Laura-Marie lately

Hello, reader.  How are you doing?  Thought you might enjoy learning about Laura-Marie lately.  Let me tell you what I’m up to.

home

Ming and I are safely housed.  We live in a new housing co-op since late January that’s much larger than our previous.  We have our own private space that looks like a small apartment.  There are 70 units here– around 90 people including some children.

Ming is involved–he was elected to the board and helps in many areas.  I am much less involved.  I serve on the Disability Justice team, but otherwise I am mostly hiding out.  In a way, I wish I could be more involved.

But I’m drained still from the three previous communities that Ming and I lived in.  I need quiet, downtime, privacy, and rest.  We already knew I’m an outlier introvert–we knew I’m crazy.

Then we learned I have the autism, as well as chronic pain.  Now I feel like I’ve come full circle to well, maybe I’m just a hermit.  My mom called me that when I was a kid and teenager; I spent most of my time alone in my room.  I didn’t want to hear their TV or feel the friction of social interaction.

I wanted to read books, listen to music, think, pray, and rest after long days at school.  There was a lot I needed to do, and privacy was important.  Other people make a lot of noise.

O but this post is supposed to be about Laura-Marie lately.  I’ve slipped into the past again.

books

I am reading these books.

• Creating a Life Together by Diane Leafe Christian
• The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna abridged
• A Life of Swami Vivekananda

I’ve been reading Creating a Life Together for about a year.  I have an online copy which a computer reads aloud to me.  I’m about halfway through.  I like to listen to this book while I make art.

Then I’m reading the two religious books because my swami said he might initiate me if I get through them.  I first asked him 20 years ago to initiate me.  Then I asked again last year, and he gave me a shorter list of books.

He’s getting old.  So I’m reading these books hoping to finish them before he dies.  We’ll see.  No pressure!

movies

A few months ago I saw the new Wonka movie in the theater.  I loved it!  It was charming and worth the stress.  (I loved the original Gene Wilder movie as a child.)

We brought my headphones to the theater so I could protect my senses by dampening the noise of the adverts.  I really like the beautiful candy factory idea, and the Wonka character was charming.  I like the mom quest storyline.

Before that I saw the new Miyazaki film The Boy and the Heron.  I sort of liked it and sort of didn’t.  I didn’t like how fatness was handled in the movie and maybe some gender.  But I liked the mythological and dreamy feel.  That one had a quest for lost mother storyline too.

youtube

I like to listen to an episode of Easy Spanish per day.  Also I like to hear a podcast called Mexico Unexplained which is about Mexico’s history.

Recently I heard this episode about a ghost town Misnebalam; it was thought-provoking and creepy.

I skip the first minute of every episode to miss the repeated intro, which annoys me.

Some music I like to hear lately is A Tribe Called Red / Halluci Nation.

I hear some Filipino rappers like Ruby Ibarra and Bambu.  I hear Beautiful Chorus, Kursa, Sufjan Stevens.

movement

I like to dance, walk with Ming at a park, do fat yoga, and ride trike.  Now that it’s not raining almost every day, it’s good to ride trike again.

My pain was really bad for a couple months.  I was afraid it was the new normal.  Wow, it was just a long flare.

art

I’m happy to let myself make the art I need to make.  This week I created sad relationship memes as digital art.

This dragon skeleton drawing kind of bothered me.  I repurposed thick yellow paper, which is fun for me.  Not sure why I wanted to depict a dragon skeleton.  I think it came from my mind more than from the movement of God within me.

Or maybe God just moved in a different way.  I finished that purple elephant garland, and I’m in the middle of two other garlands.

I’m writing blog posts and emails.  There’s a zine I want to make about power in community.  I asked Ming to do the art, but he hasn’t yet.  Maybe I’ll do it myself.  I think it’s going to be called Tools for Change.

There’s another zine I’ve been wanting to make for more than a year, about ethnicity and gender and human nature.  It will be mostly art that I don’t feel skilled enough to make.  But maybe I’ll try anyway.  The failure might be beautiful in its own way.

more

There’s so much more to the life of Laura-Marie lately than what I’ve said here.  But maybe these glimpses give you an idea.

I’m feeling a bigger range of feelings than before, with deep sads.  Please keep me and Ming in your prayers as I get grounded, and as Ming continues to heal from pneumonia.