RETIREMENT IN KALAMAZOO AND TAKING TIME TO REMINISCE

 

A series of essays….

OUR HOME AND GARDEN IN KALAMAZOO ARE PROGRESSING
NICELY. LOOKING FORWARD TO SHORT, PLANNED GETAWAYS
IN ORDER TO JUMPSTART OUR NEW TRAVEL LIFE.

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

No one warned me that after my husband retired, and despite already spending over one year within Covid-19 precautionary conditions, that we would be busier than ever! 

Retirement is only a word. It is not a death sentence or even a number that defines who we are in relationship to how many years we have already spent on this earth; how much time we have left to spend. If we think or believe in finite terms only, we have already written our later years off as unimportant, unproductive, and not worth seeing through with dignity and self respect.

Finding a decent blend between working at whatever you love to do and taking breaks from everything you do in any given day, is highly important. Even if a break consists of a few minutes of meditation or sitting out on the back deck to watch golfers pretend that they are good at the game, the mental downtime is so worth it. This break reminds us of the importance of resuming whatever it is we’ve started. Being both physically and mentally sharp as we strive to do our best along the way, contributes to a much needed sense of balance in our lives.

Spending several hours each day writing is as natural to me as drinking my coffee in the morning. I can get lost in time during this period, very early in the day, and find that three hours have passed by as if I’d merely blinked them away! One of my first published poems was, ironically, entitled Time, as if losing myself between the click, click, click of the ‘second hand’ was always going to be a part of my life and I’d realized this fact a very long time ago.

Dan has lived a highly productive, full life within the construction business in various places around the country and has adapted well to learning the trade no matter what the terrain. He understands first-hand how building apartments in the middle of a snowstorm in Michigan differs from having to dynamite rock in West Virginia in order to create buildable space, and what an important role the water table plays while building in Florida. 

Today, he is spending his time remodeling our little cottage here in Kalamazoo. After everything he’s accomplished in the field of construction, you might think this would be a fairly simple task. Well, not really. Change orders still inundate his work day—only now they are coming from his wife as his client, (critic), and co-worker throughout various projects. I am the design person who relies on the brawn and expertise that I know he can deftly supply. I’m not so naive as to believe that he always feels our working relationship to be ideal, but I do know that it all seems to be working out for us with each project we complete.

Recently, with more people becoming fully vaccinated, we’ve decided that taking a short break from construction and routine could be more than sitting on the back deck relaxing and taking in the view. It’s been almost three years since we left our life and friends in Florida and It’s time to pay that life a visit and reminisce for a little while. So, with Covid-19 realities in mind, the planning stages have begun, and I couldn’t be more excited!

BRILLIANT SUNSET OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO

While we plan, life goes on and several big ticket items have definitely shaken us to the core. And, like most retirees, we question if spending money on this trip is feasible right now. Our car is in the ‘shop’ being worked on and the air conditioning unit for the house has decided it no longer desires to keep us cool and comfortable now that we’re heading into the heat of summer. (Enormous hugs and thanks to our friends who offered their air conditioned homes to help guard us from a possible meltdown. You know who you are!!) But, we still have smiles on our faces and understand these challenges to be stepping stones rather than giant boulders blocking our future plans.

I saw a post recently that featured a famous quote by the Italian filmmaker, Federico Fellini, which read: “One of the greatest handicaps is to fear a mistake. You have stopped yourself. You have to move freely into the arena, not just to wait for the perfect situation, the perfect moment… If you have to make a mistake, it’s better to make a mistake of action than one of inaction.” Sound advice for all of us who have reached retirement age and beyond.

I was fascinated by this quote because I know what it feels like to be paralyzed and do nothing while being afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing. This tactic kept me from finishing my book by feeling I was not good enough; I believed I was doing the wrong thing and not following all of the rules. I was afraid of doing or saying something “wrong” so, I did and said nothing at all. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that these so-called mistakes and fears are as bad as the mistake of doing absolutely nothing. 

I am learning—even at my age, I am learning to take action for my own life and make those mistakes with the confidence of someone who knows that she learns by her mistakes. Like a room filled with every color imaginable, I will extract energy from these colors and continue on. 

CHIMICHANGA FROM DON JULIO’S MEXICAN KITCHEN 

 CHICKEN WITH COCONUT CURRY BROTH ~
PHO VINH VIETNAMESE DINING

So, on with our plans to revisit the haunts that we loved so much in Orlando: restaurants, independent book stores, tea shops, wine bars, sandy beaches (along the Gulf and Atlantic coastline), walking the campus of Rollins College, having pedicures, and shopping at Publix grocery stores, again. Oh, how I miss my Publix! Often it’s the simple things in life that motivate us straight into our happy place. 

Dan and I like to call this trip back to Orlando our ‘littlest adventure’ that will lead the way back to epic adventures as time goes by. It’s our first set of baby steps that are walking us out of this pandemic and into a healthier future. Let us all plan away and release ourselves from the tentacles that have held us in place for so long. Besides, road trips can be as much fun (sometimes even more so) as a cross-country flight. It may take a bit longer to arrive at your final destination, but you have such diverse attractions along the way.

Please get fully vaccinated and then plan your first trip with the peace of mind that we all deserve while venturing out into the world, once again. Enjoy life to the fullest each day—because that’s what living is all about.

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

AS SIMPLE AS CHANGING THE CHANNEL

 

A series of essays….

A SURREAL MORNING OFFERING PLENTY OF SURPRISES 

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

Waking up one morning this past week to write, daydream, and listen to the world so early in the day, I was struck by the offering of softness and mystery right outside my window. Enchanting is the best way to describe this particular experience. Please allow me to explain.

If you are fortunate enough to have ‘a room with a view’ and this view is chameleon-like with subtle changes happening with each passing moment, life can be enriching and beautiful each time you turn your head and glance outside to capture a new image before you. My view represents a world that never stands still and often delights the senses in many rich and interesting ways.

My outlook onto the world beyond my French doors can be as stimulating as caffeine in the morning, as beautiful as a grandchild’s smile, and as natural as a scene from Sir David Attenborough’s narrative documentary, Our Planet. The rain falling gently onto the new plantings of our garden generates softness. A maniacal northern storm with lightening ripping through the multi-gray toned cloud cover suggests danger and excitement. The powdering of the first snow in November enriches our sense of well-being and the thought of how all things must rest before bursting back into life in the springtime.

THE TREES BEYOND THE FENCE
GENERATE A FEELING OF SURREALISM

My view startled me that particular morning as I suddenly felt like I was under the sea and lost in a swirling rhythm of shadows brought about by gyrating grasses and filtered light. The trees beyond the fence generated a feeling of surrealism by the irrational juxtaposition of images making the scene feel unworldly and almost fragile. I was transfixed by the visions before me. 

Finally able to think beyond the floating trees held in place by the mist of an early morning fog that engulfed everything in sight and reaching for my camera, I was able to capture a simple portion of the multi-layered scene stretching out beyond the glass. Trees I’d become familiar with in the distance turned into mere shadows as the trees in front of them marched to a stronger beat until the trees near the fence seemed as black as the eternal darkness of a moonless night. And then, I felt movement.

SHE LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS POSING JUST FOR ME!

Out of the dense fog, like a choreographed scene from a Disney movie, waltzed Bambi’s mom, in all her glory, staring through the elongated triangles of chain link and right into my eyes! With her curves and lines softened by the misty surroundings, she posed like a professional model until I slipped the camera away and watched her saunter along the fence line with ease and grace.

Following closely behind her was the remainder of her coffee klatch that morning: two additional doe lingered in her gentle wake as all three made their way east and, eventually, out of sight.

THREE FRIENDS HAPPILY SURVIVING
WITHIN THE WILDERNESS OF
AN URBAN GOLF COURSE

Being fully aware of their presence many times before, we’ve come to believe that the golf course is their refuge, their home; a fenced-in park that’s groomed and maintained specifically for them. I have seen these three traverse the long fairways crosswise, prancing between golfing foursomes as if they were threading a needle that stretched five fairways wide. That morning, they had the park all to themselves and they were luxuriating in this fact.

Our window to the outside world beyond the deck is amazing. As easily as remotely changing the station on a television, set-up with multi-channel cable capability, we experience sunny, foggy, rainy, and snowy backdrops. The deer and rabbits continue to munch on our vegetation as if they were grazing at the sample counters of the local Costco. A family of raccoons are born in the hollow of one of our tall oak trees and four tiny noses peek out from high above. The bulbous, bright pink peonies sway in the gentle breezes. And, spectacular sunsets illuminate the evening sky, often rivaling those I’ve witnessed on visits to Sedona!

THE TREES NEAREST THE FENCE SEEMED
AS BLACK AS THE ETERNAL DARKNESS 
OF A MOONLESS NIGHT

Each season, each month, each week, and each day offers up a new selection of entertainment. All we have to do is look for it and acknowledge the life and beauty that surrounds us. How fortunate we are to find such comfort, peace, and love right in our own backyards.

Author’s Note: Warm congratulations to our beautiful niece, Caitlin, on giving birth to her daughter on June 9, 2021! Wishing all of you a world of 💕 Love.

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

“IF IT HAPPENED ONCE, IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN”

 

A series of essays….

ONE OF THE MANY MURALS THAT CAN BE SEEN ALONG THE
CITY’S WALLS IN TULSA, OKLAHOMA, TODAY, IN
MEMORY OF THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE

     Credit: slate.com

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

The goal was to lighten the story and to intentionally forget the lingering damage of the event.

What incident within the history of our country would you believe the line above might be referring to? It could be about each mass shooting that has heartbreakingly touched our lives over the past two decades beginning with the Columbine High School Massacre in 1999 which obliterated thirteen innocent lives and left many others both physically and mentally damaged for life.

I have a grudge or beef with someone. I have access to guns or the capability to buy them. Therefore, I have a license to kill. 

We are a gun toting, axe grinding, Wild, Wild West kind of society who values gun rights over human rights and the past two decades of carnage, death of innocence, and destruction appears to be just the tip of this monstrous iceberg.

Having lived in Orlando, Florida, when one man of color, George Zimmerman, decided he had the right to take the life of a black teen, Trayvon Martin, and another shooter, Omar Mateen, slaughtered forty-nine innocent young adults and wounded fifty-three more while they were enjoying the evening listening to music and dancing at the Pulse Nightclub; I recall being caught in the middle of this nightmare logistically and emotionally and they both weigh heavily on my mind to this day.

 

  GEORGE ZIMMERMAN          TRAYVON MARTIN

Sadly, the ‘brush it under the rug’ defense for many of these massacres has been a part of this nation’s mindset for a very long time. So much so that our school textbooks (my own high school U.S. History textbook), indicate that the publishers of these books have chosen for years not to include instances of hate crimes affiliated with white supremacy under the assumption that all men are not created equal! For decades our students have been cheated of the knowledge of actual events that could and should have helped to shape their lives in one way or another.

Listening to a middle-aged, black lawyer being interviewed and referencing his lack of knowledge of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 until recently and having him admit to the fact that even within his own Tulsa educational career, nothing was mentioned about this monumental event—sends chills down my spine. He did not know about the history of his own people and he lives in the city where it all happened! Think about that for a second. Our educational system certainly has some catching up to do on Black American history!

The goal was to lighten the story and to intentionally forget the lingering damage of the event.

You might think that as slave stories were kept alive through sermons and hymns throughout the years, something this horrendous might be emblazoned upon the minds of those having lived through it no matter what color their skin happened to be. So tight was the noose around the necks of these unconscious souls, their fear for their own lives cut-off the oxygen of reason to the brain that caused them to conveniently forget the lingering damage of this event while feeling that, “If it happened once, it can happen again.”

100 YEARS LATER, 107-YEAR-OLD SURVIVOR
OF THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE, VIOLA
FLETCHER, WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER..

      Credit: Viola Fletcher, By cartoonist: J.D. Crowe

If the history books failed to include the murder of possibly over 300 Black men, women, and children, many of whom were thrown in mass graves like rabid animals after a slaughter, similar to the Jewish population in Europe during the Holocaust, and having recently lived through the race riots and the major pandemic of 1918–what other events have white supremacists intentionally forgotten to mark down in page after page of our history books? How many new horrors have yet to be discovered and brought into the light of day? 

The blatant disregard for all humans and their rights has made it easier for haters to show their faces and take-up arms against what they consider to be the Establishment. Case in point would be the insurrection at the Capitol Building this past January 6, 2021. 

The goal was to lighten the story and to intentionally forget the lingering damage of the event.

Prompted by the most noted white supremacist today and grand leader of the hatred for all persons of color, our 45th president had preconceived ideas within his agenda long before entering the White House; long before his electoral collage election of 2016. His goals were transparent and consisted of ridding the nation of persons of color, resurrect white supremacy across the land, and establish himself as dictator of the United States while using his status to monetarily rape middle class and poor Americans along the way. His unconscious pawns carrying guns, knives, poison sprays, and sharpened objects became his warriors-in-hate and took up arms against the Constitution of the United States and those who chose to uphold its written laws. 

MADNESS ON CAPITOL HILL ~ JANUARY 6, 2021

                 

            Credit: TVLine

And, just like those who lightened the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, certain elected officials are doing so today in the hope that we will forget the lingering damage of this event. As if the videos of this coup do not exist, they would like us to believe that this mob was there to take selfies in front of the Capitol Building as mementos for their children. They live in a fantasy world artfully directed by the money, power, and lust of powerful individuals determined to control us.

Where were the videos of the Tulsa Race Massacre hidden for all of these years? The videos illustrating deputized white men holding guns and rifles as they led Black American citizens, wrists tied with rope, along the smoldering streets of their own town to their imminent deaths. Where were the still photos of this massacre kept from us nearly a century in time? Photos of Black families thrown across their front fence like death’s jewelry for all to witness; an elderly Black couple kneeling by the side of their bed in prayer while being shot in the back of the head, execution style; a man tied with rope around his waist and dragged behind a vehicle, his head bouncing along the pavement; and people of all ages, zombie-like, walking the streets that were laden with dead bodies and debris.

Just as the mass graves of this massacre are being dug up today in order to determine the identities of the victims placed there one hundred years ago, the videos, photos, and information about this massacre have only recently been uncovered in the year 2001, but were brought to light by Michelle Price, the executive director of the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum, in 2012.

President Biden will not allow us to forget this dark history that actually exists, whether we believe it to be true or not. We will learn more about it, retain what we discover, teach it as a part of Black American history, and focus on controlling the hate that allowed it to happen in the first place. This is a game plan for people who believe in the Constitution, respect all people no matter their race, religion, or economic status, and believe and trust in the equality and justice of a true democratic society.

“IF IT HAPPENED ONCE, 
IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN….!”

The Biden administration will not allow us to forget why and by whom our own Capitol Building was attacked. We will always remember when officers and civilians died in their own attempts to protect or destroy our democracy. We must never fail to recall the insurrection of January 6, 2021–no matter how much the far right would like to ‘lighten the story’ and have us forget.

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved