A Personal Request

I seldom ask for prayers here, but my first cousin Gail who is more big sister to me than cousin, lost her husband today. Please pray for her because she has her only daughter's wedding in Key West this weekend and she has to go through that before coming home to bury her husband. Thanks everyone.

Something's Comin', Something Good!

The winter is still haunting us here, but I'm feeling a change of seasons pushing against us here in Michigan each day now so I'm not too worried. Hey even the last snow storm was more water than snow! I feel like Spring is really breathing down winter's neck and since Even the ground has the softness that means the time for digging in the earth and creating my flowery beauty is coming.

I actually walked around the garden today and through the snow piles and stalks of last year’s flowers and in my imagination I saw images of the layers of flowers in the garden taking shape. I have huge lists of new flowers and plants that I hope to plant in all the areas of my little triangle garden. I am going to give a real piece of beauty here on our little plot on five lanes of fast.

I’m getting ready to start gardening see that winter season turn to spring time. I’ve had an amaryllis bulb that has pushed itself to the max this year and with intensely green leaves. They haven’t had too many flowers, but they’ve given me a touch of the outdoors in the depths of winter this year. They’ve been wonderful, but I am ready for those daffodils to bloom and everything to turn green around the yard. Is anyone else ready for springtime?

Living and Being Me

Journaling lately has not been easy for me. Nothing terrible going on here in West Michigan, just very busy with family and finally I am on the way to a bit of healing for myself. I have been driven way too often lately by back and leg pain that comes from a congenital hip problem. I've tried medications and all they seem to do is simply mask the problem, so I'm really stepping outside the box after 6 six years of dealing with the problem and getting a huge amount of healing from three alternative sources.

The first has been a class I'm taking in Qigong and Tai Chi. It has made quite a difference in my flexibility in doing some of the simple everyday things like climbing stairs and getting down on my knees which has been an almost impossible task but hard to avoid if you're a gardener like me. Once a week with following days of practice with a DVD my teacher recommended I am much improved.

But the biggest problem for the past few years has been the pain which has slowly crept in and and made my daily life miserable. The good thing is that it's beginning to fade. Beginning with acupuncture (The non-needle kind) I am really seeing a difference in the amount of pain I'm experiencing, and I'm also working with a chiropractor who has been the second half of my returning to the activities I haven't been able to actually do in years.

It's become a long journey because this problem didn't come about overnight and it will take an equal amount of time to work through and right a lot of wrongs I've done to myself over the years. I have to admit with utilizing something other than pain meds I'm doing better - I love the feel of being even just a bit the old me again.

Buona sera a tutti!

A Week's Beginning

This week began with one of my dogs needing to have surgery to remove a lump on his spine. It was a bit of a scary day for us while we waited to see how he came through and if it was a simple cyst, or small tumor. The nasty thing has been growing on our little Mac's back along the spine for about two months and our vet has been keeping an eye on our little guy.

We finally decided the bump had to come out and I had our youngest pup in to the vet's office for surgery early this morning and we had to wait until noon to find out that he was okay and that the rather large lump was a huge cyst and not a tumor.

Since we have three dogs in our home at present we have to keep them from getting at the four inch wound that is free of any fur at the moment, so Mac is running around in a small kid's t-shirt which is proving to be a bit much for him to deal with today. He looks so strange in it too!

The Mac also has been confined to the house and cannot be out in our dog's run for 14 whole days and for our Mr. Hyper-active that will probably prove to be the most difficult part of this whole surgery thing when he starts to feel better in a day or two. I must admit he already is just a bit frustrated because only an hour after we brought him home when the other two were outside howling at all things that moves he has been whining at the back door and and barking along with them each time he hears them. He is more than a bit cranky!

Charlie and I have come to the conclusions that we have fuzzy 3 year olds here since that's what they act like most of the time. (My kids may be grown, but we seem to have replaced them with my little fury friends!) It sure is fun to have kids again!

Solitude

Tonight, I imagine soft, quiet snow swirling

near the stoop of my back door.

falling softly and caught by a wisp of air

that dances 'round my window

where Jack Frost has left his mark

in child-like fingerprints that slide and dance

around the edges of the pane.

In my mind I envision who might dare to brave this frigid place

they might enter through a veil of icy lace that now robes

the edges of this world I see.

Oh, for those quiet, cold moments where the world isn't,
and I am.

Word Recognition Requirement

Many apologies to my regular readers but I have begun to receive way too many ads (Some in Hebrew!) so I have to do that word recognition thing.

My Muse

January is a season unto itself and I love the snow and cold swirls and moves with the winds that frequent our spot along the Lakeshore here in West Michigan. This year has proved not to be as cold or as snowy as many previous years which is good for many...but bad for me. My muse usually comes with the falling snow and the storms that continually buffet our part of the world and make it look and feel like another planet here in the depths of winter.

For me the most productive time of the year as a writer has been one that often kept me in seclusion and clothed the world in a deep quiet which was something unheard of on the street where I live. So I am writing and tossing almost everything these days. Nothing seems to make sense or come together very well at present. I will get through it since I am writing even though not much is getting beyond the first drafts but I am continuing the effort.

For those of us who no longer write for a newspaper and aren't in the throws of book, getting one piece of writing out every month or so is a pretty, "good thing," as Martha is wont to say. I hope to have a new article on my main site (Writing and Beyond) by the end of the week at least and that feels pretty darn good!