Monday May 2, 2022
Today I am paired with Ella to learn the housekeeping job. We clean the Ocean House and then the Sea View Suite and man oh man, I have a new appreciation for housekeeping. With the humidity and the heat ramping up the last couple of days, I’m extra fatigue and all I can remember is that THIS is the character-building part.
More so, I can’t keep my eyes dry today. I am feeling a bit lonely. And today I feel the void of the love and partnership I left behind. I miss him and wish he was here, that we could experience this together. And then I remember, the mere fact that we have different goals right now. Two people in two different stages of life. And this is not the lifestyle he would choose, nor is his the one I would choose. I am reminded today that I left that behind when I left Buffalo, and it weighs heavy on my heart.
And so physically, we are apart as we both pursue what we need right now. And I wonder…..if, or when, we will unite again. I am on my path and he, on his. It’s a wonderful thing we can both feel so much love for each other when we are not together, as we both pursue what we are feeling called to. It’s easier right now for both of us that we don’t talk. Making it easier to focus on what’s directly in front of us. What we can actually control.
I pass it to fate and I head for the pool. There is one person I seek to say hello to and that is Ms. Amma. Since I moved out of the Tamarind Room, I haven’t seen her since yesterday, so I go to say hello.
Amma is “puzzling” listening to sahdguru, greeting me with a warm smile. We go to the pool together, Amma hopping in for her afternoon pool-skimming duty. Sometimes she skims from the pools edge. Sometimes she gets in. Today she gets in and I ask her about her career. She tells me she moved to Northern California where she raised her two daughters on a sustaining farmstead. She tells me that for 25 years she was a weaver. “A weaver?” I wonder out loud.
We both laugh when she tells me. The art of making tapestries, blankets, and scarves. Ah yes, weaving. She weaves tapestries, scarves, blankets, sourcing each project directly from the sheep, spinning the wool and then hand-dying the twine herself. She did this for twenty five years before she decided to change her career paths. She went back to school for her CNA, Certified Nurse Assistant. It was then in her 50’s she earned her degree and became a most compassionate care-giver. Changing careers she said, was very difficult at the time and I admire her for this achievement. She had two successful careers 25 years long each. She only just recently retired at the young age of 78, when he last patient, and friend, pass away at the wholesome age of 101. It was then that she would move her life again, coming to live with her daughter, just 3 months ago. She, like me, is also enduring a time of change. I love talking with Amma. She is funny, intelligent, wise beyond comprehension, and makes it feel light being in her presence. She’s also whimsical and free-spirited, and reminds me of myself in may ways. Meanwhile as she graciously tells me all of this, she’s floating around the pool retrieving leaves from the pool’s floor with her toes, skimming out the live bee’s, waiting patiently for them to flee the net before she retrieves the next one.
She tells me how weaving is a career that is being replaced by machines and is sadly becoming a lost art form. “CLEARLY”, I say, reminding her of my mere confusion at the mention of the word weaver. We both get a good laugh out of this acknowledging the rapid evolution of technology. In our hearts I think we both are sad of that fact, but we match it with good humor.
I reel in our conversation which makes my heart sing. Amma is saving me from myself, and she doesn’t even know it.
Fun, funny, sad, alive and truthful. I feel honored. Remember the hermit crab shells we collected at Monk’s Bath. I laid them out for the taking and they are all gone. I learned that when one crab changes her house, more come to take hers and so down the line. Everyone a new apartment. Let’s find more.
Did you know weaving was where computers started? Check out the Jacquard loom. Also, weaving is still going strong as an art form. “That which is no longer.necessary becomes art.”
I’d like to hear more about the food. Do you have lunch and dinner as a group?
It sounds delicious.
You’ve inspired me to move toward vegetarian and on to vegan, a little at a time, so I’m interested in the dishes you eat.
Even recipes if possible.
It’s a challenge to deal with so much change but the meals seem to be a positive one.
Enjoy!
Well written and Heartfelt.