as always,
Maureen