Author Archives: hnoakes

“In the final months of her journey towards death, she fearfully let go the chisel, and saw me take it up and throw it away. (We had no need of that chisel now.) It had lost its edge some time ago. Only the soothing touch of hands, smoothing away the dust, the detritus of anger, [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Maps cannot tell me/Where I’ve been,/Cannot direct me/To the place I want to be.”Helen Noakes “There is an extraordinary distance from the head to the heart, a distance of ten, twenty, thirty years, or a whole lifetime.”—Carl G. Jung SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—8/20/2012— “Maps and Delusions” Maps there are Of [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “…One stands posturing/Before the cameras,/Spouting rehearsed lies./Hair slicked by a $500 barber./Couture suit,/Costing more than one man’s yearly wage./He smiles his million dollar smile,/Says he’s one of us./Really?” Helen Noakes   SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—6/4/2012— Sideshow One stands posturing Before the cameras, Spouting rehearsed lies. Hair slicked by a $500 [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “. . . is there a world in which/another me resides,/living a life quite different/from mine . . .” Helen Noakes SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—5/7/2012— “Wondering” Quantum physicists have affirmed what ancient sages knew, that there are parallel worlds, parallel universes. If so, is there a world in which another [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “…maybe death/isn’t darkness, after all/but so much light/wrapping itself around us…”—Mary Oliver, “White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field” SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—3/19/12—It is said that the Buddha’s last words were, “Make yourself a light.” And, thus, he went peacefully into the mystery of death. His life-long message [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Older, we must move, and stay, and move again, to keep our life-giving ties alive, for this movement is our fountain of age. And there’s a freedom in realizing this, a new freedom to move or stay, new necessities and possibilities of choice.”—Betty Friedan SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—2/13/12—   And [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”—Soren Kierkegaard SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—12/19/11—In dealing with the care of a mother who is approaching the last stage of her life, I’ve been sifting through heaps of things at her house: some useless; others, evidence of lives once [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “There is no death. How can there be death if everything is part of the Godhead? The soul never dies and the body is never really alive.”—Isaac Bashevis Singer, “Stories from Behind the Stove” SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—10/31/11   And one day, I will be a witch flying with herbs [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Equal dark, equal light, flow in Circle, deep insight. Blessed Be, Blessed Be, the transformation of energy!” —Nigh An’Fey, Transformation of Energy SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—9/5/11— In the periphery of my memory, Just beyond articulation into words Strung together in sentence necklaces, I find a world of undefined ideas. Baffling [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”—Vincent van Gogh SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—8/1/11—I repeat, we cannot begin healing without confronting the lies we tell ourselves. We’re told that the first step on the journey to mental, physical, and emotional health is the admission that one [...]