2021

Well, we made it to December. As we close out 2020, I imagine sliding down a black diamond slope on a rubber innertube, waiting for the inevitable crash at the end. I feel like Miss Lucinda Yasmin, here, a bit crazy-eyed and overdressed for the occasion.

This year has not been without hardships, for all of us, but it has certainly been a year to recognize how much we are blessed, and truly grateful for so many things. I invite you to take a moment, especially if it's been a rough one, and focus on every good thing in your life because this moment is all we have. There is no yesterday. There is no tomorrow. There is only now.

One of the biggest life lessons I learned this year, is to let go of worry, a little bit anyway. Lack of patience and an abundance of worry are two huge defects of character that I have relegated to never be master of in this lifetime, however, at the end of each day I ask myself...did God take care of you today? The answer is always yes. And so it follows...then that's all that matters right now. Right now.

As the golden hour of perfect light fades, so will this time in which we are living. It'll be okay. God, the Universe, our Creator, infinite Love, whatever you choose to call the Divine, will take care of you. Perhaps, this innertube will not crash after all. Perhaps, we can swap it out for a good set of Rossignols to better navigate 2021. Of course, we might have better gear to weather whatever next year throws at us, but something tells me we'll still wind up looking like a giraffe on skis. On a black diamond. In a blizzard. No offense Miss Lucinda Yasmin...she looks offended, dontcha think?!

Peace

Autumn Rain

Looking out the window at slow drizzle falling from dull gray, overcast skies...if my life had a lover, it would be a day such as this. Absent is the cold bite of an Arctic front, sadly, not a perfect day, but close.

Mist collects on loropetalum leaves until a single drop of water is born, then quickly dies, slipping quietly away to unknown universes on the ground.

Bright red maple leaves, soaked to the bone, release their grip from skeletal limbs one by one, accepting their fate. A mass of red, blankets sleeping zoysia until she awakens next spring.

I live for quiet moments. These singular, eternal moments, stretch into forever and make up the tapestry of Life. Find beauty where you can. Be humble. Be kind. Give thanks.

Peace

9/11 Reflections

My twin towers. I look at them every day, so I will #neverforget as if that’s even a remote possibility. I was fortunate to be a part of NYC for a short time in my life, and once she gets inside your heart, she never lets go.

My 9/11 moment, was watching United 175 strike the South Tower, live on Good Morning America. My reaction was visceral and my mind exploded like the images in front of me thinking of the flight crew and passengers on board. I have tried to imagine myself in their stead a thousand times, having been a flight attendant based in New York so many years ago. On Hudson approach to LaGuardia, I never failed to sneak a peak at those towers, standing sentinel to all of NYC. It simply was, magical.

I was never more proud to be an American than in the days and months that followed that hellacious day. We were One, if only for a time. Perhaps that is the true meaning behind, never forget. All diversity was forgotten and we were all just...people, of one race, human, united in our grief, our disbelief and our pain.

Today, I feel alone in my pain, mourning the loss of so much more this year, dreading the months to come and knowing I will not forget these days, of futures unknown.

Peace

Nostalgia

I want a marker that doesn’t dry out the second I take the cap off. I want a marker so filled with chemicals to keep it from drying out, that I get a contact high and have to open the windows just to use it.

Some of y’all don’t know what a mimeograph machine is, and it shows. We teethed on cribs shellacked with lead paint and most of us turned out okay.

I’ll bet if I had a marker from 1978, not only would it still work, but it would bleed through the card stock onto the kitchen counter and leave a black permanent ink stain that no amount of elbow grease could remove. They don’t make things like they used to.

God, the older I get, the more I wax nostalgic for simpler times, simpler pleasures. It’s almost time to get me a rockin’ chair, a house with a big ol’ front porch on which to sit and recount my best days and heartfelt joys.

Maybe I’ll get a pipe to hold between my teeth. Always loved the smell of my PawPaw’s pipe...

Author Bio Traci Reason

 

Traci Reason is a writer/photographer and lifetime Mother of the Year award recipient. Former flight attendant and current ex-wife, she is an expert in failed relationships and how to pick the wrong guy. Writing about her experiences, she hopes to help women recognize the red flags that often accompany toxic unions. To help her cope with the pain of a dying marriage, Traci turned her love of journaling into a blog in 2009. Entanglement, so named for the quantum theory that we are all connected, is an amalgamation of insightful, humorous, and candid posts that readers have called, powerful and engrossing. “Writing is a sane way to discard the insane brain,” she says, “it’s good medicine.”

Traci lives in Leeds, Alabama. She is a single mom of two grown daughters and one very energetic Belgian Malinois. She has mastered the art of cheesecake baking, and when she’s not writing, she enjoys time with family, taking pictures, reading and playing competitive Scrabble. 

       

The Show

This is for the stub savers, the general admission stage sardines, the band groupies, the camp out for days to get tickets, music junkies.

You've been waiting for months. The night is finally here. You spend all day getting psyched for the show. Maybe you and your friends skipped school, got high, danced around your room, sang into a hairbrush, and listened through three foot high Kenwoods to the band. Nothing else mattered, just you your best buds and the music.

Shoulder to shoulder with your friends and hundreds of kindred strangers, multitudinous shouts come in waves from the nosebleeds and roadies criss-cross the stage setting up. The energy is tangible. The lights go down and the crowd roars. You smell the amps as they come alive infusing with stale beer, weed and the sound of a thousand voices that hit you squarely in the heart. There is no feeling quite like it...always made me cry.

I'm glad I got to experience that. I'm glad my daughters did too, because it may just be something we never get to fully, freely enjoy again...not the way we used to. Human beings need one another, whether we realize it or not. To be able to come together as One to see a show, or a game, to celebrate a marriage, or mourn a loss is essential to Life. Life, I don't want some suit telling me "we cannot go back to the way things were," because even though it wasn't perfect, it was pretty damn good.

Look For Me On Facebook!!

Hey there Entanglement family!! Click the link below to follow me on Facebook! I am creating new content on my author's page on a semi regular basis. Creating quality content on multiple platforms has proven difficult with a one year old Belgian Malinois barking and pawing at me when I sit down to work and won't play with her. She's more demanding than a toddler, honestly! 

Don't forget to give me a "like" and a "follow." Many thanks!! 💓 

https://www.facebook.com/reasonwrites

1970's Summertime

I wish I could go back to 1970’s summertime, my youth spent on a ten acre homestead farm in Crossville, Tennessee. Times were simpler then, happier. The biggest decision of the day was whether or not to shake a little salt on the watermelon Papaw had just plucked from the garden and Mamaw had sliced open with a big ol’ kitchen knife.

In the shade of a huge oak tree, on a weathered old picnic table clothed by the Sunday funnies, we joyfully ate until we were full. Laughter abounded at all the sticky faces, hands, forearms and elbows as we made our way to the hose pipe to wash off. Drinking ice cold well water out of a warm, green garden hose is my childhood.

It was okay to run barefoot in the yard, ride in the bed of a pick-up truck to the corner store, eat grapes right off the vine and sour apples off the tree. Sometimes, I’d sneak a piece of Papaw’s bitter horehound candy before dinner, which was harvested right out of the garden...corn, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans and potatoes. I hope somewhere, right now, there is a youngster snapping beans with their grandmother. It is a cherished memory for me.

Always, there was catching lightnin’ bugs and sometimes there were sparklers, left over from the family Fourth celebration. Constellations were as bright and vivid as if you were viewing them from inside a planetarium. Papaw would point out the big and little dippers for me because they were the only ones I knew. And finally, sleep. It came easy with the crickets’ song riding waves of cool mountain air through window screens that were never closed.

Focus on the good.

Peace. Love.

 

Don't Be Afraid

Friends, I have been seeking God's comfort these last months, for obvious reasons, and the message He speaks to me over and over and over again is...don't be afraid. I was confused at first, because the only thing that truly frightens me about all of this nonsense is the collective response to it. I believe there is something much more sinister ahead, something so unimaginable that He is preparing my heart in advance of what is to come. Awake, and fervently seeking the Truth during these unprecedented times, I've seen some believers become the wrong kind of sheep.

 

 "...the sheep hear His voice and come to Him; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out."

I implore you to open your eyes, open your minds and hearts to Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Things are never going to be as they once were, they just aren't, no matter how obedient you are to the powers that be...you are serving the wrong master! I'm no biblical scholar, I am deeply flawed and faaaaar from perfect, but I know Jesus Christ and I will follow and obey Him. Whatever comes, don't be afraid.

"So, we do not look at what we can see right now, the troubles all around us, but we look forward to the joys in heaven which we have not yet seen. The troubles will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever."  

  

Musings of an Earthling

Last night, I watched a documentary on Netflix called Magnetic, directed by Thierry Donard (he's brilliant, look him up). From surfing the giant waves of Nazaré Canyon, Portugal to speed flying in the mountains of New Zealand, Donard captures elite daredevil athletes at the top of their game doing what they do best, and gives the viewer some of the most breathtaking scenes cinematography has ever given us. I encourage you to watch it, even if you have no interest in extreme sports!

This amazing planet on which we live, truly is miraculous. Now, I'm no activist, but we really do need to take better care of her. All Native cultures know this instinctively and yet some dismiss them as primitive. I dare say they are more spiritually aware and evolved than modern day "civilization." Take a look around you...are we acting like responsible citizens of humanity, or are we behaving like sniveling children who don't know any better how to manage our emotions?

Every day the sun rises is a gift. Greet the day with gratitude and wonder! This place, this glorious heavenly body is ours to care for, explore and enjoy. I've had wanderlust my entire life and was lucky enough to see some of this beautiful world in my youth as a flight attendant. I didn't appreciate it fully, and what I wouldn't give to re-live some of those moments now. Someday, I hope to find myself standing at the lighthouse on the cliffs of Nazaré staring wide-eyed at those towering ninety-foot waves breaking and the adventurers who dare to surf them.   

       

In All Things, Give Thanks

If there's one thing that this worldwide shit show has proven to me, it's just how fast Life as we know it can change. I'm fifty-two, clearly, I know how fast life can change, but n-o-t-h-i-n-g on this scale has happened in my lifetime. How many of us rode (or are still riding) the roller coaster of emotions in the days and weeks after COVID19 became a part of our daily vocabulary?! For me, it has become a chance to embrace, and practice living in the present moment. The one thing that I can control during these unprecedented times, are my feelings surrounding all of it...so I stopped the roller coaster and got off.

I wake each morning and give thanks to God for Life, for the chance to spend another day with my beautiful daughters and our crazy Belgian Malinois. Starting each day with an expression of genuine thanksgiving sets a positive tone, keeps the demons at bay and I often experience overwhelming gratitude for little things: lilies in bloom, birds singing, cool mornings in June, manicured lawns, a gaggle of geese by the lake, quiet time to read, rooms with a view, and sobriety.

The bad days still come, but are met with an attitude of indifference. I say...do your worst. I'm an old sage, capable of handling whatever the World wants to throw at me. God gives us this miraculous life, and we are capable of animating any reality of our choosing, you know. But, it's a discipline one must practice in order to master like anything else. In the wise words of German theologian, Meister Eckhart, "if the only prayer you say is Thank You, that will suffice." I think right now we need a simple prayer in this convoluted world. So, when you wake up in the morning that means you're not done here yet...thank God and get going!

    





       

Finally....

God may sometimes seem slow answering your prayers, but He is never late.

We Three

Today was a rough day. Exhaustion extracted three naps from me, my tired old heart was in my throat most of the day, pounding and burning as if I'd run a marathon and my head has been on the verge of migraine since before I opened my eyes at 0553 this morning. Stress. Gotta love it.

Years ago, a large bottle of Pinot Grigio or a strong margarita would have been self prescribed to make all that pain go away. If I close my eyes and swirl that around for a time, I can almost feel...well, instant regret as it most often turned out, because I don't know how to have just one drink. Love was the reason I quit. You see, my actions showed that sometimes I loved the drink in my hand more than those around me, and that was unacceptable.

Love saved me. Love saves me still. Love laughs with me. Love cries with me. Love understands me and accepts me. Love fights for me, and with me. Love rises to every challenge that Life throws at me and helps me get through. Love says we're in this together and nothing matters more than this. Love is God. Love is daughters. Love is we three.

God is good.

Home At Last

Entanglement, has it really been so long? I'm sorry I have not come home to write in over a year. I've been writing for smaller platforms, peer platforms where my voice is actually heard and people do read what I have written. Facebook algorithms buried my pieces after only hours of being posted and I lost a great deal of readership because of that. I have been focused on quality over quantity and it has paid dividends quite literally, a penny here, a penny there. Still waiting on my windfall, which may actually be right around the corner now that my first manuscript is mere days away from being on bookshelves. It's been ten years since I finished writing her, and while I had my doubts that I would ever be published, I wouldn't have been ready until now. God's timing may sometimes seem slow, but He is never late. Success in my 50's is going to be sweet soul nectar.

Peace