Well, Lavern asked, a couple times, so here goes the report from the very out there world.
I was still living in Richmond VA when I left AW about two and a half years ago. The person whose house I was living in was putting more and more pressure on me to get out and finally gave me a deadline with the threat of eviction. I was not writing at all by then, and had no spoons for anything but trying to get myself on a new track.
I had joined Facebook around that same time, despite having vowed I would never, because I had to find some way to connect with more people and situations and break my isolation. As soon as I got on Facebook I encountered two very powerful social movements that swept me into engagement. One was Standing Rock, the indigenous sovereignty movement and pipeline opposition, and the other was the Ecosystem Restoration Camps. From my work with the latter I met someone who had a friend in Connecticut with whom I might live for a tiny rent and help in the garden. I jumped at that, despite a number of red flags, out of desperation.
So I spent that winter in CT, living under the thumb and in the house of someone I would call an emotional bully at best, who pretty much wanted a little house slave. Possibly because she was friends with my first friend (who is not at all like that!) she held herself to more passive aggressive than overt pressure, but it all became quite intolerable. In February of 2017 I moved back south, and in with my sister and brother in law, in Wilmington NC which is where I am currently.
During all this time I continued to participate as keyboard support for both Standing Rock and the Ecosystem Restoration Camps. I met some amazing people and made friends of some of them. Some of those friendships are still active. Though the Standing Rock encampments were closed down by force in February 2017, many of the people involved, both indigenous and not, have continued on courses set there. One small group, called Black Flag Search and Rescue, became another focus for me as they worked hurricane relief first in Texas (Harvey) then in Florida (Irma) and finally in Puerto Rico (Maria) The lead of that group is still down in PR, and a tiny group of us have been supporting her efforts there from the mainland.
This past year I focused on gardening, for my sins. I hoped to grow enough vegetables and herbs that I could share widely with the neighbors. Weather killed my garden. I started with some pretty poor conditions due to previous bad decisions (the garden area had been dug out below grade, and tilled heavily so that there was a compacted layer about five inches down.) Even well before Hurricane Florence, in the early summer we had a series of flooding rains (four inches or more each time) which utterly drowned my garden. I labored to save what I could but ultimately had to just give up. I know if I had had a few years to work with and build up the soil I could have corrected the drainage and so might have saved some, but that was not the situation. Many gardeners and small farmers around here had terrible years due to this weather. (Wilmington had 100 + inches of rain in the year as compared to a less than 60 inch average in previous years.)
Then Florence happened. This storm was very big, slow, and full of water and aimed directly at Wilmington. Because hurricanes are not all that unusual around here, my sister and bil decided to ride it out. I was going to also but one of the other gals from Black Flag said she wanted to come get me and take me down to her place in Georgia -- so I accepted that offer. Thus, I spent three weeks in a quiet rural area, watching on the Weather Channel as Florence devastated my current home. It was two weeks before the roads began to be opened.
Our house did not flood but many in our neighborhood did. By now, most of the huge piles of debris are gone, but the trees.... broken and damaged all around. One big limb did fall on a corner of the roof here but that has all been repaired now. Sis and bil are planning to move us inland sometime later this year. Nobody wants to go through that again.
During this last year I have begun writing again. I was posting poems on Facebook and getting some nice reads, but Facebook has become intolerable to me for a number of reasons, so after trying the "temporary deactivation" method of breaking its hold, on Christmas Day I got the strong urge to just delete my account and did so.
And then I thought, why not go back to AW? My appetite for poetry and the conversations around it fully revived, I began to really miss this place. Glad to find it is still here, not washed away in some storm or overrun by jackbooted thugs. May it thrive!
I was still living in Richmond VA when I left AW about two and a half years ago. The person whose house I was living in was putting more and more pressure on me to get out and finally gave me a deadline with the threat of eviction. I was not writing at all by then, and had no spoons for anything but trying to get myself on a new track.
I had joined Facebook around that same time, despite having vowed I would never, because I had to find some way to connect with more people and situations and break my isolation. As soon as I got on Facebook I encountered two very powerful social movements that swept me into engagement. One was Standing Rock, the indigenous sovereignty movement and pipeline opposition, and the other was the Ecosystem Restoration Camps. From my work with the latter I met someone who had a friend in Connecticut with whom I might live for a tiny rent and help in the garden. I jumped at that, despite a number of red flags, out of desperation.
So I spent that winter in CT, living under the thumb and in the house of someone I would call an emotional bully at best, who pretty much wanted a little house slave. Possibly because she was friends with my first friend (who is not at all like that!) she held herself to more passive aggressive than overt pressure, but it all became quite intolerable. In February of 2017 I moved back south, and in with my sister and brother in law, in Wilmington NC which is where I am currently.
During all this time I continued to participate as keyboard support for both Standing Rock and the Ecosystem Restoration Camps. I met some amazing people and made friends of some of them. Some of those friendships are still active. Though the Standing Rock encampments were closed down by force in February 2017, many of the people involved, both indigenous and not, have continued on courses set there. One small group, called Black Flag Search and Rescue, became another focus for me as they worked hurricane relief first in Texas (Harvey) then in Florida (Irma) and finally in Puerto Rico (Maria) The lead of that group is still down in PR, and a tiny group of us have been supporting her efforts there from the mainland.
This past year I focused on gardening, for my sins. I hoped to grow enough vegetables and herbs that I could share widely with the neighbors. Weather killed my garden. I started with some pretty poor conditions due to previous bad decisions (the garden area had been dug out below grade, and tilled heavily so that there was a compacted layer about five inches down.) Even well before Hurricane Florence, in the early summer we had a series of flooding rains (four inches or more each time) which utterly drowned my garden. I labored to save what I could but ultimately had to just give up. I know if I had had a few years to work with and build up the soil I could have corrected the drainage and so might have saved some, but that was not the situation. Many gardeners and small farmers around here had terrible years due to this weather. (Wilmington had 100 + inches of rain in the year as compared to a less than 60 inch average in previous years.)
Then Florence happened. This storm was very big, slow, and full of water and aimed directly at Wilmington. Because hurricanes are not all that unusual around here, my sister and bil decided to ride it out. I was going to also but one of the other gals from Black Flag said she wanted to come get me and take me down to her place in Georgia -- so I accepted that offer. Thus, I spent three weeks in a quiet rural area, watching on the Weather Channel as Florence devastated my current home. It was two weeks before the roads began to be opened.
Our house did not flood but many in our neighborhood did. By now, most of the huge piles of debris are gone, but the trees.... broken and damaged all around. One big limb did fall on a corner of the roof here but that has all been repaired now. Sis and bil are planning to move us inland sometime later this year. Nobody wants to go through that again.
During this last year I have begun writing again. I was posting poems on Facebook and getting some nice reads, but Facebook has become intolerable to me for a number of reasons, so after trying the "temporary deactivation" method of breaking its hold, on Christmas Day I got the strong urge to just delete my account and did so.
And then I thought, why not go back to AW? My appetite for poetry and the conversations around it fully revived, I began to really miss this place. Glad to find it is still here, not washed away in some storm or overrun by jackbooted thugs. May it thrive!
But I appreciate your sensitivity also. It has been *such* an interesting time and I have learned a tremendous amount -- if I am going to come back in here I just needed a way to get somewhat current. Being asked helped me feel it was okay to just blurt some stuff out. 
back, Kyla!! It's very good to see you again. 
