Q & A with Laurie Kirkpatrick

A. I got a chance to really think about myself: where I've come from, my strengths and values, my unmet dreams and what I might want to make of my life at this juncture. Also support and positive energy from the facilitator, Jerry Garfield, and a very lively, enjoyable group of women (as it turned out in our group) from all walks of life. We had a lot of fun together and were able to expand upon one another's ideas with exhilarating synergy. Finally, we got a very nice compilation of local resources and readings which Coming of Age has put together for participants.

 

Q. What plans or goals do you have after your retirement from work? 

A. Initially I plan to goof off a bit and to attend some family events in the East, but also to dedicate more time to my artistic passions--poetry writing and quilting. I hope to get more ambitious about poetry publication. I will finally be able to join EBHQ (East Bay Heritage Quilters). Later my husband and I are going to pretend we are young again and meander around the country, visiting friends we haven't seen for a long time, national parks and locales we want to see again.

Eventually I hope to find some ways to combine my love of poetry and core value of promoting the psychological growth/well being of others. Maybe I'll teach more. I'll attend OLLI classes, sing in a choir and to find ways to connect with children, camping and gardening.

Q. Did attending the workshop change any of those plans?

A. Attending the workshop encouraged me to think a little larger than I usually do, and to think more creatively about integrating my interests.  I also received some unexpected validation of my writing.

 

Q. You're planning to continue meeting with people from those sessions. What do you feel will come out of those meetings?  

A. We had such a good time together, we decided to continue meeting informally as a group at one another's homes.  I think groups are a terrific way to increase the likelihood of follow through with goals. I hope we will continue to help one another brainstorm and persist through frustrations which may arise as we enter our new arenas. 

I also feel a need to garner all the social support I can at this time of life when I face losing my longstanding workplace connections and identity. These women are a great bunch, and we laugh and play well together.  If Coming of Age begins to hold more meetings in the East Bay, I would imagine using the larger organization for potential networking of all kinds.

Q.  Will you be looking for volunteer or community-involvement activities?

 

A. Eventually I want to look into volunteer/tutorial work of an academic nature with children; possibly poetry in the schools or other therapeutic uses of poetry. I want to explore Girls Inc. A whole other direction of interest would be contributing to medical research either through Kaiser's Division of Research or local NIH or University studies. And another--work in a community garden, both learning and teaching.

 

Q. Any other comments you’d like to share? 

A. “Explore Your Future” was a very enjoyable and helpful experience. Thanks to all of you for your work!

Many thanks to Laurie for taking the time to answer our questions and for her kind words and inspirational comments!

 

Building The New Room

1
 

The new room had no walls
that summer
while construction workers poured and framed.
Our drawers, our bedsteads
rested on the backyard bricks,
and wind moved in like a familiar smell.
 

The world became the house.
Streets and gardens spread around us like a rumpled quilt.
Sun filled the children's teacups.
Plum trees and honeysuckle vines were packed as
sweet pantries in the grass.
 

The morning's rose and lime
were brighter there
like colors used to be
when we were young,
like the friendly goldfish painting by Matisse,
where everything is cluttered and overgrown
because people have better things to do
and it doesn’t really matter if
the water turns to glass or to air.
 

You could see everything
for those brief weeks.
You could see clearly
 

how we are a simple people,
taking food from strangers,
sleeping all together in the dark,
waving every day at the open door
as our children disappear.

 

2
 

Like wooden ribs the new walls rose,
encompassing us:
the belly of a whale.
In what seas would we be carried
 

by this now delineated place,
committing future to location,
bending all the rooms of the imagination
into one shape?
 

Here stood the beautiful bones
and arteries laid bare,
but soon to be buried under sheetrock where
things could go wrong
and go long unnoticed:
Something brand new which would
slowly, surely come to ruin.
 

I regretted all evidence of progress.
When I grieved
that the warm, grainy
oak window frames would be painted,
my friend Nick, a builder and an artist,
soothed me: “Wait. It will be fine.
Now you are looking at the windows;
but once they are white
or unremarkable
or old,
you will look through the windows
and you'll see the trees.”

 

      Laurie Kirkpatrick