Keep Close With Elders and Ancestors

When I was a kid, I could talk to my grandmother about anything. Dreams, self-doubts, goals, setbacks…anything! As I got older, I always enjoyed visiting although career and things made those occasions less frequent over time.

Even now, all these years later, I sometimes look out into the faraway and wonder, “Whaddaya think, Grandmother? What would you say?”

Bad things happened, an entire run of them that shut me down, caused me to withdraw from everything except my inner self.

One afternoon, in a hammock, I took a photo of myself. Just my legs. But there was no one to send it to. No one to understand.

I needed a sidekick so I sketched an armadillo because they’re crusty on the outside but not within. I made him my butler. Crusoe’s manservant Friday.

We began interacting—my hammock photo speaking to that critter, that critter speaking back.There’s a folder of cartoons somewhere. For now there’s just this one. (LINK)

Eventually after that I began writing novels.

I’m still a hermit, marooned you might say, but leaving my shell more and more—my inner self seeking its freedom through writing.