{"id":11038,"date":"2021-10-16T06:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=11038"},"modified":"2021-10-12T13:34:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T20:34:40","slug":"the-way-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/the-way-through\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way Through"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer\u2019s voice on the page.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Way Through<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Rebecca Olivia Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fears change over the years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never being good enough<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youthful drive for perfection<\/p>\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n

The impossible<\/p>\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n

Competition and proving myself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best daughter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best dancer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best singer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best at all attempts<\/p>\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n

Not possible<\/p>\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n

Time has mellowed anxieties into a soft pillow of joy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear now is the walk toward unknowing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A loss of self<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fading memories of life’s struggles<\/p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I witnessed Mother’s decline into helplessness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night wanderings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The frightening hallucinations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her ultimate vanishing<\/p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will I vanish, too?<\/p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slow breaking of synapses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unable to make decisions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thoughts like ghosts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fear of losing control over choices<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing in a continuum of uselessness<\/p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also watched my father’s vanishing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he held on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving until his music stopped<\/p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, the only way through the fear is beyond thought<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the unknowable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accept what was<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hold faith in life as it is<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust loved ones living<\/p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And love the ones who have vanished<\/p>\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n

Rebecca Olivia Jones <\/strong>is a playwright, singer, dancer, composer, choreographer, director, and always a poet. In 2021, Rebecca collected her poetry and lyrics, accompanied by beautiful photography into a memoir, Beachsight<\/em>, available on blurb.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca has a B.A. in Creative Writing from New College of California. She is also a mother, grandmother, sister, and a seeker. She lives in San Rafael, California with her long-time boyfriend and their cat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca teaches singing lessons via zoom; enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, reading, and writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is an advocate for the Alzheimer’s Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer\u2019s voice on the page. The Way Through By Rebecca Olivia Jones Fears change over the years Never being good enough The youthful drive for perfection   The impossible   Competition and proving myself The best daughter The best dancer The best singer The best at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1474],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sparks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2S2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11038"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11043,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038\/revisions\/11043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}