Over the years I’ve had several Standard Poodle Service Dogs. I’ve never trained a female standard poodle to be my Service Dog (SD), and although I wanted a male agency-trained dog, it was not to be.
Creativity is my day job. I mean that seriously – I earn my living by creating content in various forms. Editor, writer, photographer, and much more – and it’s all about putting food on the table and keeping a roof over our heads.
I could hear water pounding the surface of the sea and glimpsed out of the hatch to see a waterfall on the shore. The next minute the skipper, Alex, was calling to me. “Do you want to come and wash your hair in the waterfall?”
I am not an artist. I am creative. As the saying goes, I couldn’t draw a stick figure if you paid me. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration, but you get the picture. I started going to group virtual painting classes and liked them. Then I got into the virtual painting classes you join in on from the comfort of your home. This lit a fire in me. It is something to do – a meditative, peaceful learning experience.
The guy from choir really didn’t get it. I’d lived in Chicago before – I knew the murder rate per capita was higher in Tallahassee anyway. And wearing boots? What did that have to do with Nashville? I don’t wear boots now. My location wasn’t going to change that. And I sure as hell wasn’t ever going to carry a Rebel flag.
I had accused her of misogyny – only ‘respecting’ me when I’ve been in relationships with men she approved of, as if this gave me personhood. She denied it, of course, but throughout my adult life, I’d seen the pattern. She only seemed to think of me as a “real” adult when I had a man. She wasn’t the only one to treat me this way.
Running was always my second-greatest dread; only a visit to the dentist outclassed running. In the most extreme of circumstances, I could perhaps have envisioned myself running from a dentist. If when Anubis weighs my soul I am found wanting, my personal hell will surely involve spending an endlessly repeating Sisyphean eternity running to a dental procedure.
I now highly recommend this to anyone with chronic pain or illness, chronic fatigue, or a body that’s just plain aging (i.e., anyone who tells me they’ve got stiffness or pain).
Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Slowly sipping a delightful cuppa tea on a cold morning – or lazy afternoon – is one of the best feelings I can think of. That little touch of comfort, rich with sweet, natural flavors, fruit, and spices. And every time I take a sip of Harney & Sons Celebration Tea, that’s exactly what I'm doing: Celebrating existence.
I see the rhythms, and not just the form. Life here remains ever in motion, circling in predictable paths as easily seen by me now as the landmarks are by Uncle Norbing.