by Hokis, Founder & Senior Editor<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the age of 22, I met the 63-year-old Armenian woman who had given me up for adoption. On the evening of that breathtaking day I stood in her bedroom.\u00a0 We spoke through our reflection in the mirror in front of us. I felt small, not in the five-foot way I was used to, but in the little girl-in-awe-of-her-elder way. She spoke brilliantly of Yerevan, of roasted lamb, and the importance of skilled tailors \u2013 all the while disrobing in front of me. For the first time my inner child gazed upon the future of its olive-heud shape.<\/p>\n
This was not the tall, slim body of the European woman who\u2019d raised me. This was a thick-hipped, unapologetic, Middle-Eastern woman. Her skin was freckled with moles, like the moonlit sky I would often look up to when my restless soul couldn\u2019t sleep. I wondered if her heart might also be reaching towards that universal moon and, perhaps, thinking of me. I didn\u2019t realize just how deeply I had longed for this quantum entanglement.<\/p>\n
Mother told me stories of the Armenian genocide and of\u00a0our Ararat<\/em>. After minutes passed, she paused with intent, as to say \u201cPay attention now, my child.\u201d Her spine was straight, fully embodied her matronly figure, suited-up with a thick strapped brassiere and delicate hosiery. It was then she told me that our ancestors leapt from Mount Ararat to save themselves from rape and murder; to save their children from Earthly suffering.<\/p>\n This drawn-out jolt caused my world to spin.\u00a0 I felt drunk and dizzy from skin and truth. \u201cSkin, truth, and leaping to save oneself. Common themes of this survivor,\u201d I thought.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019d been looking over me through that universal moon,\u201d I was convinced. \u201cWhy else would this be the first family story she shared?\u201d Even a generation and 22 years apart, we both understood patterns of victimization are more than skin deep. She has since passed, resting in the galaxy with that universal moon.\u00a0Still, our blood\u2019s knowing is with me; It continues to save me in those moments when I cannot seem to save myself.<\/p>\n __<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Inspiration from this week’s news. This piece is dedicated to those lost in, and those left to heal from, the Armenian Genocide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[188,181,176],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-nonfiction","category-global-issues","category-human-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/paintingthickblood-1.jpg?fit=794%2C966&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2049"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2069,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions\/2069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}art by\u00a0<\/em>StellaireStudio<\/em><\/a>. from their vintage women\u2019s series collage \u201cContemplate.\u201d It is available for purchase on\u00a0<\/em>Etsy.<\/em><\/a><\/h6>\n