Snowflakes, Dreams, and Starlings

Did you know snowflakes can hurt? I found this out yesterday on my way home from the transit station. I'd ridden my bike up in the morning to catch the bus, and during the afternoon a light snow fell when I returned to the transit station to get my bike and ride home. Almost as soon as I started out, a snowflake hit me in the eye. Not a pleasant feeling! All the way home I was blinking and keeping my head down to avoid having snowflakes maul my eyeballs.

Being out, riding through the snow, was invigorating. I've actually been considering trying to ride twenty miles or more on a weekly basis all winter long no matter what kind of weather we're having. First, I have to find my booties, though. I really don't like having cold toes.

You know what else hurts? Dreams. I had a dream last night during which something happened that created an intense emotional pain. One part of the dream I remember the most is me standing at a sink, washing coffee mugs and crying because of what had happened. Even when I woke up, I could still feel that gut-wrenching hurt that comes from feeling loss.

Now, after standing at the bus stop, watching a murmuration of starlings over Jersey Hill, that feeling from the dream has faded. What lingers is slight but still noticeable, and I hope over the course of the day the rest of the hurt created because of a dream disappears completely.

Speaking of starlings . . . I love them. I know a lot of people despise this bird because of how destructive it can be, but really, starlings have won me over. Starling murmurations are fascinating to watch, and after reading studies about the communication that takes place while they are in a murmuration, I think even more highly of these birds. It's like they're offering graceful choreography in the sky just for us to enjoy.

Comments

Thryn said…
Haven't posted in a while, but wanted you to know I"m here! And haven't missed a post. And have thoroughly enjoyed these posts on your exploring new ways of doing things --- from eating to commuting. I'm shaking my head thinking -- uh yeah, why do you think skiers wear snow goggles -- and smiling at the snow flake post but your poor eyes and toes! GEt you some good yellow sunglasses and booties woman! I stand in awe of you! K
November 15, 2018 at 10:03 AM
JK said…
Hahahaha! Some things I just don't think about, like skiers wearing goggles because snow can hurt! But, now I know and yes, I'll get some good yellow sunglasses and find my booties. We got another two or three inches of snow last night, so I need to get these things like right now! :)
November 15, 2018 at 6:28 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marriage: A Meeting in the Middle?

Monday marked the 9th wedding anniversary for Hubby and me. We went to a nicer restaurant in town to have dinner and celebrate. Unfortunately, what should have been a lovely dinner spiraled downward, each of us unhappy with the other by the time we left the restaurant. One comment Hubby made stayed with me the next few days, and Friday, on our way home from taking Lovely Beautiful Daughter and her boyfriend to the airport (another unfortunate event--they were flying to Boston after learning of the unexpected death of her boyfriend's father), Hubby and I talked further about his comment to me at our anniversary dinner. I told him I was considering writing about it here, and he replied that he would love to see what comments I receive regarding this subject. So, here goes. My perspective of a marriage is it is a partnership. Each member of the relationship helps the other out simply because, to me, that's what a partnership entails. Including housework. Yeah. This is why our di...
Read more

Taking My Health Into My Own Hands (Cuz My Doc Certainly Isn't All That Helpful)

After a month of tracking my glucose levels, I've learned a few things, the most important being I need to have something sweet in the evenings. An orange. A fruit smoothie. A vegan chocolate chip cookie. When I don't, my glucose dips with each consecutive morning after not having something sweet, the monitor showing my glucose going lower and lower. While I never went below 79, I was inching lower each morning after not having something sweet the evening before. So now, I make sure I have fruit or a smoothie with dinner. Every now and then I'll have an orange juice mid-day just because. While I don't think a month is long enough to really know if my glucose levels were the culprit for the tachycardia, I have felt so much better. The weird feeling I'd been experiencing when the tachycardia was happening has not happened. The waves of heat that would wash over me, causing me to peel off my sweatshirt or sweater even though my house is at 65 degrees haven't happen...
Read more

Searching for Some Truth

A friend mentioned in a comment that he read David Perlmutter's Grain Brain , and is especially interested in the studies that "show a strong relationship between high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and cognitive / neurological problems." I, too, am very interested in all of these ideas, so I decided to check out Grain Brain . Just a few pages into the book, I was thinking, "My gosh. This is some scary shit." Part of me wanted to think Perlmutter is fear-mongering and working for some big business of some kind, and that eventually I was going to get to the chapter where Perlmutter was going to try and sell me something. Granted, I'm not that far into the book yet, so I haven't come across the selling chapter if there is one, but what I've read so far has been extremely interesting, making me want to continue reading. A month or so ago, I read Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck, and one chapter in her book that really got me thinking ...
Read more