darkened chambers
Sun 6.18.23
How does one reach a decision to commit, to a nunnery and devote yourself to do God’s work? To a musician’s nomadic life wandering from one engagement to another, from town to town, country after country? To marry Henry and vow to stand by him and be his mate until death do you part?
Life is a series of darkened chambers that one enters at some personal risk, out of curiosity, boredom, a perverse desire to tempt fate or, because life offers no other alternative. Once inside the darkened room there is a short period of inaction, then hesitancy while one develops night vision. Shortly, one is able to decipher the outline of furnishings and impediments to movement. The night is long, mysterious; it offers an opportunity to reach beyond the confines of the familiar. One has earned the privilege to imagine, to create, and by doing so the chamber becomes incandescent; the reason it was important to enter the room, and how life is richer because of this event become clear. In this lovely period of grace, one is able to speak poetically of the experience and how it relates, on a larger scale, to the human condition. But to remain in that chamber beyond the period of grace and illumination is harmful, soon what was extraordinary appears common, one loses passion, sensitivity, and the situation becomes deadly.
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MANHATTAN SEERESS NOW ON EBOOKS
Eight o'clock Sunday morning, the police arrive at her apartment in Greenwich Village, "How long have you been living here?" The roommate Elizabeth, after having accepted her half of the deposit money and rent for their new apartment, has called the police.
New York City doesn’t open its arms to welcome her, but she’s arrived and the adventure of her life is about to unfold. She’s come from Maine with an invitation from Sarah Lawrence College to participate in the graduate writing program.
How one becomes a seeress is what this memoir explores. Stories have been specifically selected to illustrate, from the sublime to the practical, a spiritual journey introduced in each chapter by an atout, the Tarot’s major archetypes. From the Fool, to The World, our human journey with its risk and folly unfolds. There is also an artist here alive to her new world seeking inspiration among artists on the Lower East side, learning the ways and foods of her Chinese neighbors, falling in love.
