Musings

Well, I have to report that I had another bout of stomach upset and dehydration and ended up in the emergency room for about six hours last Saturday night. I think between my son and me, we are keeping Methodist Emergency Room operating. I guess I panic quickly, but with diabetes and getting up in years, I don’t want to take any chances of being out of commission for a long time, and that is a concern with an ongoing condition as I have. I know that I can’t seem to stop the diabetes entirely, even though I try very hard to eat sensibly and get lots of exercise.

Today was a wonderful day, because I pretty much spent most of it working in my yard. I am so anxious to get some new items planted, and today I mostly got the soil ready and dug holes for plants to be transplanted. I was out all morning, but did have to come in and rest for a couple hours, and then was able to go back out for a few more hours. I really feel a sense of accomplishment when I can see the results of my work, and that seems to take all day. When I go out for a couple hours, I can’t seem to see any difference. It is a joy to see the greenery present everywhere. The trees are leafed out, plants are shooting up and lawns are definitely green. And the weather today (Saturday) was truly one of those glorious days when you want to be outside all the time.

I know the weather will change eventually, and get too hot to spend the whole day outside, so this is a very blessed time. I sometimes wonder how it would be to live in a climate where the weather stayed at a moderate temperature all year round. I like to think about it, but I know I’ll never move because my son and grandson live here, and I really don’t know a community anywhere but here anymore. I guess I’m stuck in Peoria, which is okay. I have a great group of friends and a supportive community that only comes from being in a city for a long time, so I am glad I am here.

Last night I went with a group of friends to the Greek Orthodox Church for their special dinner, and it was very enjoyable. Because I was ill last weekend I didn’t get out of the house except to go to the Emergency Room. The only good thing about feeling badly is that it gives me a chance to do more reading. I read two John Grisham novels while I was recuperating. I read The Partner and the Rainmaker. I have really had not read many of his books, but a friend gave me three and they kept me interested and made the time pass quickly. That was a good thing because it kept my mind off of feeling lousy.

My work at The Center for the Prevention of Abuse is going well, and I am enjoying it immensely. It is particularly satisfying to be working with children again, because I have worked with them a great deal in my life, and I miss them when I don’t have the opportunity to do so. I find that I have to keep busy and not have extra time, because I don’t use the time as well as when I’m busy. My grandson, Kaid, asked me the other day if I was ever going to retire, and I told him probably not, because there is always something interesting and rewarding to get involved in, and that’s a good thing for me.

I just got up to go and fix a cup of coffee and my legs and back said, OOWWWWW! I think I will regret being outside all day, but I’m still glad I got so much done.

Because I forgot the deadline for Musings was this weekend, I’m going to make my column a little shorter. I also read Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich, who I used to read quite a bit, but discovered a sameness to her novels that got a little boring. She wrote a series of light detective novels from One to Ten starting with One for the Money and ended with Ten Big Ones. At the Conference that I mentioned last month, we always have a used book sale and women bring titles they’ve read. This is a very interesting group of women who all read avidly and constantly as much as I do. I picked up The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Women’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine by Susan Monk Kidd who also wrote The Secret Life of Bees which I had already read. I loved this book because it absolutely paralleled my own journey in looking for a feminine face of the Divine. I loved it.

For years as I was growing up I could not identify with God, who was male and “out there.” I found that Kidd questioned as I had and we read the same feminine theologians and found a way to be in the presence of an immanent God who is present in nature, within us and not just “out there.” I recognized so many of those women who helped me on my path to a richer and more personal sense of the feminine divine. It was truly like reading my own history.

I’ve started another book by Barbara Kingsolver called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. She is absolutely one of my favorite authors of all time. I will be going to a book group that is reading this book, and I am so exited. It is such a pertinent topic, and extremely well written. I’m lucky that a group chose this book to read.

Enjoy the weather before it heats up!