I haven't written here for a while because the editing job I mentioned in last post takes up a huge portion of my time and John, my beloved Canadian husband, is here for an extended visit so it's all life all the time. Oh and I'm still teaching.
So, just a few things to say I'm alive:
Grateful beyond measure for my new, rigorous yoga practice at KeshavaRadha yoga. Without it, I doubt I'd be standing.
So incredibly grateful for John being here and being so incredibly helpful with everything. I have never been with someone so extraordinarily loving and attentive. I have to be careful even so because I forget I have to just focus on my work and can't be attempting to take care of him right now, too. But that's hard. Not because of John, I hasten to add, but because of pressure I put on myself. However, because John is here, he gives me: back rubs, dinner, coffee in bed, a sympathetic ear and relief from endless household tasks and sweet relief from the anxiety of my true love's absence.
We're getting through the bumpy bits and it's just wonderful to know he's here for a while. Visa process still pending but on its way. I've never felt so comfortable with another human being, so it's easy to forget sometimes how new this situation is. Wouldn't trade it for anything!
Some things I'm also grateful for: that we in NYC voted for Bill de Blasio for Mayor. Hopefully that signals some positive change in the city. My Fordham students' writing is getting better. This delights me.
Sad about the passing of Lou Reed, stunned by beauty of Laurie Anderson's farewell to him (if you haven't read it, do - it's in new issue of Rolling Stone and online). So glad these days to hear of true love and people who can even hold one another in the face of mortality.
Don't have more to say right now. Life is life. Life is love. Breathing is good for the soul. True love is also good for the soul and being able to live for a while with my true love is even better!
Welcome to my blog..
"We struggle with dream figures and our blows fall on living faces." Maurice Merleau-Ponty
I am now transitioning into being married again with a new surname (Barclay-Morton). John is transitioning from Canada to NYC and as of June 2014 has a green card. So transition continues, but now from sad to happy, from loss to love...from a sense of alienation to a sense of being at home in the world.
As of September 2013 I started teaching writing as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, which I have discovered I love with an almost irrational passion. While was blessed for the opportunity, after four years of being an adjunct, the lack of pay combined with heavy work load stopped working, so have transferred this teaching passion to private workshops in NYC and working with writers one on one, which I adore. I will die a happy person if I never have to grade an assignment ever again. As of 2018, I also started leading writing retreats to my beloved Orkney Islands. If you ever want two weeks that will restore your soul and give you time and space to write, get in touch. I am leading two retreats this year in July and September.
I worked full time on the book thanks to a successful crowd-funding campaign in May 2014 and completed it at two residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Wisdom House in summer 2015. I have done some revisions and am shopping it around to agents and publishers now, along with a new book recently completed.
I now work full-time as a freelance writer, writing workshop leader, coach, editor and writing retreat leader. Contact me if you are interested in any of these services.
Not sure when transition ends, if it ever does. As the saying goes, the only difference between a sad ending and a happy ending is where you stop rolling the film.
For professional information, publications, etc., go to my linked in profile and website for Barclay Morton Editorial & Design. My Twitter account is @wilhelminapitfa. You can find me on Facebook under my full name Julia Lee Barclay-Morton. More about my grandmothers' book: The Amazing True Imaginary Autobiography of Dick & Jani
In 2017, I launched a website Our Grandmothers, Our Selves, which has stories about many people's grandmothers. Please check it out. You can also contact me through that site.
In May, I directed my newest play, On the edge of/a cure, and have finally updated my publications list, which now includes an award-winning chapbook of my short-story White shoe lady, which you can find on the sidebar. I also have become a certified yoga instructor in the Kripalu lineage. What a year!
And FINALLY, I have created a website, which I hope you will visit, The Unadapted Ones. I will keep this blog site up, since it is a record of over 8 years of my life, but will eventually be blogging more at the website, so if you want to know what I am up to with my writing, teaching, retreats and so on, the site is the place to check (and to subscribe for updates). After eight years I realized, no, I'm never turning into One Thing. So The Unadapted Ones embraces the multiplicity that comprises whomever I am, which seems to always be shifting. That may in fact be reality for everyone, but will speak for myself here. So, do visit there and thanks for coming here, too. Glad to meet you on the journey...
Ah Julia,
ReplyDeleteLaurie Anderson came over to Germany last week to perform and receive a lifetime achievement award from the B3 festival in Frankfurt. She gave a masterclass – six days after her husbands death. It was astonishing: heartwarming, generous, life-affirming and very funny. A masterclass in how to be a splendidly solid human being. The next day she gave an inspiring concert – so jam-packed with wit, philosophy and empathy it was almost impossible to keep up with her whirring intellect. I was gobsmacked (and so proud of her as a human being, for going ahead with it in the circumstances).
Although I was excited I was trying not to expect too much, given that she was such an iconic inspiration in the 80s (often the relevance wanes) - I only wanted to check her out as we have invited her to a radio festival. I'd never seen her live before, although had always wanted to. Fortunately it was a general performance rather than a totally themed show. This enabled her to be her very best - her very present self. A blessing. And just as relevant as ever. Cor!
Lovewash
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ReplyDeleteTried to send you a reply and managed to botch it so here again:
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for that lovely story! She is amazing and I'm so glad you got to see/work with her. Imagine she will be great at radio festival too. So great to know one's heroes are astonishing human beings as well as kick ass artists.
Greatness never goes out of style…
Speaking of which, I miss you! Hope we get to be in same place at same time soon.
Love,
J
When I saw that letter to her local paper, I suddenly realised with a rush that she would probably come to the festival.
ReplyDeleteYou'll like this... During her performance she moved away from the music stand, settled in an armchair and said something remarkable along these lines: 'I've been around death a lot, my mother, friends, my husband...' and then (if I remember completely correctly) went on to say that it was perhaps hardest of all to deal with the death of a cherished animal because of the different type of relationship you have to it – this was by way of introduction to a devotional section on her deceased piano-playing dog.
She talked a lot about the spiritual beliefs she is influenced by - without claiming them directly. It was clear that she is well developed in her personal practice, and appreciative of her Tibetan teachers beliefs about the state of bardo (helping allow her I guess to offer her husband the ultimate freedom by not trying to hold on to him – this you could also read into the letter). She said that the Tibetans believe that if you cry, you are confusing the departed spirit by trying to call it back. Interestingly, she also outlined what one teacher had instructed: after death you will see two lights – one large and bright nearby and another smaller and not so bright which is further away and harder to reach. Strive to get to the one that is further away......
Miss you too. Would love to share more inspirations with you. I am so happy to see you thriving.
xxx