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Post by Vyckie D. Garrison on Dec 7, 2009 10:38:45 GMT -5
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Post by visualsyntax on Dec 7, 2009 13:07:25 GMT -5
My boyfriend tried growing mushrooms once. It was an utter and complete failure.
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Post by tapati on Dec 7, 2009 13:11:51 GMT -5
My boyfriend tried growing mushrooms once. It was an utter and complete failure. I wonder if anyone has really succeeded. I always suspected that the mycelium was fake. In a future installment he makes a really hilarious attempt to sterilize the growth medium.
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Post by margybargy on Dec 7, 2009 13:22:56 GMT -5
tapati, there's always so much to digest in your posts. Couple thoughts.
1. It shocked me when Mike quit his job rather than stick it out for the sake of you and the baby. He lied about his qualifications but the guy was willing to keep him on and train him! Sounds like a decent job to me. Better than nothing, for sure. You must have been so frustrated.
2. It was interesting that the couple on the fringes of the movement, the ones who gave you a place a stay, were sort of looked down on by the others. According to my calculus, they were the most upstanding of the bunch. It's strange, the criteria we use to judge each other sometimes.
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Post by juliacat on Dec 7, 2009 17:55:41 GMT -5
I just had a baby, so I for one was horrified at the idea of a pregnant woman living in a laundry room. I wish someone had been able to give you better shelter than that!
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Post by tapati on Dec 7, 2009 22:38:24 GMT -5
tapati, there's always so much to digest in your posts. Couple thoughts. 1. It shocked me when Mike quit his job rather than stick it out for the sake of you and the baby. He lied about his qualifications but the guy was willing to keep him on and train him! Sounds like a decent job to me. Better than nothing, for sure. You must have been so frustrated. In retrospect I am guessing that he suffers from undiagnosed ADHD and was overwhelmed with no coping skills. Not to excuse him at ALL. But I observed that he couldn't do the same typesetting work in the daytime when there were many demands on him, but worked just fine in the quiet of the night with no interruptions. Yes, the male half had become infamous for asking some hard questions of our spiritual master so they were really looked down on, and undeservedly so in my opinion. You'll hear more about Jamadagni in a future installment. He is one of the heroes in my story.
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Post by tapati on Dec 7, 2009 22:41:04 GMT -5
I just had a baby, so I for one was horrified at the idea of a pregnant woman living in a laundry room. I wish someone had been able to give you better shelter than that! Yes it was a really brutal environment to experience the last couple of months of my pregnancy in! Plus the only footwear I owned was flipflops and they did not help my back or my feet any. I was pretty down and out (boy those lucky women who got hour long massages for $2.50!) and the community didn't so much as say to me "You could sleep in the brahmacarini ashram until your baby comes." I couldn't believe it when I was going through it!
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Post by anatheist on Dec 7, 2009 23:37:33 GMT -5
I'm relieved to hear that your story has some heroes in it! You are the biggest hero, because you got out and are here sharing with us
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Post by grandmalou on Dec 8, 2009 5:51:44 GMT -5
Tapati, oh, wow...my whole body and heart aches in sympathy for you when I read about you living in that laundry room and pregnant, sleeping on the floor. Poor dear lady! Thank you for sharing this with all of us, and it had to have been extremely painful re-living the memories!
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Post by tapati on Dec 8, 2009 14:19:50 GMT -5
I'm relieved to hear that your story has some heroes in it! You are the biggest hero, because you got out and are here sharing with us Awww, thank you! I certainly didn't feel heroic at the time. I felt like I was just blundering through from bad situations to worse until I couldn't take any more.
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Post by tapati on Dec 8, 2009 14:21:31 GMT -5
Tapati, oh, wow...my whole body and heart aches in sympathy for you when I read about you living in that laundry room and pregnant, sleeping on the floor. Poor dear lady! Thank you for sharing this with all of us, and it had to have been extremely painful re-living the memories! It is really intense writing this stuff and I have to take breaks in order to stay sane and re-orient myself to my present reality where I am not abused or spoken to harshly by anyone in my life. Being treated with respect is an enormous miracle to me and I never take it for granted.
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juju
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by juju on Dec 8, 2009 14:57:48 GMT -5
I am always appalled at stories about religions that claim to cherish life and then turn their backs in such a horrible way on someone as vulnerable as a heavily pregnant woman. Say what you will about the Catholic Church, if a woman shows up at our doorstep destitute and weeks from delivery, we WILL find a place for her to live until at least her baby is born and she gets back on her feet.
You told the story in such an evocative way that I was shivering right along with you in that laundry room. I am so sorry you had to go through that, and so glad that you emerged to tell us your story.
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Post by tapati on Dec 8, 2009 15:03:30 GMT -5
I am always appalled at stories about religions that claim to cherish life and then turn their backs in such a horrible way on someone as vulnerable as a heavily pregnant woman. Say what you will about the Catholic Church, if a woman shows up at our doorstep destitute and weeks from delivery, we WILL find a place for her to live until at least her baby is born and she gets back on her feet. You told the story in such an evocative way that I was shivering right along with you in that laundry room. I am so sorry you had to go through that, and so glad that you emerged to tell us your story. I think if it had gotten to the point of laboring, I'd have returned to Iowa with my baby as a last resort. It's true that the mostly young people in charge of the various temples didn't have a clue about how to deal with such things--while it was an old religion in India the institutions we were creating around the world were in their infancy and it showed. The policy was that householders had to provide for their families--and if they didn't, it was their problem. Every morning a new little pile of leaves had blown in under the door. We had a hard freeze here last night (in the Bay area far north of where I lived then) and it reminds me of the mid 40s temps of the laundry room. (We turn our heat down at night here.) I nearly fell over in the dark balancing over the milk jug. I can't even believe it myself sometimes! The whole scene is so vivid in my mind years later.
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Post by journey on Dec 9, 2009 1:01:40 GMT -5
tapati, Thank you so much for telling your story here. I am always looking forward to the next installment. (Same is true with the other authors)!
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Post by tapati on Dec 9, 2009 19:07:36 GMT -5
tapati, Thank you so much for telling your story here. I am always looking forward to the next installment. (Same is true with the other authors)! Thank you, Journey, I very much enjoy your installments and those of our other guest bloggers too. I know how much it takes out of you guys to write this stuff!
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Post by arietty on Dec 9, 2009 19:27:43 GMT -5
Tapati your story makes me want to take your teenage self home, tuck you up in bed and make you lovely vegetarian food.. I was so sad reading it.
Isn't it terrible how your connection to the father kept you in this situation. There were probably places you could have gone and been cared for but not brought him along. Being so vulnerable you had to put your hopes in him, and he could barely take care of himself much less his pregnant wife.
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Post by krwordgazer on Dec 9, 2009 23:39:53 GMT -5
Oh, Tapati, what an awful situation! So hard to read about. It's amazing what we can get through just because there's nothing else we can do. *hugs*
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Post by tapati on Dec 10, 2009 4:20:07 GMT -5
Tapati your story makes me want to take your teenage self home, tuck you up in bed and make you lovely vegetarian food.. I was so sad reading it. Isn't it terrible how your connection to the father kept you in this situation. There were probably places you could have gone and been cared for but not brought him along. Being so vulnerable you had to put your hopes in him, and he could barely take care of himself much less his pregnant wife. I often wish I could go back and rescue my teenage self--but I wouldn't have listened then (though I would have accepted a warm bed and some nourishing, vegetarian food). As long as it didn't come from my family, that is! I was still in love at that point and unwilling to leave him behind for anything except temporary shelter such as I was offered by Jamadagni and Jayasri. Even he didn't suggest right off the bat that I join him in the laundry room--though how quickly it began to seem normal to him!
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Post by tapati on Dec 10, 2009 4:22:33 GMT -5
Oh, Tapati, what an awful situation! So hard to read about. It's amazing what we can get through just because there's nothing else we can do. *hugs* I would have lost my mind if I hadn't had Lord of the Rings, friends to offer an ear or a kitchen, and some music from Bruce. (He loaned me some tapes from Jethro Tull and The Who.)
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Post by tapati on Dec 17, 2009 2:46:38 GMT -5
I finally gave birth to that baby and you should be reading about it sometime soon. The mystery of the baby's sex will be revealed!
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