Norma Jo Thomas

The Smell of Garlic on Sunday Norma Jo Thomas

A memoir, neither a nostalgic look back, nor a pity party, just some serious self-work getting into those deep-rooted feelings that threatened to sabotage my efforts and derail my dreams, feelings that had shaped my view of myself, my world, and my relationship to it, hell bent on delivering a message from my higher self - their message, packed away in timeless memories, delivered by 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. 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. The messages, Sacred Themes, Divine Direction now inform my going forward. I not only invite readers to share my journey in hopes it might shed light on their own; 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.