In Your Smallest Pocket
By Jane O'Shea
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About this ebook
When we are world weary, at crossroads, in the middle of change. When our hearts hurt and we feel discouraged and alone. When we need some breathing space to rest and remember. Then dipping into this book offers a reminder, that what we may need is actually right here – in our smallest pocket. In Your Smallest Pocket puts into words the messiness of our inner lives, the tangled confusion of our relationships, and our wonder and worry about the world around us. It gives us a vocabulary to start unfamiliar conversations with ourselves and with others.
Jane O'Shea
Jane lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her husband Peter. She spends her days tending her garden, walking her dog, and writing. She still sometimes works as a mediator, facilitator, and communications coach and presenter. She has written two other books: In Your Smallest Pocket and Word Remedies. For more information and for book purchases, go to her website: www.wordremedies.co.nz
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In Your Smallest Pocket - Jane O'Shea
PREFACE
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One day, not writing this book became more painful than my fear of writing it.
So I grabbed some chocolate, and other suitable distractions. A bit more chocolate, and I was ready to go.
Ten years after my first book.
INTRODUCTION
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It starts at the place where everything changes. That was when I almost died. It wasn’t the almost dying that changed everything, it was what happened next.
I was at my brother’s wedding, so I didn’t want to make a fuss. My old ‘friend’ asthma had made a reappearance in my life, but with three wee children under four, dealing with it hadn’t hit the urgent list. On this occasion, my breathing difficulties were making a particularly strong comeback. I thought I’d quietly slip outside, hide behind a tree, and try to get my breathing to behave itself.
Just as well my aunt-the-nurse came out to find me, because I don’t remember anything until I realised that I was in an ambulance on my way to hospital. So much for not making a fuss...
The next week, I was sitting in front of my doctor, resisting all his attempts to put me on daily medication. With some compromising, we managed to negotiate a safe way for me to explore other options to get myself well. Mind you, I had no idea what those options might be.
First up, I thought I would do some research. Among other causes, there appeared to be some evidence that there was an emotional component to this asthma thing. This was tugging at my interest. Just like that one phrase in a song that gets stuck in your head ... emotional component, emotional component, emo ... The more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I became. Meanwhile the invisible beast was still squeezing the breath right out of me.
Finally, the earworm won. If the asthma had any kind of emotional basis, what might it be? This turned out to be a smallish question with a biggish answer.
Once I let my guard down, it was game-on. There were clear signs that all was not well. I was stressed and precariously close to being overwhelmed. Riddled with self-doubt, I was constantly unkind to myself. And if I hadn’t got sick, I might have stayed that way for the rest of my life. Or maybe something else would have broken under the strain of holding myself together.
This getting-myself-well business was a much bigger job than I had imagined, and I was pretty lost. So I did what I always do when I’m stuck: I made a plan. I decided to try everything and anything until I found what worked.
If I’d known how much time it would take and how much it would cost, I might have gone for the drugs. As it happened, I learned two things about healing: it follows a wobbly line, and it takes as long as it takes.
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Just letting you know
I have written about the sexual abuse that happened to me as a child. It was a definite decision to include this part of myself and my writing. It felt disingenuous to keep this part of myself hidden. But more than that - if I let fear or judgment keep me quiet, then it would feel like I'd become part of the problem.
The chapter called 'Playing Hide and Seek' is about childhood trauma. The stories 'Some kind of murky grey' and 'It was done' also touch on this subject.
I’M LOVINGLY CAUGHT
(Coming home to yourself)
SURRENDERED
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ALMOST FORGOTTEN
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IT IS FOR ME
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MY OWN MADE EARTH
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JUST NOW
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AMBUSHED
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SAVED
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WHAT REMAINS
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JANE O’SHEA AND DISASSOCIATES
SURRENDERED
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My tea cools down beside me
as I sit down to stress
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I watch the wind dance through the long grass
which needs mowing since last I looked
The washing drying in the breeze
as the sun strolls from cloud to cloud
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All around me
life is happening without effort
And here I am
in the middle
incessantly trying
struggling with this
urgency about that
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Overlooking the uncomplicated fact
that life is already happening
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Foolishness still prevails
as I try not to try
ALMOST FORGOTTEN
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Tucked away in a corner
behind the have-tos and the everyday
are the ideals and ideas we once held so close
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Now and then
we need to go in
and have a good rummage
to remember what’s still important
Don’t wait for the crisis
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It’s already getting late
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All that was put away for later
in those safe
almost forgotten places
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Time to make sure nothing
is left out or left behind
IT IS FOR ME
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From its winter freeze
the icy heart-melt begins
and love starts to flow
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Fresh new water
pours from the lonely mountains
down through the quiet valleys
moving over warming rocks and rich earth
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Winding through the plains
warmed in the sun
curling its way here
to awaken my body
and bathe my aching heart
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And to my surprise
this spring flood
of utterly tender love
is not for another
It is for me
MY OWN MADE EARTH
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There is one place I like the best
A place that most people
would never guess
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It’s here
with my hands
deep in my compost bins
All four of them
large and in a row
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Full to the brim with waste and scraps
seaweed, weeds, horse poo
and grounds from my local coffee house
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Musty smell of rotting
feeding the worms and the microbes
The damp warmth
and rich dark brown finery
of my own made earth
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Then lugged and dug into the garden beds
for the vegetables, for the flowers
for my sheer delighted pleasure