A PLACE

When one person is sick;

The whole household is sick.

Especially the spouse.

With everyone sick,

  The house is sick;

  The yard is sick;

  The garden neglected;

  Weeds take over.

How totally our environs

Depend on us for preservation.

Deepak Chopra says, “There exists in every person a place that is free from disease, that never feels pain, that cannot age or die.” 

I want to find that place; for myself, my family, my house, and my yard.

Two months later: 

Now I’m the spouse.

Is it easier to be sick?

DeRay has shingles.

Agonizing.

Tell me again,

Where is that place

   that is free from disease,

   that never feels pain,

   that cannot age or die?

MY MEDICAL MANIFESTO

I don’t quite trust doctors

If they prescribe drugs and/or surgery

Indiscriminately.

I don’t quite trust exercise and yoga

Because shoulder stands and chin locks

May have caused a herniated disc in my neck.

I don’t quite trust alternative medicine

Because it’s just too weird and

Not covered by insurance.

All have helped—a lot;

Some have hurt—a lot;

Body, heal thyself.

This I believe:

I believe in Jacuzzi Jets.

I believe in Sauna Infrared rays.

I believe in ice packs.

I believe in heating pads.

I believe in my adult recumbent trike.

I believe in the vibrator.

I believe in swimming except when my neck, shoulder blade and arm hurt.

I believe in the Urban Rebounder when it snows.

I believe in time.

I believe in hope.

I believe in God,  
I trust in His infinite wisdom and mercy;

I believe in healing.

I believe there is joy at the core of my being.

I believe it is my spiritual heritage;

A gift from God.

CLASSIFICATION

Color of hair:  “Gray”

DeRay put on my passport application.

What’s he thinking?

When you color your hair,

It isn’t gray.

That’s an oxymoron.

CHILDHOOD REVISITED

I ran through the sprinklers this morning

Reminding me of our childhood frolics through the sprinklers

On our front lawn in Orderville;

Or better still sloshing through the flooded lawn on irrigation day.

More recently, I’ve loved watching

The grandkids running through the sprinklers on our front lawn.

Jonathan, Amanda 2009

Isaak, Brigitte back, 2007

Brigitte, Isaak 2007

Brigitte, Jonathan, Isaak 2007

Amanda, Karlton, Isaak, Jonathan 2007

Brigitte, Karlton, Amanda, Jonathan, Isaak 2007

Amanda 2007

 Actually,

I didn’t run through the sprinklers this morning.

I rode my adult recumbent trike through them
every place sprinklers were hitting the street.

Exciting.  Enjoyable.  Exhilarating.

Karlton, Isaak 2007

Klarissa, Karlton, Isaak, Naomi, Amanda Back: Jonathan, Brigitte 2007

. 

 Now

Where's my treat?

IMAGES

I can't help thinking of

Isaac lying on the alter

Abraham sacrificing Isaac

every time I lie level

on our new

Gravity Inversion Table

with no angel to save me.

40 degree angle

NO APOLOGIES

I have been hesitant

To even wear walking shorts

As Ed and I ride our trikes around the neighborhood each morning;

Capri's are more modest.

Sometimes I push my shirt sleeves up to my shoulders

So my whole arm tans evenly;

Quickly pulling them down if I run into anyone from the Ward.

Then the other morning I ran into

The Stake President

In short running shorts and a t-shirt.

Appropriate for jogging.

Of course.

Every since

I’ve worn biker’s shorts

And a sports shell.

(a baseball cap and sunglasses)

Unabashedly.

DREAM ON

Trying to remember the dream I was having as I awakened

Withering in pain.

I could remember the part about why I was suing the LDS Church

But I couldn’t remember why I was suing the State of Utah.

Think.  Think. Think.

Go over again why I’m suing the Church.

Because they advocate big families.

If my devout parents had only had four children

I wouldn’t have been born;

And wouldn’t be in excruciating pain, even in my sleep

From a pinched nerve C5-6 vertebrae

Shooting sharp pains down my left shoulder and arm.

No relief; no matter which way I twist or turn.

No amount of heat or ice reprieves.

In my dream I even thought of suing

the descendents of Scottish scientist

and Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming;

who is attributed with discovering penicillin.

Two weeks after my marriage I surely would have died

If not for antibiotics curing an acute kidney infection.

I definitely would not be suffering now.

My rational mind cannot come up with a motive

To sue the State of Utah

Except they are the home of the Mormons

Who encouraged my parents to have a big family.
Utah has the highest birth rate
and largest families in the country.

Companion to a painful pinched nerve

Is yet another outbreak of Staph infection

With a fresh nest of sores each morning

To torment and antagonize me;

Again passing the infection onto Eddy.

Why should he have to suffer?

If I hadn’t been born;

He wouldn’t have been born.

YES!

I think I have enough evidence to sue.

(with apologies to my younger brother & sisters and children & grandchildren.)

DO I WATCH TOO MANY BOSTON LEGAL RERUNS?