Life Is Too Short For....

Lately, I’ve been thinking of my friend Denise, who often said that life is too short to drink the morning’s leftover coffee in the afternoon, so make a fresh pot (I’m sure she still says that, though now she says it from a distance, and I sure do miss her)!  Our current coffee pot does not have automatic shut off and so it will cheerfully boil the coffee all day long if we don’t remember to turn it off. 

I hear Denise’s sentiment in my head as I serve myself the charred remains of the morning coffee in the afternoon. And I’ve been wondering: What else is life too short for? What is my post-cancer life too short for?

Everyone’s list would be different, I suppose. I have a lot to be grateful for. But still, I’ve let so many things crawl in through the years and settle down that I would not have allowed if I truly believed I was entitled to choose based on my values, and not on the basis of the many “shoulds” I have allowed to consume my life.

I spent time working in my flower beds in the country this past weekend. Honestly, they are flower beds by default. We had to do something with the area because it had an old stump in it with roots all around and they would get caught up in the lawn mower blades. They were hard to mow over. The stump and the roots are hard to remove. So we dug up what ground we could in that area and started planting flowers. My parents came several weekends ago and weeded many of the weeds and planted new plants. There was a rose bush that could not be planted in the first location we chose because of the roots so we adjusted our plans and moved it to the other side of the bed (where it now seems very happy and is blooming its little heart out).

Anyway, this past weekend, I pulled weeds and a couple of small trees out by the roots in an effort to further define the bed and to make room for more plants. It seems to me the flower bed and my life have a lot in common—many things have happened by default, with no real firm plan in place. I guess one could argue that it worked out okay for both of us. Okay in a raw and organic and occasionally a little wild and beautiful way?

But still, I am left to wonder, what are the things that my life is too short to tolerate? What are the things that need to be pulled out by the roots? What are the things I want to make space for in my life?

There is something else I want to say, but my sense of "should," or maybe, "should not" makes me hesitant to say it.

(Clean up is a bitch, but it is an important part of our life's work.)

Note to self: Life also just seems to work better when clean up is done in a regular and timely fashion.

Understated Announcement

I don't know that I ever actually "announced" on my blog that I opened an online shop quite a while back. I have several of my "thangs" listed for sale online as cards. I have not done much with the shop lately but I hope to add more some time in the future. And if there is ever anything you are interested in, you can always ask me about it and I can list it in the shop. I am also considering offering larger prints. I have a couple of friends who encouraged me to print some of the "thangs" in a larger size and they do look quite nice.

I'm not real good at self-promotion but the tab is at the top of my blog header if you are interested.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback to offer. I'd certainly appreciate it!

Hollow Heads and Struggling Too Hard

Here's to creativity, weird minds, and also, to a post without mention of that other problem that has taken up so much of my time for the last twelve weeks (the "c" word)!

My phrenology head got knocked off its perch on my desk almost as soon as I had placed it there. It would no longer stand on its own. I thought I'd ask my uncle to make me a support post for it (it is an emptythat did not need much watering for the porch on my room at the country and I remembered this plant. Some people seem to be weirded out by the head, but I like it. It's quirky.

I've been working in my art room, trying to clean it up so I can go in there and do things. Tonight I got the bright idea that I could frame this index size collage using a frame from the resale shop. I put two layers of cardboard under the index card to raise it up a bit and used black card stock as a background. I was struggling to get the back piece (with the frame stand on it) into the frame when I heard an ominous noise. Sure enough, when I turned my little framing masterpiece over, I saw that I had cracked the glass. I guess I was struggling too hard to make it all work.

I've set the picture up on my shelf, broken glass and all. Maybe I'll get another piece of glass eventually.

In the meantime, I will try not to be caught walking around empty headed and I will try not to struggle so hard against things that are not flexible? Oh, and I will continue to work in my art room. I am determined to get it back in order now that I am not dealing with that other problem that has taken so much of my time in the last twelve weeks.

Art room in order---that is my intention for the month of June.

Oh, in case you can't read it, the little tea tag says:

"Be great, feel great, act great." 

 

What Now?

"The name "daylily" is accurate; each blossom survives only one day, opening in the morning and by the end of the day its life is over. The flowering stalk, however, continues producing new flowers for up to three weeks. Because each plant has many flowering stalks, the plant may continue to flower for several weeks or months."

(http://homeguides.sfgate.com/long-daylilies-last-74501.htmlhttp://homeguides.sfgate.com/long-daylilies-last-74501.html)

I've had a bit of a struggle, wondering how to live now that I've finished my chemo treatments. Finishing chemo is a good thing. I was so thrilled yesterday to be able to ring the bell to let the world know I am "on my way to being well." I had to read this sign out loud and I cried. I toughed it out and made it through this stage of the journey. It was a relief to be done. Yeah, I'm on my way to being well...

But the problem is, I don't really know that. Not yet. I will go back on July 5th for a cat scan and will hear the results from the doctor on July 6th. So I've had to decide how I am going to live with the uncertainty.

It's not like I was ever guaranteed a certain number of days in my life. None of us are. So I haven't really lost anything. I've just been forced to come face to face with the prospect of my own mortality.

And in the interim, I will have to learn to live with the uncertainty, which really is nothing new. It's always been that way.

The daylily blooms one day and its life is over. It doesn't fret over the fact that it only has one day to live (I know, I know--if a daylily had a brain, it might fret, bear with me here!).

My point is that I am going to jump back into life and enjoy the fact that I am alive. I can only live in the present. I will deal with whatever might be hanging over my head when I know what is hanging over my head. In other words, I will work hard on not imagining the worst (nor the best) of what might come in 6 weeks. I'll have to get really good at this because I will be going for checkups every three months for three years, and then every 6 months for two years. I can't be wasting my present (now) time fretting over what may or may not happen.

I'm going with the daylily. I'm going to seize whatever days I have coming to me and I'm going to live mindfully in the present.

I'm not yet done with my growing, peeps.

Looking Down

All last week I seemed to be constantly looking down and finding interesting things. Of course I took a few photos of the things I saw...

We had a crawfish boil with some of the family over the weekend. I was walking over to take pictures of the crawfish and noticed this one had escaped. He didn't get far. Someone picked him up and put him back in the water. I don't eat much crawfish. We boiled shrimp for people like me. It was all good and was a celebration of sorts of my upcoming last chemo treatment and the 40th wedding anniversary for my husband and me. It was a good day.

I saw this moth Friday night when we arrived in the country. It was too dark to take his/her picture when I first saw him/her but I got out early Saturday morning (around 10 a.m.!)  and took his/her picture.

 

I noticed this little setup when I was running errands on campus. I added the quote and did it all on my phone. Once again, the screen is small and I have trouble gauging how large I want the text to be. I am slowly learning that it can be smaller than I think it needs to be when looking at it on my phone.

Maybe sometimes it's not so bad to look down and notice the small things.

Methods of Escape, and Distractions

"Escape is not a dirty word.  

Nobody can face what's happening head-on all the time.  

It's all right to pretend sometimes.

The only danger lies in pretending that you're not pretending."

--Sheldon Kopp

I have a friend who often reminds me of this quote. 

Odd as it sounds, I had an opportunity for escape today as we waited

to get my blood work done, my port accessed,

and finally, almost two hours late,

started my chemo.

It's been harder the last couple of times

and I've been dreading this weekend.

Plus, we got caught in traffic last night 

and what should have been a two and a half hour drive

turned into nearly took nearly five and a half hours,

taking out about an hour to stop

for dinner and a potty break.

Anyway, during the in-between times,

I took a few pictures and thought about escape and distractions.

How useful they can be.
Just remember what it is you are doing
and don't forget to come back and face reality! 
  

Puzzle pieces at MD Anderson. 

There are always several in progress in all the waiting areas.

One of many methods of providing distraction.

Some seem to find distraction in weaving a noose. 

Or is it a rudimentary crown for some battle weary warrior?

A woman came and plopped down in the chair.

I wondered if she noticed the noose/crown.

Others find distraction in taking pictures of death and decay.

But also there are living flowers, and that always feels hopeful to me.

The fish distracted me on the morning 

I waited for my first surgery in late October, 

and again as I waited for my surgery to install my port. 

And the sundial area, on the floor below the gazebo area.

I took this one from the floor above. 

My husband suggested going upstairs when I complained

that I couldn't get a good shot

while standing beside it. Don't know why I didn't think of that myself!

The barrier wall to keep one from falling over the edge was glass.

I had to lean over a bit and hold my phone camera out over the open area.

I felt a little nervous and unbalanced,

as though I were walking on an edge

and about to fall off. 

I'm not gonna lie to you:

it is a feeling with which I am intimately familiar.

Planting Hope

We spent the weekend at our place in the country, our healing place. My parents came up because my mother wanted to work in our front flower bed, to plant some things to grow in celebration of my completing chemo and being able to "get on with the rest of my life." This bed has been totally unruly and a bit of a thorn in our flesh. There is a stump and some large roots in the middle of the bed. We tried to make it into a flower bed so hubby wouldn't keep running over the roots and bending his lawn mower blades. They pulled weeds from the roots and conditioned the soil and planted these plants.

There is about half of the bed left to be done. Everyone tuckered out before we finished. I did help, a little, with constant admonitions not to over-do it.

In the background of this photo, near the Hurricane gate that opens to nowhere, really, is another large problem area with a dying stump and roots. We will eventually get around to working that bed too. 

I saw this quote on Facebook and liked it. I'm not sure which photo with the quote I like best. I did these on my phone and it is sometimes hard to gauge how large the text needs to be. I think the text could have been a bit smaller on the one below with the tree. 

The tree, by the way, is the one we planted on the first year anniversary of my son's death. It has finally gotten tall enough to where I can stand under it. I was taking pictures and not paying any attention when I walked under it and felt the limbs graze the top of my head. My son sometimes fiddled with my hair as a way of greeting or saying bye and the limb grazing my head made me think of him, and miss him.

I was worried about the tree over this past winter. It was just a stick coming up out of the ground with no leaves on it. But when it decided to "green out" it went all out and I am happy we did not lose the tree. We do need to get some sort of support to straighten it out a bit, it leans too much.

"the planting of the bulbs is the work of hope"

--May Sarton