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Caption: A 3-Part Story Of A
Most Unlikely Friendship
By Meri Aaron Walker YOU'VE GOT TO LET
THE GREAT SADNESS GO
Part 1
Caption: BENJAMIN is the guy who offered a "therapeutic yoga" class I dragged myself into
one dark morning, two years ago.
He was a vital, healthy 38.
I was a failing 63-year-old-jockette with arthritic hands and wrists;
bad back, neck, feet;
an abused right hip.
Terrified to move and
hurt myself more.
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Caption: Saying I was in a bad mood
the morning I met Ben would be
making light of the state I was in.
"She Found Out She Couldn't Fly."
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Caption: When Dreams Die... Life is a Broken-Winged Bird
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Caption: Metaphorically speaking, I was knocking on heaven's door. Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually.
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Caption: Too many lies.
Too much loss.
Unspeakable betrayal. Philosophical and financial ruin.
And now chronic pain.
I'd been six decades
"a miner for a heart of gold... Searching, searching for
a heart of gold..."
And me and Neil Young -
we were "gettin' old..."
Caption: "Mama, take this badge off of me.
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark to see
I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door.
Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud
is comin' down
I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door."
- Bob Dylan
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Caption: Pushing open the gym door hurt my fingers, wrists, hips, back, shoulders and feet. Everything dust in the wind.
"It Had Been a Matter of Survival."
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Caption: Ben didn't pity me. Following his movements, I cried. When he noticed, he said, "Tears are welcome here."
"What I Am Is What I Am
And What You Are Is What You Are."
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Caption: I couldn't get him to push me so hard I could quit. But neither would he
let up on new challenges.
"Checkmate."
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Caption: I kept calling him 'Mr. Rogers' because Ben uses his voice to
lead and teach without macho.
(He tolerated this with a thin grin.)
"Try A Little Tenderness."
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Caption: As I continued to struggle,
Ben often offered me
bodywork to help loosen up the frozen nerves, muscles
and joints.
Terrified for any man to
touch my old, wrecked body,
I said no again and again.
Besides, I was broke. Finally, he insisted, offering to trade bodywork for artwork.
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Caption: I I accepted his offer to trade.
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Caption: "The Empress Removes Her Clothes."
Because he was so much younger than me, I wasn't prepared for what Ben actually had to trade...
Caption: IPHONE ART GIRL Original #iphoneography, #iphonephotography, #iphoneonly
© 2015, Meri Aaron Walker,
Talent, OR. All rights reserved.
Excerpted from upcoming books.
Images available on
a variety of materials.
Come along: I do mobile art
and creativity workshops:
http://iphoneartgirl.com/want_more