{"id":219,"date":"2016-01-06T11:09:26","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T16:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=219"},"modified":"2016-01-06T11:15:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T16:15:51","slug":"calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=219","title":{"rendered":"Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My grandparents came to the U.S. from Eastern Europe around the turn of the century. They were called to make a better life for themselves and generations to come.\u00a0 I grew up knowing that my parents had met at a \u201cparty\u201d.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until my early twenties that I learned that it was the Communist Party they had been referring to.\u00a0 Their calling was to be socially active in the civil rights movement.\u00a0 I savored stories of my roots, learning of their acts of civil disobedience and organizing activities.\u00a0 They gave me the gift of working towards social change and justice.\u00a0 I was called to express my voice; standing up for what I believed to be right in many ways over the decades.<\/p>\n

Maya\u2019s incredible spirit called herself into our family. We called one another.\u00a0 Our family life was very rich.\u00a0 We loved, laughed, explored, squabbled, created, traveled, annoyed, nurtured, cherished, grew, wondered and experienced life fully together.\u00a0 Maya was called to touch so many people in deeply profound ways.<\/p>\n

Now, as we are weaving the threads of an unraveled tapestry back together, I am called to let you know some answers. Lab results from Maya\u2019s blood work at the time of her death have been provided to us.\u00a0 She had 6-10 times the normal dosage of an over the counter medication, Mucinex DM, in her system as well as high levels of liquid cough suppressant.\u00a0 It\u2019s the DM in drugs that when taken in large dosages cause hallucinations, euphoria, disinhibited and dissociative thinking.\u00a0 We learned (from others) that Maya had been taking Mucinex DM for about two and a half to three weeks before her death.\u00a0 What a very, very quick spiral occurred.<\/p>\n

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Maya did not die from an overdose. It is my firm belief that the amount of drugs that were in her system led her to take her life.\u00a0 Was she thinking about doing so before?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 But if she had been sad or depressed, and dealing with the pressures and struggles of being a teen, the DM was toxic.\u00a0 The quantity of the DM in her system muted the voice of reason; that voice assuring her she could get through it to the other side.\u00a0 The disinhibiting side effects of the drugs along with the hallucinatory voices calling to end her life were amplified.<\/p>\n

We also gained access to texts. I\u2019ll share that many of the texts that we read were very, very sweet.\u00a0 They revealed dear friendships, a lot of joking, some philosophical discussions, talk about school, and deep levels of love and caring.\u00a0 I treasured reading so many of these exchanges.\u00a0 Then there were the darker texts.\u00a0 These reflected a culture that is so scary to me.\u00a0 I imagine that they were horrifying for Maya, whose soul is so very sensitive.\u00a0 I sense that the words and messages shared would be overwhelming for anyone.\u00a0 But I\u2019m told that \u201cthis is the teen culture\u201d.\u00a0 If this is the teen culture, then something must change.<\/p>\n

I am not yet ready to share details in this public domain; perhaps I never will. Generally speaking, the texts revealed that the culture is laden with sexism, expectations of casual sex, abuse of over the counter drugs, and sometimes a lack of awareness of adults (both at home and at school) of what teens are doing.<\/p>\n

There needs to be more positive role models, coping skills taught, places where teens can go if they are in trouble. Friends need to be able to learn ways to reach out and help their friends, and if they cannot be successful doing it directly, to be able to ask adults for support.\u00a0 Adults need support too.\u00a0 Parents, school staff, and healthcare practitioners need to learn ways to support teens and what to do if the kids need help.\u00a0 Healthy alternatives are needed.\u00a0 There is a lack of programs that kids can engage in and places to go.\u00a0 Parties need better supervision, and the youth would benefit from ways to volunteer.\u00a0 Above and beyond everything else, respectful, loving relationships need to be a priority.\u00a0 Boys need to learn how to respect girls.\u00a0 Girls need to learn tools to stand up to or walk away from boys that disrespect them.<\/p>\n

This blog is called, \u201cMaya\u2019s Gifts\u201d. I\u2019ve been sharing gifts from her lifetime here and gifts that I\u2019ve been discovering internally, with my family and in the community.\u00a0 What I\u2019ve just shared with you are bitter gifts.\u00a0 Mathew and I are called to make positive change.\u00a0 We will start here, in New Paltz.\u00a0 My hope and wish is that this positive change will take root and flourish.\u00a0 We\u2019ve started a foundation in Maya\u2019s name.\u00a0 Its mission is to empower youth to access their inner wisdom and realize their dreams.\u00a0 Check out the seeds of this organization by visiting the website and kindly let me know your ideas.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.mayagoldfoundation.org\/<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

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In March 2012, Maya was called to make some signs and put them around town.\u00a0 Along with Mathew, she spread beauty, peacefulness, happiness and love.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My grandparents came to the U.S. from Eastern Europe around the turn of the century. They were called to make a better life for themselves and generations to come.\u00a0 I grew up knowing that my parents had met at a \u201cparty\u201d.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until my early twenties that I learned that it was the Communist…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gifts-since"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s720L0-calling","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}