WHAT’S PACKED
This is a retrospective … Looking back …
No, not really. Happy … happy … well, happy December and New Year guys; it’s been awhile. If I told you all of what happened to me in 2022, even in just 3 months, you wouldn’t believe it. I can’t even still believe it. Suffice it to say, I’m married now, officially Kindra Joyce Lee Marquez and no longer Kindra Joyce Ferriabough. That’s right. My husband is Hispanic.
While homeless—because that’s what happened to me too from Aug 2022–Nov 2022—I managed to keep things going around here, not these updates though; but that’s what I wanted to talk about too. This is a retrospective because I won’t be doing these “What’s Packed?“ posts anymore … well, like this anyway. I’ll keep my Goodreads blog though I think; like I’ve done since 2021 when I started this website: I write there throughout the year then move it all over onto the blog archive here and here once the year is up and start afresh. I started this new year with an interview with indie author Corbin Bosiljevac: you can read it there on GR, or here on the website. Or here on my new Substack newsletter.
I’ve started an indie newsletter for all things I’m interested in with indie books. You might’ve seen me do it here and there already here on my website and on my Goodreads blog: I’ve decided to give it a go, centralizing everything and charging a nominal fee to boot. I’m moving forward with the first paid newsletter content for Valentine’s Day, so check it out if you’re so inclined and subscribe!
It’s 5 bucks a month/35 for the year, at minimum 1 newsletter a month about indie news/411, what I’d like to read, what I’ve found to share, what you’d like to share, interviews, recommendations, announcements, discounts, giveaways, and really just anything I find and discover interesting about the indie (literary) arts. I don’t know what I’ll do with my book social media accounts like GR and LibraryThing, but I got rid of Indie Corner (my indie book lending library) when I found out Amazon (very quietly) discontinued its lending program. Very quietly. To me that was a disappointment because I thought that the lending program was redemptive for a monopoly like Amazon; then suddenly, I come out of my little world, go to look at my Kindle content and see that the 60+ books I had in my library to lend are no longer available to lend. Huh. All the more reason now for a chap like me to really start buying books elsewhere since there’s no more of that incentive to keep the circulation going with lending.
But whatever. For now, if you sign up for the annual plan, you can get The Bubblegum Review newsletter free for 2 months. With an annual subscription you can also receive a complimentary indie service promotion. For more of the deets, visit the BGR page on this website here.
Stay tuned though. You can always visit the Site Map here (which I update regularly). I still have a lot to do and, conversely, no idea what to do so this always works out great. Just check back. Obviously if I changed or updated something it’ll be changed and updated, so depending on what page you’re interested in here on A Packed Lunch, just check back. You can always follow the site or subscribe. I’m always up to something, turns out.
For now, I hope you had a great New Year; let’s keep trying, throwing things up against the wall to see if it sticks … Let’s keep enduring things in life with gratefulness so that it turns into a natural gratefulness to be alive no matter what the circumstance.
Cheers,
Kindra
WHAT’S PACKED
Hello all you jive turkeys out there. Happy November, happy Thanksgiving. 🦃
Thanksgiving and November are all about giving thanks. I’ve always loved all the holidays even though I’ve never really celebrated them “normally” or should I say secularly with family and friends etc. Here and there, but I’m usually by myself and just overjoyed.
This November and Thanksgiving I’m celebrating for the first time out in the world in true spirit with God. And what a spectacular thing. That God has shown me that all I really need is a bed and a shower and all the rest will truly take care of itself. My life looks nothing like how I would “want” it, or how I would have it. And ironically so, I thank God for that. Also ironically, you’ll notice that I’m not holding anything this time around; it looks like I’m holding on tight to something, but it’s really nothing, and I give thanks to God for that as well. This year and everyday I give thanks to God for His simplicity, what He’s helped me to endure and understand since August, since being evicted from my apartment—but really since February 2020 when I surrendered. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His right way and all should be added” is not just biblical lip service. Becoming independent in spirit is tantamount to total faith in God, and relying on nothing but Him, and its never too late to start over. And nothing and nobody better than God to start over with. He’s the best dad as one of the women at the first shelter I stayed at so beautifully put. (She turned out to
be the devil but that’s beside the point)
During October—and really all my life I’ve thought about the game Tetris and the same philosophical principal of Occam’s razor. This concept of the straightest line as the shortest possible route, and this concept of constantly busting things down to their essential component. When I worked with kids, we didn’t start with the book, we started with the letter. We learned what sound a letter makes until we started putting the letters together to make words, to make sentences to make
stories. And when we mess up, going back to the letter, back to the basics, back to the word back
to God and re-calibrating from that point of truth, which is always simple. Nothing can make sense without the basics, and just when I thought I couldn’t be busted down any more, I got busted down and stripped some more, and I thank God for that.
Just randomly, I also thought in October about the personality of people who cannot differentiate homophones. You know, words that sound the same but have different meanings. I was looking for a belt last month on Amazon when I encountered a reviewer who told me not to even bother with the rubbish because it didn’t even hold up their “genes”. Something to think about I guess during the holidays, when we could all use a belt to actually hold up our “genes”. Or family, I should say.
One last thing I recently thought of (before I go). It’s really the devil in people how we’ve concocted this idea of “holiday happiness”, but only not to be happy during the holidays, and to judge others for not celebrating the way we’ve deemed fit being just as raggedy and unhappy as we are. So I’d just like to say, celebrate authentically. Whatever is best for you. God is not really about all this secular stupidness, but the holidays are still fun for me: whether you have lots of family and friends that you get along with, whether you don’t; whether you celebrate at home by yourself, whatever. Just celebrate how it’s best for you and say it with your chest. The devil is pretend, and there’s no reason to pretend when we’ve got so much to be thankful for for real.
This is already quite long, but OK, a couple more things: #1, I also thought in October how difficult it is to be not homeless, but to be a homeless Republican. #2, I did a little redecorating around here and revamped my home page here and my Site Map here. #3, Check out “A Jive Turkey Thanksgiving”, an archived apropos seasonal blog post from last year here; it’s all about wild turkeys. All different concepts actually: the whiskey, the actual turkeys (the original angry birds), Joe Hutto who went to go live with them for awhile in the Florida swamplands, and how they eventually attacked the shit out of him as wild turkeys tend to do.
I’m gonna leave you with this hilarious clip from In Living Color; it’s (black) women competing for who has the worst attitude competition and I think Kim Wayans wins hands down. Lol, I think about this clip at least once a year. “Well it must be Thanksgiving because the turkey just walked through the doh!” (door)
Be blessed this month. And, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
-Kindra
WHAT’S PACKED
Hey guys, happy October.
So much crap happened in September it’s downright spooky, so I guess I’m right on time for Halloween. boo. 🎃
I became a flower girl, literally. I now work in a floral department and who would’ve thought that pollen is actually male (flower) sperm? Duh! My florist boss said, Ever heard of the birds and the bees? But it turns out that when some plants grow flowers and the flowers no longer flower b/c they’ve reached the end of their life cycle—some, 2 years for biennials—they become fruit and go back to seed. And did you know that pumpkins are a fruit? I didn’t. And that pumpkin plants grow male and female flowers, but only girl flowers become pumpkins, but it’s the male flower that typically grows first, and fertilizes her in the first place! Sorry, I can totally see myself becoming a flower freak (as one customer referred to his wife) (behind her back).
But I love pumpkins. Before—as according to my pagan roots—more so for their symbolism of Halloween, trick-or-treat and the fall season (which is stunning in New England btw). But now. Well, I still love them for their fake symbolism, but they truly symbolize all of life and God’s perfect creation. Life honestly takes care of itself. All we have to do as humans is obey and cooperate with it. Eat some pumpkin flowers, put it in a soup or a smoothie. Roast the seeds for you and birdie snacks. Make a pumpkin candle. Make some pumpkin pie. 🥧 Pumpkins are jam-packed with vitamins! Even for the soil so you can compost it!
As for around here … not too much; I’ve had a lot going on lately so I’ve been updating here and there, mostly with Informally God episodes here. I published a new blog post here called “Gonzo“, which is a nice theme for October and all of what happened in my life during September actually, and pays homage to the insanity of “gonzo journalism“, or life. The beautiful spookiness of it all.
I’ve picked up indie reading again so I’d like to leave you with some spooky ones. Until next time, my beautiful ghouls and ghoulettes. Enjoy your October, 👻
-Kindra
The illusion of privilege & Poverty
The False Urgency of the Moment: Time Loops and Jacob & Esau
WHAT’S PACKED
Happy September My little Sunflowers,
As you may or may not know, September, or summer and early fall, are peak sunflower season. And as you also may or may not know, I am often tardy for the party. But don’t be mad; I come bearing flowers. Sunflowers to be exact.
August was lit like a firecracker to be absolutely honest. But in this weird way that God works. It’s like He set an oven timer for my rebirth for about 2 ½ years and then when it dinged to indicate that I was properly baked, everything sped up and exploded in bloom all in 1 day and then it was a new life totally from the 2nd day on. It’s like the life of a sunflower. They don’t last for very long, but they are beautiful and colorful and actually last forever.
So now I’m finally out in the world after baking and receiving God’s love and peace for about 2 years pretty much in the house. And it’s like I’m a baby again encountering the world and interacting with the world with a new spirit. It’s a grand adventure and I am happy to be alive in God…again.
I love the fall, autumn. Maybe I will want to go apple picking. I’m from New England so I love the cold. I almost died from the humidity this summer. What rot. I gotta learn how to be on a bike again all throughout the city in August, and be in different livin situations in 90 degree heat with 90% humidity without an AC. OK OK God, I’m not complaining.
The only major update as far as around here goes is Informally God. You can check out new episodes here. The last several include some updates about what’s goin on with me (and God), and I’ve included them also below.
September is all about “back to life, back to reality”, those lyrics from Caron Wheeler and the 90s British soul group Soul II Soul. It’s also back to school, but proper school education, secular education can never replace God’s spiritual understanding and education. You have that, you have everything. But I’ll leave you with the video and some music lyrics from “Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)”:
Back to life, back to reality Back to the here and now, oh yeah Back to life Back to the present time Back from a fantasy, yes Tell me now, take the initiative I'll leave it in your hands Until you're ready
Yes God!
I hope you have a Happy September, here’s to a happy September. 🌻
–Kindra