Mainely Thoughts Says Goodbye

S!#t happens.

I didn’t have a clue where to start this post. I have a whole bunch of drafts with good beginnings that I’ve written since my last post on December 2. When it came to this final draft, though, all I could think was, shit happens.

Consider it my two word summary of the song Landslide — a personal favorite.

Like, I fell in love. Which caught me totally off-guard, but in such an exciting, sweet, exhilarating way. I’d been telling people I wouldn’t ever get in a relationship again unless some man came along who was able to make me feel something entirely different from what I’d ever felt before.

Let’s just say I wasn’t holding my breath. Nonetheless, here I am enjoying the rush of feeling entirely new things at a not entirely new age. Thank you, Denny.

Also, I’ve been working hard on stabilizing my health for my own longevity, and this process has been reinvigorating me and has reminded me of the brevity of life … and the need to find as much fulfillment and joy from it as possible.

Writing Mainely Thoughts has brought me many moments of fulfillment and joy. I’ve had so many awesome exchanges with readers and met incredible people along the way. I’ve been honored and humbled by compliments I receive from readers when I am out and about.

Speaking of which, I have a new favorite. Last winter during a quick conversation with a photographer at an event I was covering, the gentleman asked me to repeat my name. A simple “what did you say your name was?” tends to give me pause, but I owned up to being myself.

The photographer asked if I was the one with the blog — again with the hesitation — and again I owned up to being myself. I about fell over with laughter and pride when he exclaimed, “You’ve got a brass set!” My readers, even the critics, rock!

I started this blog in large part because of my dear friend Cobby pushing me to write. I’ve been thinking about how he insisted that middle-age was just the beginning of the fun if you did things right and how he was always pushing me to take my creative work to the next level. And about how much we both benefited from marijuana.

As my readers know, it’s a subject I could write about endlessly.  For me, marijuana has literally been a life-saver, enabling me to parent and work professionally.

Lord knows it took quite a bit of marijuana to be able to write about all the foolishness that goes on in the political world these days. Frankly, I don’t know how anyone could write about this realm without it … you need something to counteract the resulting depression, frustration, and nausea.

On occasion marijuana even helped me keep a sense of humor about it all, too.

Now it’s time to take marijuana and my new love and my thoughts of Cobby to the next level, which sadly means the end of Mainely Thoughts. Denny, I and a small group of friends are launching a website dedicated to marijuana, medical marijuana particularly, called JibbahJabbah.com.

The soft launch is May 10 maybe 11, and if you visit, please understand we are starting in a very piecemeal fashion. The site itself is beautiful, but our work is pretty low-budget. We hope viewers will bear with us as we try to afford better and better production. We have a couple blogs and videos of interviews with caregivers and how-to’s for growing.

The goal is to offer a positive discussion about marijuana as experienced by users and other members of the community. We’re trying to cut through all the noise created by the recreational legalization chaos and get good information out there to people who need it.

I can’t thank my readers enough for making Mainely Thoughts the powerful experience it has been. I am very grateful to the folks at the Bangor Daily News, as well, most especially Erin Rhoda and Matt Stone. I was so blessed to find myself under the wings of such fine professionals!!

Please know I did my best to offer my voice on behalf of my vulnerable peers and leave this role wishing our society placed a higher value on well-rounded discussions. I was heartened to find so many kindred spirits out there who supported my efforts, but troubled at the same time by the sense that so much of what passes for politics isn’t much more than scripted, soap-opera-like nonsense.

Nonsense that’s loud enough to drown out the suffering of all the populations waiting for genuine progress from true leaders.

Sigh. Inhale. Time to Jibbah Jabbah.

Gratitude and best wishes to all,
Trish

Patricia Callahan

About Patricia Callahan

Trish is a writer who lives in Augusta. She has worked professionally in education and social services.