Language Matters

Dawn HeadshotIn May of 2016 I consciously uncoupled from Kurt, my partner of over a decade.  He and I had been on quite a journey together.  We had headed south intent on building a sustainable and self-sufficient homestead in the hills outside Austin, TX.  We founded Spooky Action Ranch in 2010 and worked through the usual trials and tribulations toward our goal.  That’s not the tale I intend to tell.  Not yet.

The ceremony of our uncoupling was a finely crafted one.  A ritual steeped in personal and universal symbols and traditions, it was intended to set us firmly and joyously on our new paths.  Our inspiration and our intent have been the hero’s journey.  We have launched one another on our new quests, offering friendship and support along the way, but knowing that now our paths must part.

Language Matters is a step on my journey.  Moving to Austin, TX to take on the homesteading life had been a major shift in my life’s trajectory.  I had been a theater professional for many years, and was working at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood OH when an ill timed snow storm and the perfect drifting wind snowed us in and planted the seed of a different life.   That seed grew into a life of great beauty and growth, which had its share of darkness and hardship, as all lives in this dream of ours do.  It will take some time for me to tell the tale of it.   Time for full understanding, or the illusion of it.  Time for things to find and lose their meaning.

In that new life, I lost my voice.  There are a dozen reasons for this and there is no reason for this.  None.  It was true in the physical and metaphysical sense and it was as if I was under a spell.   A spell woven by my own thoughts and beliefs about myself and the world around me.   This new life was isolated, I might go days without seeing another human.  Kurt would frequently travel for his work.  I had no cause make the 30 mile trek into town.  There is clearly something outside the ordinary experience in solely communing with cats and cabbages.   My habits changed.  I changed.  I went inside.  I explored.  I learned.  I didn’t know what to say.

Language Matters is the beginning of an answer to that question.  It is the early explorations of my discoveries.  It is the scribbles on the chalk board as I work to solve the equation of the universe as it has come to me in spurts and flashes of inspirations.  It is glimpses of the works that inspire and lead me to these exploration.  It is the finding of my voice.  It is the discovery of my storyteller.

I hope you enjoy.