Someone told me what it was and I liked it and connected it to stories I’ve read or watched. And now I connect it to daily life.
Today I came home to find a hummingbird flying around in my house!
I saw and heard the flutter buzzing of a tiny bird against my ceiling and I thought, ah magical realism! I see it!
Luckily it was near the back door. I stood quietly in the hall, held up my arms, and sent it images of flying out the door, which it did!
Door to Door.
It stresses me out. I am given a canvassing turf in a place I’ve never been. The app is confusing to me. It has lines for streets and little bubbles for houses and names but it feels like I’m holding an old game that when you tilt it, things slide off and it changes perspective.
It’s one of those confusing things that is even more confusing to explain.
My mind wanders which may be why I lose track of address numbers as I work. I hum to myself.
I drive 20 minutes out of town, park, and start my route. A couple places look haunted, like a horror movie set, but most were quite nice. I was in a sweet neighborhood with mature tall trees and a river nearby.
Aside from writing a screenplay in my head for a horror movie, I also imagined a story where the canvasser and the person answering the door fall in love. They banter about politics and one thing leads to another and their souls connect in a way they never imagined happening.
Anyway, nothing like that happened, horror or romance. I didn’t need to have been stressed about it.
There were pigeons too. Two met and looked like they were kissing alternate cheeks like they do in Europe, only sped up. There was a group of kids on bikes enjoying the no traffic streets. There was a woman wondering what I was doing on the street looking at house addresses. That’s part of the thing, we have to knock on specific houses, like democrat, independents, non-affiliated. No republicans. Later, finally on Main Street I looked up and down the street trying to figure out which direction to go and a man on a motorized wheelchair asked me if I was lost. I said, well, no, maybe a little.
It was hot out and I was sweaty and also a little tired from walking all over. I came upon a city park with a wide creek or maybe it was a small river. There was a suspension bridge going across. It was cooler there. I stopped knocking doors and walked by the creek, over the bridge and next to rocks. I saw a heron and ducks, and possibly a beaver lodge.
It was a nice place to be, the park, but it had been a nice afternoon really, and several people thanked me for my efforts and seemed to care. I see it as a personal growth thing, to do something that scares the hell out of me in some ways. Didn’t Eleanor Roosevelt say to do something everyday that scares the hell out of you?
Phone bank.
I was one of those annoying people that call you at dinner time to suggest you vote for someone. I did it as fast and friendly as possible.
Why am I doing this I wondered. It wasn’t for power. It was for getting the best person in for taking care with disaster relief, access to healthcare, law enforcement, and roads.
I called Dixie who is 80-something but she didn’t pick up. But just calling a Dixie really cheered me up.
The next guy answered the phone and called me buddy and had already donated money and I felt love was possible.
There were also
Hang ups
No thanks
No time bye
I quit on a high note. Another person I cold-called said he didn’t have time and could I call back and I said uh I don’t know, then he said oh it’s ok it must be hard to make these calls, thank you. Then we spent at least a minute describing what Heather Buch looks like because he thought he met her once at church. We ended up talking and being a little silly and he decided he would vote for her, then we wished each other well and hung up.
There are still some good people among us.
I didn’t want to do it or I was afraid I’d do it badly and I did stumble around goofed up the wording and pitch at first but then little by little I found my voice and just whistled into the phone like a happy walrus.
I’m going to do a little workshop on how to apply calm. I named it. It’s through the university and it’s a how to pressure points for stress and overwhelm that anyone can do. How to give and how to receive. I was talking with a coworker and he said anything that leans toward helping is good and I thought so too and have wanted to do this for a while but didn’t really have a template. So I’ve been looking at old classic books and jotting down notes to put applying calm in words. The touch part I know.
https://calendar.uoregon.edu/event/how-to-apply-calm is the after-school workshop!
