After the traumatic experiences leading to the cancellation of my cataract surgery, I’ve been working on balancing the emotional and psychological impact.
Sometimes I succeed, other times I do not.
It is sort of like walking through extremely rough terrain. I’ll be struggling along successfully, making progress, and then suddenly my foot catches on something, and I fall flat on my face. When that happens I roll over and face the sky, take in the wonders that surround me that are not “man made”, come to know again that I am part of that wonder, first and foremost, and gather strength from that knowledge.
When my true place in the universe has been reestablished, I roll over on my side and slowly struggle to rise, until I am upright once more.
When upright, I again struggle along successfully, making slow progress, until the next time I fall flat on my face. The interval between these metaphoric falls increases over time, my forward trajectory quickens.
Yesterday was a flat-on-my-face day. I had been overriding the need for processing and healing. I was carrying on in the early morning as usual, busy in the kitchen with three or four projects going on at the same time. I knew instantly that I needed to stop that and just rest, when I discovered the kitchen floor flooded with water, over a gallon of it. I had opened the spigot on the Berkey to fill a cup, then went on to another task, and forgot about it completely. I am generally able to juggle all of these projects simultaneously, except for times when I am dealing with disturbing issues. The water on the floor was my wake up call.
So yesterday I took the day off, after wiping up all the water on the kitchen floor, which Attila helped me with. Attila took over in the kitchen, and I retreated to my easy chair. I spent the day in my pyjamas, with my feet up, just thinking and feeling, occasionally getting up to do a single task in the kitchen, just to keep myself moving around a bit. I babied myself all day long. I had to forgive myself for needing this down time, that just might be the hardest part.
A few days ago there was a bit of yoghurt that ended up on the bottom of my breakfast bowl. It smeared on the table. I didn’t notice this until I sat down after the water episode in the kitchen. The more I stared at it, the more it resembled how I felt about the “hair raising” experiences I’d been having. I call her Clara the yoghurt girl.
The day of rest and reflection did the trick, at least for now. Today I am back to the usual routines, the exercises, the daily walk, the kitchen projects, etc. Grandpa was right, you have to pace yourself
In other news, Mom is doing incredibly well. She is walking a few times a day, and that has to hurt with her knee being bone-on-bone. She perseveres. There are daily exercises too. She is well on her way to recovery.
Today I baked bread. I will have to bake muffins again soon, and grind more nuts and dates for breakfasts. Those two tasks are time consuming, but they only need to be done once every two weeks.
There was frost on the roof of the neighbour’s house on Friday (September 25) night, it was unexpected, and we feared for the tomato crop, because ripe tomatoes should not be canned if on the vine when frost hits. Happily the frost did not hit the garden at all, no signs of it were found. So we will have a few more tomato canning sessions coming up soon.
The garden is still feeding us. The parsnips did very well this year. They are lovely roasted with onions, carrots, and potatoes. The lettuce is still providing us with a daily green salad. Every morning I enjoy garden strawberries, green pepper slices, and ground cherries for breakfast. The second crop of beets are harvested every few days. I imagine we will be eating fresh produce for another week or so, perhaps a month, time will tell.
Worldly
Weather
19°C
Date: 4:00 PM EDT Sunday 27 September 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 18.7°C
Dew point: 10.1°C
Humidity: 57%
Wind: NE 26 gusts 40 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Our bodies communicate to us clearly and specifically, if we are willing to listen to them.”
Shakti Gawain
1948 – 2018