ready, set…goat!

There’s a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you know the one, he’s standing in front of a bottomless cavern. He scatters some sand into the abyss and from the darkness a bit of a bridge appears. He steps out and….trusts. It’s an powerful metaphor for that leap of faith that we sometimes need to take to get where we need to get.

I start work, volunteering every Friday, at Green Chimneys today. It’s a brilliant place, a residential school for kids with emotional and behavioral problems. I’m trying not be scared. I interviewed for a teaching position there ten years ago, and I wasn’t ready yet, wasn’t yet at a place where I could be of service to those kids.   Continue reading

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daddy was a con man

Daddy was a con man.

Not a thief, not a Catch Me if You Can con man, but a con none the less.  Of course, this was before he married my moms.

Before he married Big Edie he was a lot of things. I was raised on the stories of a Fred before my moms, before me. That’s him, front and center with his Navy pals. He was a handsome rogue & a gypsy tea leaf reader. He read crystal balls, minds, tarot cards, handwriting & palms. He worked the carnival side shows & the burlesque halls. He rode a motorcycle & wore black leather. He was The Wild One. He was Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone rolled into one. A real buckler of swash, he had style & flash and was bigger than life to me as a kid. I was awed and I was terrified.

I fought for the privilege of saddle soaping his leather m/c jacket. It was years before I was allowed to touch the crystal ball.    Continue reading

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goat mind

Something has changed.

I’ve caged the squirrels, quieted my monkey mind and let disorder take over. My life has become rumple, untidy, messy. I have become, a Goat.       Continue reading

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