Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

It has been 17 weeks since the day I found myself experiencing pain like I've never felt before and hope to never have to feel again. Today, there is still minor pain in my thigh every now and then. It's not constant, and it's not debilitating like it was at the beginning of this journey. Today, I still have some minor tightness right below my knee, but like the thigh pain, it is not debilitating like it had been. I'm so completely thankful for the healing. I've had several acupuncture treatments, which were relaxing. After one treatment I felt like I had the flu. My chiropractor said this might happen. I felt gross for two days. After another treatment I found myself in tears as I sat in my recliner. Just all the sudden crying for no reason whatsoever. My chiropractor said this might happen as well. I see both reactions as a cleansing. My body was in bad shape. I've also had several adjustments to my spine. These, I truly believe, have helped the healing along....

That's what Angel Baby said when he walked in after work and saw the wallpaper I'd spent three hours putting on one wall of the dining room. He said something similar about the glasses I chose a couple of years ago when my prescription had changed. "Those are granny glasses," he had said. After the comment about the wallpaper, I told him my choices are my way of making a grandchild happen. So far I've had no luck. Maybe one day. I happen to love the wallpaper and how it has changed the look of the dining room. It adds a lovely touch to the space, breaking up the pale yellow that is on the dining room and living room walls. I love the pale yellow, but the one wall that is now different gives the eye more to look at. One of my favorite things to do now is sit in my chair in the living room and look towards the dining room. The new crystal chandelier and the new table along with the wallpaper have freshened up the space.  Now I'm searching for a cabinet with glas...

Hello June! You've graced us with a beautiful day. My garden is coming to life, with lettuce, spinach, peas and herbs coming in nicely. I still need to get some flowers in, like cosmos and zinnias. It seems so late at this point, but I'm going to get some seeds planted and let nature take its course. I've always started seeds in the greenhouse in March, but this year that didn't happen. If nothing else, it'll be interesting to see how the flowers do without the headstart. The herniated disc seems to be healing, slowly but surely. At this point, the only part of my leg that is still not back to normal is the area right below the knee. It's just a small spot. It's numb and at times feels like sandpaper is scraping across it. Other times there are pin prick sensations. It's all very strange. Yesterday my knee was very sore and twinging with pain most of the day. Today, the soreness and pain are gone. I'm wondering if this is happening as the herniation ...

Summer is steadily creeping by. Thankfully, the last three weeks have been quiet after several months of lots going on. Now that the kids, Ado, and I are settled into the house, we've all found time to relax and just breathe. We have evenings of cooking together, watching movies together, and sitting on the deck to talk about our days. We have days where we each go our own way, but we find time to catch up sooner or later. I've been cycling with a friend a couple mornings each week, and this same friend and I have been writing then sharing our writing with each other once a week. He's holding me accountable for producing new work, and while it's been a challenge, I'm so happy to have someone push me to create. Most of what I've written has been poetry that will be a part of my sabbatical project, giving me several pieces of the puzzle before I leave for the Pacific Coast ride. I feel like I have a head start, and I actually like what I'm seeing coming ou...

During my 15 years at my current position, I've had the opportunity to propose a special topics in English class to be listed on the schedule, and each time, though enrollment was on the lean side, the classes were given the go ahead. As such, I had a wonderful semester of reading and talking about literature of Golf. I had another semester of hashing out issues brought about through the readings for a Sports Literature class. While both of those classes were fun and gave me the chance to share my love for sport as well as my love of reading with students, they didn't leave me walking out of class at the end of the day with goosebumps like happened to me today. This semester, I've had the pleasure of working with just a handful of students who signed up for a class on writing memoir. With only five students in the class, I can spend a lot of time with each, reading as they add to their memoir and giving immediate feedback to help them move further into their work. One par...

Today has been a rough day emotionally. After kind of just wandering around the house, outside, and through the grocery store, I thought the best way to handle my emotions was to write. When I went to the consult for the breast reduction surgery, the doc had me raise my right hand and swear I would not get angry at him about the size of my breasts post-surgery for at least six weeks. He went on, saying I would go through a period of swelling and not seeing the true results for at least that long, maybe longer. When I went in for my check-up this past Thursday, he measured me, and with a bit of a smirk he said, "You're bigger now than you were last week." To someone who has always tried to minimize the big, this wasn't what I wanted or needed to hear, especially from a man who was trying not to laugh about it. This morning, I could tell the breasts are even bigger than they were on Thursday. Yeah, not funny at all. So I'm trying to convince myself this is just ...