Thursday, March 06, 2008

The Glass House and other fairytales.....

I have to fill in this space where a picture should go with words. I tried to take a photo, of a playing card house.....and they all fell down, aces and twos, jokers and even the box I tried to prop them up with. When I was little I used to build tunnels and covered sidewalks with cards, one box, two,three.... red and blue and black....the houses that Jack built, The Windchester Mansion from abondoned decks, 52 or less, scavenged from the kitchen drawers. Tonight I couldn't even build a tee-pee.....

And that's my picture....

Here's my rant.....

Why is it that people fix up their houses instead of their lives? I took a good hard look at the world around me tonight and decided that while my neighbors might wish I mowed more often, or painted the shutters again, I'd rather be doing what I'm doing than what they're doing. Inside my walls, behind the peeling paint and the leaning mailbox, we're growing, learning, surviving. We have secrets here that we're working on, mending, weaving, trying to build from. Lives that have changed. New lives waiting to be born......

Maybe because I'm a confessor, I think it's okay for my home to be a tattle~tale. To show the wear and tear of being lived in. To age with me, beside me.....

Chilo's house sparkles. You skim over rare stones to gain entrance.....a barefooted queen would wipe her feet before she plodded over tiles of that like. The living room buzzes, and beeps, flashes in neon......cable vision piped in, surround-a-sound music puffing from every elevatorish wall, gadgets everywhere, floating, suspended, vertical, flat screened. A million dollar fantasy. On show. And a mortgage that's choking the hell out of her....

Megan's exhausted. They've been hauling in drywall and "things" for weeks. Updating. Renovating. Out with the old and in with the new. Matching pillows to billowing curtains, painting bird baths to match the conch shells they bought for 15.99 at a roadside stand. Fixing up the fantasy.....the one that's never ever gonna come true......

Who cares?
What parties do you hold here? What people dance under this tent and laugh in your rain? What memories did you make today? Or put on lay-a-way?

My roof is leaking.
I smile.
Sometimes you have to be thankful for the little things in life.....

20 comments:

Maithri said...

Oh if you could hear the choir now....

We've got quite the rhythm going...

AAAmen... Amen... Amen... ;);)

What is the cataract of the mind
that has made us think
that new, and shiny, and pristine...

means 'good'...

Is the mountain immaculate?
Does the river care if her pebbles are colour co-ordinated? ;)

Heres to the beauty that lies beneath appearances...

the unkempt wildness of life...

and the 'unlabelled peace' that encircles it all.

My love to you free bird,

Keep singing your song,

Maithri

skinnylittleblonde said...

I love this post on many different levels and I love Maithri's point about mountains being immaculate & rivers with color co-ordinated pebbles...perhaps because I love the river so much.

But to answer your question, as you did for me...
'Why do people fix up their houses instead of their lives?'
Because they are lost, confused, biding time (even if it is borrowed time) keeping themselves busy and distracted.
Because they are fixing what they can until they can figure out how to fix their lives, when to fix their lives and maybe even simply figure out what it is that actually needs to be fixed in their lives.
I remember you, sun up to sun down , planting grass in terrain uninhabitable for grass & you did make it grow & it grew beautifully. I remember me, with 1700 bricks, laying them all one by one... making pretty what we could until we could figure out what we really needed to do.
Perhaps, it is as simple as this...when people feel like they have short-changed themselves spiritually, emotionally, mentally the try to re-coup those losses in the physical spectrum.
It happens all the time. The woman who feels jilted over the job promotion who goes out & buys a new suit to wear. The middle-aged man who feels jilted in the divorce who goes out & buys a sports car....
We need more peace & love in this world & in our lives, don't we?
ILYS...PAL

Unknown said...

I agree with skinnylittleblonde: people think if they fix the one, the other will follow. Which is not true, because you are distracted. If change is as good as a holiday, maybe you should just have taken the holiday instead.

skinnylittleblonde said...

We do what we can do, we fix what we can fix...ILYSVMS

Shimmerrings said...

I have found that was is messed up on one level is usually messed up on some other level... and that when we begin trying to fix or repair something on one level, it is a mirror reflection of yet another fix on some other level... all is relative.

kj said...

and yet....

i like to keep things honored, my living space included. so i try to keep things from not getting too run down, and i try to think of maintenance as a spiritual act.

if i HAD to choose between tending to myself or my grass, i would certainly choose myself. but if i could find a balance for both, that would be my preference....

(note: this is just kj talking, not the law of the universe...)

xo

i beati said...

my tiles are never clean - too many dogs and cats- I never did do windows- my garden is a hodge podge that makes my well coifed neighbors shreek- odd man out and I love the uniqueness of it the me factor- I do have to fix the plumbing however..

No said...

amen...you're singing to the "No, just maybe" choir today....

skinnylittleblonde said...

The ceiling fan or gravity may leave card houses in a pile, but you, my love, have a concrete foundation. I have a mountain of bricks in my backyard just waiting to be loved again. xoxoxox

singleton said...

Maithri....
And I amen you right back! The kaleidescope of Mother Nature....the beauty in the sometimes broken rock, the fallen stick....
And I really I just ache for these friends, on the inside, because
I'm on the outside watching,
and the more "things" that arrive,
the fuller the house, and
the emptier the heart...
I listen for laughter,
watch for dancing....
and see love being replaced with designer labels.....
Much peace to you today My Friend, and thank you, for listening to the wind.....

Skinny....you summed it up rightously. And I know, you know, we know, first hand,the tell-tale signs of busying up our lives so that the real story, the true story, is somewhere underneath it all.....ILYSVVM and don't know what I'd do without you....

Electric....exactly! the old adage "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is".....Shineying up the outside doesn't do a thing for the soul inside... it's the band-aid fix!

Shimmerings....And you are right also! So here in my glass house, the neighbors know that inside, we're a mess on many levels,too, but at least I don't have to walk out into the driveway, smiling up and down, pretending....It is what it is.....And here, when the window of peace is open, the breeze flows.....and we laugh....

kj...it's the law of your universe and it counts! I've seen pictures of your world and it's beautiful....you girls collect art and treasures and protect them, nurture them....and flowers grow in your garden.....Your smile growing for the world to see. Really, I was just talking with people going to the extreme, buying, spending, buying things to replace what's missing from their lives....And I wonder if surrounded by all the newness it makes them less lonely....and when the shine wears off....what will be left....

Ibeati....Oh, I vote for the plumbing, too! And honestly, I'll have to post pictures, this little place isn't a complete trainwreck by any means.....but love grows here....My grandkids and the neighbors kids paint on the walls...We call it art, we carve our names in the benches...and call it love....
Clink! To cats and dogs!

No....Just maybe, we really should start a band...an acapella choir....Just give me peace, just give me peace, just give me peace....
And in the background, across the street, everyone else can hum....
"For everything else, there's Mastercard".....

Peace~love my friends
It's priceless......

singleton said...

Skinny.....
And I, sweet sister, have you girls, right here, there, everywhere, standing those cards right back up,
No matter what hurricane,
accidental breeze,
Northerly winds take em' down. ILYSVVM.....

skinnylittleblonde said...

Weld bond, Gorilla Glue & liquid nails don't hold a candle to the strength & solidarity us girls have...ILYSVVVM

Jacob said...

I am like a shovel to your dirt: I so totally dig you.

~Babs said...

A house well lived in, and loved in.
A Home.
Like an old comfy shoe,,and yes, the soft, hand me down Levi's,,,
it is what it is,,,and it's home. A heart home.
I even leave the table finger prints, and window tiny nose smudges, along with the Pla-doh droppings after Jack goes home.
It's Bab's house,,,where he can just 'be',,,,,and stick his sucker
on the cat's tail when she's too slow. It's a home.

Shimmerrings said...

I know about those glass houses...

singleton said...

skinny...
May the circle be unbroken....ILYSVVM

Gawpo....:) Love it!

Babs...."it's just Bab's house"....ah,, honey, I have a feeling I'd be right at home in your house....Comfy cozy and filled with peace.....

Shimmerings....Right? Me, too, girl.......

Peace~love friends
Say the words......

Ultra Toast Mosha God said...

Money can't make a house a home.

JustRun said...

Home, like love, is where you find it. Out with the old, in with the new fits too. :)

Princess Pointful said...

What a delicious post.
We should all live by those last few lines.

singleton said...

Ultra.....The Beatles had it right a long time ago...."Can't buy me love......no, no,no,no"......

justrun...Clink! Home and love...the two should walk hand and hand.....

princess....Thank you. We
re in cahoots on this one!

Peace~love friends.....