Letter to my Younger-Self

Jamie Zoe Givens
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Dear JZG,

When you get to the transformer station on road S-22 which marks the boundary of the Anza-Borrego State Park, keep driving. You will find a right-hand turn which is an actual dirt road, not a motorcycle trail, and there will be a road sign which reads: Enter at Your Own Risk. That’s where you will find Oh-My-God-Hot-Well.

1991 JZG enjoying a soak at a hot tub in the Eastern Sierra, California.

Remember the bravery and zest for life while rappelling off of buildings and table rocks, you will need it to beat stage 4 cancer. The miles you drive between black buttes, vermillion deserts, giant sequoias, granite snow-topped mountains the shape of bread loaves and between road houses on the Alaskan-Canadian Highway count.

One day, the people in your life will agree, your feet look better with toenails polished. It’s not hard to suffer. The real work is in the smile, a half-smile, if you can remember.

Whether at a crystal mine in Arizona or at foggy Stinson Beach, life will teach: you never know who you are talking to. It may be the stranger whose life you save one night in Fallon, Nevada.

Get used to not knowing how the movie ends. The plot turns are stunning. With service and devotion, the comfort of others will be in the palm of your hands. Never forget the mystery of being a human.

2008 JZG Back of the moBus, Nashville, Tennessee. Photo by Dennis Wile

The seasons you will experience.

· Knowing, but told you don’t.

· Not knowing, but you do.

· Knowing that you know that you don’t know.

· Forgetting that you don’t know.

· Thinking you are a No-thing, nothing.

· Forgetting to forget to know.

· Lost knowing.

· Remembering.

· Reframing what it is to forget.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners believe humans have seven emotions.

1. Joy

2. Anger

3. Melancholy

4. Grief

5. Anxiety

6. Fear

7. Terror

If you feel something different, it is only a conclusion that you have jumped-to, and if someone asks how you are feeling, remember not to answer with the words, “I think.”

Stick to moving water like still air smothers, stick your feet in the earth, and never-ever forget how to start a fire.

Love,

Me

)

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Healing Artist & Writer | Unlock Positive Change in Your Body | Wear Healing Art | Mindful Living | Affirmations | Purposeful Design | Spirit & Nature Dancing

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