Spirit serendipity

As I have been chronicling, I am on a clearing out process in my home. Clothes, clutter, past use dates on foods, medicines, you name it. Big time on that list is going through storage in my garage, much of which involves diving into 13 year old boxes of things from my mothers home after she passed. Things we did not know what do with when we closed her home. It has been an emotional undertaking. Poignant, sad, funny and endearing. Much of the items are mundane things like office and cleaning supplies. I am trying to repurpose as much as I can and want to. I am delighted with now having  jumbo colored paper clips to use at my desk and a nicer bottle opener than my old one. Little things that remind me of her in my office and kitchen. Little treasures. 

This week a miraculous thing happened. A reminder that spirit exists in mysterious forms and interact with us here in mortal bodies. Some call it coincidence, serendipity, others call it a message from beyond. Here is the occurrence.  I have a wood piece of furniture that lost it's wheels and I now need to just remove the remaining ones and let it rest on floor flat. I was discussing this with a friend and he suggested I get furniture pads to put under the corners so that I would be able to slide it around easier when I need to move it and it would not scratch my floor. What an idea! I set out to buy them and put them on my shopping list. Right after this phone call, I went to my garage to pull another bag/box of things to go through. I stood in front of shelves full of boxes and garbage bags closed and full of miscellaneous stuff. I randomly chose a not heavy plastic bag and brought it inside. My process is to sit at my table, listen to a podcast or book and slowly, methodically go through the stuff making piles of trash, donation, keep and sort for other family members or myself. 

I peered into a dirty bag of loose stuff. Reaching into the bag I pulled the first thing my hand touched. It was a gallon size ziploc bag filled with dirty stuff. As I opened it and laid the items out I realized that my mom had kept lots of furniture floor protectors. The ones you put under heavy furniture so they do not make permanent dents in your carpet or scratch your floor. WTF?! The FIRST item I pulled out was an unopened package of floor protectors to stick to bottom of heavy furniture to protect hard floors! Whoa.

This was less than 3-4 minuets after my call and decision to buy them for my own furniture situation. And I swear to you, I realized that my mom's spirit was saying "M'ija, do not buy them , I have them!" She guided my hand to select the exact bag amid all the other boxes and stuff and guided my hand to pull the very item first.  Too much to be be mere coincidence. My mouth dropped open. Ok, mommy. I got it. Thank you. 

I am comforted and happy to realize she is still around in some unfathomable form, occasionally dropping into my life. Gracias mamita. I will not buy new ones, thanks for saving me $ and giving me yours. After death, as in life, she is still helping  me in small thoughtful ways.

Collage series Everglades Rains

Living in South Florida,I am thrilled and sobered by the intense tropical storms we get. Under the governance of climate denier, Ron DeSantis, communities in Florida are more vulnerable to severe weather events. I created three collage works as a set to highlight the drama of our rainstorms. Ideally, they are to be displayed as a set; but they each hold up as a solo collage.  The first of the series represents the pre rain period.

If you like these collages, you can purchase them on my Etsy shop.

                              

Buh bye diets

I have started clearing space in my kitchen. I have been going through my kitchen wares and donating things to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 

In this process, I came face to face with many unused, dusty weight loss/controlling  cookbooks, scales and other dieting accoutrements. Several large cook books and points counters from Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, anti-inflammatory diets, raw food processing, etc. I am happy to be at a point in my life that I just smiled at these past vain efforts and tossed many and donated others. In general, I do not keep books these days; everything is online. If I want cooking ideas, Pinterest is my go-to. But I am not into "dieting" anymore. Any "diet" I follow these days are for health related reasons as I have GI issues. Liberating.

Now I do admit that I am overweight, and yes I would like a trimmer body. But I am not going to hate my body and "diet" for an artificial standard that is not even practical or feasible for a 61 year old woman with RA. I like curves. I mainly mourn the loss of my muscle tone. So I aim to eat and move in ways that make me feel better in my body. That is it.

BUT, I do try to avoid excessive exposure to fat phobic media and our cultural obsession with thinness and artificial beauty standards. That is so toxic, especially for women. One thing I am more tuned into and irritated by is people around me who perpetuate body shaming, whether it is towards others or themselves. It can range from overt fat phobic remarks to subtler perpetuations of our societal body shaming. One form this takes is when people who are not fat, comment about their bodies in a shaming way as if they are fat. Or act in dieting ways. I know that people raised in this culture are brainwashed into being critical of their bodies and never feel good enough. And I have compassion for us all in that regard. But I bristle when observing and have to hear non-fat people go on about themselves in a disparaging way as if they were fat. Wrong in so many ways. And annoying for actual fat people, lol. 

In the past I have let my irritation shape my responses and I usually point out that they are not fat. What are they talking about? Or challenge why they eat low fat, low calorie diets when they are not needing to diet. Yes, most respond with it being a health concern. Hmmm. OK. But we all know that that is the escape clause all body shammers use. And even healthy approaches can be taken to rigid extremes in my opinion.

I am now trying to mind my own business and refrain from unsolicited comments. I am not helping them. And I do not think I am making any dent in their body dysmorphia. So I am now just trying to love them as they are and not contribute to any body shaming attitudes. But it is a thin line between accepting them as they are and not wanting to be part of body controlling  energy. I have not figured out where and how to draw that boundary.  Feedback welcome!