A birthday card with $2 bills...I know the signature well, a thank you note from the same person, tho she saw me at work almost daily. And Stacey's letter to the tooth fairy, precious and saved ... Son, Bret, wrote he needed to borrow $10 and "would never ask to borrow money again" ...and he must have just been in junior high. More precious, his note asking me to get him a certain cliff note book by "Bill Shakespeare".
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LETTERS
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Letter writing is becoming
a lost art..
I have letters my mother saved
from when she was a young woman…
even a post card,
from an unknown to me,
suitor.
Letters of condolence when
my younger sister died
when I was just three
making her month long
life real to me
and wondering
“what if”
she’d lived.
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It’s a treasure
to find long forgotten letters,
the cursive writing of my father
and mother…
even grandparents,
and other family members;
seeing my own printing
when first learning in
school,
and those of my children,
and grandchildren,
….scarce now
that the computer,
emails,
skype
and texting
have taken over.
I’ve heard that some schools
even eliminated cursive classes
because it is now not needed…
handwriting,
letters
lost art.
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It took me a while to form a definitive answer to this…
As a teenager, I would have been mortified and left home…I would not have been welcome
due to disgracing the family…that was plainly spoken as a given and a terrifying thought.
I would look at other families, that got over the shock, made some plans together, but the girl
that was pregnant was still loved and accepted as a member of the family.
‘
When I was in nursing school, there was a lady patient in the psych hospital that totally lost all reality when she became pregnant and had an abortion…it was so sad. She could not accept the pregnancy happened, nor that she had an abortion. That memory of caring for her has stayed with me all these years.
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When I was of child bearing age, I new that I would not have an abortion…I felt that I never could get over it if I did. But my thoughts were still base on feelings, not facts as I understood them.
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As the years went on, first I decided that there were not illegitimate children, if anyone would be illegitimate, it would be the parents. The stigma of being called illegitimate seemed wrong and hateful and harming to a child, who wouldn’t understand what the meaning was of the word, just that it reflected bad on them, even tho all they did was be born.
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There came a time, when I believed that medically and spiritually, when a child is conceived it is a living spirit. And as years go on, earlier and earlier the new monitors show heart beats, body language, and signs that this is a living spirit…even if it is not viable outside the mother’s body.
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Therefore, I believe that if I were of child bearing age, I would at the least carry the baby to term. The later decision that is more heart wrenching is whether to give the baby to another woman who has the means to care for it financially…or struggle to keep the baby and raise it myself.
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The best thing I have going for me is old age and experience.
My life experience has helped me form my views and opinons with fact and not guessing. This 30 days has revealed a couple of things that I need to be able to express more fully in words and not just be in my mind.
I learned that it is an easier to life a life that is based on my values and not what someone else tells me they should be. There will always be ethical questions to ponder and work thru, but the best thing going for me is that I have a basis in Theological Reflection, learned in an EFM (Education for Ministry) course to help me determine my values and to live by them.
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Portrait group...summertime we get the kids on vacation...often many years in a row and we get to see them grow up into adulthood.
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February 2011 portrait of one of the writer's group...Richard...it was in an exhibit at the library in Blue Hill, ME. Picked it up today to deliver it to him. Older people, people with life's living worn into their features are usually easier to paint than young people with their smooth skin and not a wrinkle or crease to be found ! .
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The process:
Portrait group/summer group/good model
Exhibit paintings/hospital up/library down
Weather/yes/sun/clouds/rain/breezy
garden/grew/leaps/bounds/rain/welcome
six green beans/tasty/tomatoes starting
cukes/zukes/tomatoes/beans/soon
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Old time summer/sunny warm joyful
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Writers lunch at Chester Pike's in Sullivan... missed Richard on the left, Jane, in center, George, Jack
After the writers lunch at Chester Pikes, headed to Jane's to solve a wasp problem and take a photo of her out house...I'm taking photos, doing paintings of things that are disappearing...and good ole out houses are a dying breed to make room for porta potties.
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The process:
Writers lunch/Chester Pike’s/good food
good company/good conversation/miss others
local celebs/local folks/summer folks
Jane/wasps/needed help/G. “volunteered”
G. willing/I bought lunch/solution
Jane’s/secluded/Lamoine/heavenly/beautiful cottage
weather cooler/80’s/nighttime comfy/restful
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Six Word Journal
summer bliss/friends/food/weather perfect
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siggiofmaine 