The Smell of Garlic on Sunday: a memoir, on learning the language of feelings, hearing what they've come to say

Looking your dreams in the face, knowing they are within reach, refusing to come up empty handed, that’s how it all starts. Sometimes, The Smell of Garlic on Sunday, is how it ends. That’s how it ended for this author. A journey back in time, feeling my way there, became a memoir, on learning the language of feelings, hearing what they’ve come to say. Neither a nostalgic look back, nor a pity party, it was some serious self-work getting into those deep-rooted feelings that threatened to sabotage my efforts - their message, packed in timeless photos, epiphanies, ah ha moments, laughter, and tears. Preparing to beast my next theatrical production, while clipping loose threads from the ragged relationship with my step-mother which had been tangling up my life since I was 10, acknowledging her impending demise, the pop-culture sentiment, “all in your feelings”, told me exactly what I would need to do to get through all of it. Certain that life could, otherwise, and at any moment, become a treadmill going nowhere fast, I dredged up every experience whose footprints of feelings had taken up residency in my psyche and wreaked havoc throughout my life. From a six year old stuck in a "Retarded Class", a step-child, a sexually ambiguous teen searching for inclusion, a budding artist, a young woman ruined and broken, a single mom, an audacious artist and evolving woman, I learned the language of my feelings and discerned what they had come to say. It was a process. I relived the emotions of each experience, got into the feelings left behind, explored the extreme opposite where I would much rather have hung out, connected the dots, and deciphered the messages. The messages, what I call Sacred Themes, have informed my going forward. I not only invite readers to share my journey; I offer tools to follow my footsteps - Instruction Manual: Learning the Language of Feelings, feeling your way to the life you desire and deserve in 7 steps, including “E.F.F.E.C.T.” an abbreviated process for parents, guardians, and teachers of children and youth. It's a must read. It's a must do.