{"id":7356,"date":"2021-09-24T07:27:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T14:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=7356"},"modified":"2021-09-24T07:27:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T14:27:18","slug":"friends-of-meditations-heather-the-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/friends-of-meditations-heather-the-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends of Meditations (Heather the Writer)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

I want to remind readers that I have moved my content about the homeless over to a newsletter format called Substack. The newsletter is called The New American Diaspora and I believe I am turning out some of my most important and passionate writing of my career. I urge you to check it out at the web site below and subscribe (it’s free for the time being) and support this endeavor. I will continue to post other content on this blog. Below is the link to Substack and one of the pieces I recently posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/mattlove.substack.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heather the Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I exited the grocery store and the woman was still sitting on a concrete retaining wall and writing in what appeared to be a journal. In front of her was a cardboard sign that read: \u201cAnything helps. The struggle is real.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in the 80s and she had found some shade. She looked hard at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had noticed her upon my entrance into the store and vowed to investigate after concluding my shopping. In recent weeks, I had sought better engagement with the homeless, although I didn’t really know what constituted \u201cbetter.\u201d Clearly, though, just random observation wasn’t cutting it anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My groceries stored in the car, I walked over to the woman. I said hello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stared up at me and stopped writing. She had red curly hair, big eyes and a face with a road map carved into the skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see you’re writing. What are you writing about?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout being homeless and addicted. I want to write a book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you going to title it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don’t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She spoke softly and with precision and always made eye contact. I had absolutely no idea how old she might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you live around here?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI live on 122nd<\/sup> and Burnside. It’s disgusting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo you take the bus to over here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, it’s much quieter, the people are nice and I can write.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A writer often wants to leave a noisy and combative living situation and find a quiet place to write. When Raymond Carver started writing, he often left his contentious home in Clatskanie for the inside of his vehicle parked in the driveway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don’t know how you do it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She hesitated then said, \u201cI learned the body can survive incredible temperatures, hot and cold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pulled out my walled and extricated a $5 bill. I handed it to her. She took it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is to help out,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I returned to my car, opened the door, then closed it. I walked back to the woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don’t mean to interrupt,\u201d I said. \u201cBut I would be interested in reading some of your writing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am writer, you’re a writer, and I want to pay you for your writing. Writer should get paid for writing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounded like a mini manifesto and maybe it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tell you what,\u201d I said, \u201cI want to commission a piece of writing from you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reached into my pocket and pulled out all the loose cash. It wasn’t much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere’s six bucks, for one page or two of anything you want to write. You can tear it out of your journal if you want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I handed her the money and she took it. A look of surprise registered on her face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you so much,\u201d she said. \u201cI’ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to support your project. I shop here on a regular basis so I can pick up the piece when you finish it. This is my regular time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat’s your name?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMatt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m Heather.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNice to meet you Heather. I hope to see you again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that, I left. The plan was to return in a couple of days. She had a deadline, I think.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to remind readers that I have moved my content about the homeless over to a newsletter format called Substack. The newsletter is called The New American Diaspora and I believe I am turning out some of my most important and passionate writing of my career. I urge you to check it out at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[886,1124,116,1122,7],"class_list":["post-7356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","tag-homeless","tag-newsletter","tag-portland","tag-substack","tag-writing","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7358,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7356\/revisions\/7358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}