CROSS CREEK

Two cards with gifts have arrived to celebrate my birthday! The Long Hairz Collective sent a gathering of beautiful words and a braid of sweet grass. From Sue I got the movie DVD "Cross Creek" and a nice card. Brian wrote: "I recall your stories like prayers of thanksgiving and sacred calls to action." Joe penned: "You continue to bless us with your fierce healing spirit." Oh, such generous lads! Sue, Laura and I visited Cross Creek and also dined at The Yearling Cafe when I was in Florida so seeing the movie was almost like returning. I don't think the movie was filmed at Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's home but the location was near Cross Creek so it was lush and green and wet. The movie was made in 1980 so perhaps the Rawling's house had not yet been renovated but it didn't look like the house I'd visited. I had read Cross Creek, The Yearling, The Sojourner and a book written by her former housekeeper. The movie doesn't sugar coat Rawling's alcoholism but I was disappointed that we never saw her big yellow car. Now I can appreciate how difficult it really was for her to find her voice and write her great novel. Perhaps I will find my voice, too. And did you know that the elder man who gives her directions to the hotel was really Norton Baskins, her second husband! A very small part. Yesterday Cedar and I returned to visit the local cemetery and walk among the tombstones. She watched Peter and the Wolf several times on netflix. I sat out under the moon before going to bed. Then got up and finished reading "Women of the Silk". The famous movie star Esther Williams and my old friend Cathy Clark appeared in my dreams. I was leaving a school building where I'd been telling tales and my arms were full of coats. Cathy was lying on a towel on the gym floor and didn't want to talk. I carried the coats down dreary city streets. Then a big black limousine pulled up and a man asked if I wanted to ride. I declined. Esther Williams leaned out the back window and asked why I didn't want to ride with her. I said I always refuse to ride in a limousine. So she and the man got out. He took a large syringe from the boot, stuck the needle under the hood and the car got smaller and smaller. When it was a just right I got inside and rode away with Esther Williams. I suppose we were riding under water as I was unable to see the street after that.