How is it always like this?
I think I will blog regularly , I will reflect more.
I will find 10 minutes to capture a bit of today - store away its pleasure for tomorrow
But the days pass in fast forward
And I find myself at the other end of the screen feeling that a month has gone by.
Sunny days
July has dawned glorious and sunny .
This familiar green-grey landscape is transformed . The blues are so blue and the greens so green.
Every moment we can - we spend outside
Oh how I love these craggy green mountains
R takes his first hike in the gorgeous Mt Baker and walks 2 miles.
Snow in July?
Yes DH is making a SNOW ball.
What is super glamorous is that there are big signs saying "Avalanche area" all around
A nephew of ours who is doing a summer program at Brown comes to see us and spend a week .
He is really easy going and it makes me wonder what life would be like if R had a sibling ( though Z the nephew was an only child for a long time and says he loved it )
Settled into a routine
There comes a time when you settle into a city when you know exactly what you will do every day and every weekend
For us the evenings revolve around going to the park , the weekend's revolve around going to the special park ( which for some reason has an AMAZING sensory playground ).
I have started reading/listening to books again
Just finished Mrs Dalloway- I have avoided Virginia Woolf until now as I thought it was a "should-read"- (Do you know what I mean?)
But its amazing.
This is a day in the life of a woman in post WW1 England.
As she goes through the day and you listen to her thoughts - you know everything about her whole life.
To me, its such a powerful thought that we carry our entire lives with us all the time.
Also read "The end of life book club"
In this book the author( really great author) talks about the power of a good opening line.
For instance Mrs Dalloway starts with "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Of course my favorite is "The small boys came early to the hanging" Ken Follett, Pillars of the earth
Starting to travel
I am also starting to travel and this too has its own routine .. I usually take R with me to the office if I need to do last minute things like print off boarding cards
R colors on the white boards, while I finish by chores
And then when I am away, instead of enjoying "Me time" like my sensible colleagues do, i miss home .
Crohns is back
A small flare blessedly .
But it has scared us .
Till now the infusion has been working beautifully - we have been able to forget he has Crohn's.
All we need to do is to spend a Friday morning in the hospital every 8 weeks.
This too with our usual positivity we have turned into a family fun ritual and R quite looks forward to "medicine-in-arm" day
But despite the meds, there is flare right before the infusion
Plus R has a sore on the side of his nose that does not heal.
I look it up on the web and see that many Crohns folks have this and this makes me cry and cry.
I feel angry about Crohns.
And I try to get peace with some of the Eastern Philosophy that I was raised with
In the East, there is a very strong belief in destiny- as though everything that happens to you has already been determined
The eastern story "Appointment with Sammara " depicts fatalism perfectly.
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia
A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the market. Shortly, the servant comes home white and trembling. In the market he was jostled by a woman, whom he recognized as Death, and she made a threatening gesture. Borrowing the merchant's horse, he flees at top speed to Samarra, 75 miles away so Death will not find him. The merchant goes to the market and finds Death, and asks why she made the threatening gesture. She replies, "That was not a threat, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
While Westerners believe that they are in charge of their destiny, Easterners believe that the life they are leading- has already been mapped out for them.
This is a lot of comfort but I still cycle through the stages of grief.
Why does our precious child's body attack itself from time to time?
Heal yourself by helping others
DH and I meet up with a couple whose son has just been diagnosed.
Its a gorgeous sunny day
We eat pizza and chat. They are a delightful family.
And their son is so sweet and cuddly - like R a few years ago that I can hardly stand it and must ( I love autistic children - I really do ) cuddle him constantly
They want advice on coping with with Autism and as we talk about the changes in philosophy and perspective that are needed for a happy life with Autism, some of my peace starts coming back
In this past year of change, stress and ill health, it seems like all I have done is cope, not live.
I spend too much time thinking of work and not enough time thinking of R, our family, our marriage and what we need for our life to be a happy one ( despite everything )
Its time to get my priorities in order.
And make time in life, for living
For like the Buddhist saying goes
" You must meditate for 20 minutes a day .. unless you have no time. if you have no time .. you must meditate for a full hour "
Dear friends, like my own blog, I have neglected coming to say hello to your blogs. Promise to stop by and get connected.
I think I will blog regularly , I will reflect more.
I will find 10 minutes to capture a bit of today - store away its pleasure for tomorrow
But the days pass in fast forward
And I find myself at the other end of the screen feeling that a month has gone by.
Sunny days
July has dawned glorious and sunny .
This familiar green-grey landscape is transformed . The blues are so blue and the greens so green.
Every moment we can - we spend outside
Oh how I love these craggy green mountains
R takes his first hike in the gorgeous Mt Baker and walks 2 miles.
Snow in July?
Yes DH is making a SNOW ball.
What is super glamorous is that there are big signs saying "Avalanche area" all around
A nephew of ours who is doing a summer program at Brown comes to see us and spend a week .
He is really easy going and it makes me wonder what life would be like if R had a sibling ( though Z the nephew was an only child for a long time and says he loved it )
There comes a time when you settle into a city when you know exactly what you will do every day and every weekend
For us the evenings revolve around going to the park , the weekend's revolve around going to the special park ( which for some reason has an AMAZING sensory playground ).
I have started reading/listening to books again
Just finished Mrs Dalloway- I have avoided Virginia Woolf until now as I thought it was a "should-read"- (Do you know what I mean?)
But its amazing.
This is a day in the life of a woman in post WW1 England.
As she goes through the day and you listen to her thoughts - you know everything about her whole life.
To me, its such a powerful thought that we carry our entire lives with us all the time.
Also read "The end of life book club"
In this book the author( really great author) talks about the power of a good opening line.
For instance Mrs Dalloway starts with "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Of course my favorite is "The small boys came early to the hanging" Ken Follett, Pillars of the earth
Starting to travel
I am also starting to travel and this too has its own routine .. I usually take R with me to the office if I need to do last minute things like print off boarding cards
R colors on the white boards, while I finish by chores
And then when I am away, instead of enjoying "Me time" like my sensible colleagues do, i miss home .
Crohns is back
A small flare blessedly .
But it has scared us .
Till now the infusion has been working beautifully - we have been able to forget he has Crohn's.
All we need to do is to spend a Friday morning in the hospital every 8 weeks.
This too with our usual positivity we have turned into a family fun ritual and R quite looks forward to "medicine-in-arm" day
But despite the meds, there is flare right before the infusion
Plus R has a sore on the side of his nose that does not heal.
I look it up on the web and see that many Crohns folks have this and this makes me cry and cry.
I feel angry about Crohns.
And I try to get peace with some of the Eastern Philosophy that I was raised with
In the East, there is a very strong belief in destiny- as though everything that happens to you has already been determined
The eastern story "Appointment with Sammara " depicts fatalism perfectly.
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia
A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the market. Shortly, the servant comes home white and trembling. In the market he was jostled by a woman, whom he recognized as Death, and she made a threatening gesture. Borrowing the merchant's horse, he flees at top speed to Samarra, 75 miles away so Death will not find him. The merchant goes to the market and finds Death, and asks why she made the threatening gesture. She replies, "That was not a threat, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
While Westerners believe that they are in charge of their destiny, Easterners believe that the life they are leading- has already been mapped out for them.
This is a lot of comfort but I still cycle through the stages of grief.
Why does our precious child's body attack itself from time to time?
Heal yourself by helping others
DH and I meet up with a couple whose son has just been diagnosed.
Its a gorgeous sunny day
We eat pizza and chat. They are a delightful family.
And their son is so sweet and cuddly - like R a few years ago that I can hardly stand it and must ( I love autistic children - I really do ) cuddle him constantly
They want advice on coping with with Autism and as we talk about the changes in philosophy and perspective that are needed for a happy life with Autism, some of my peace starts coming back
In this past year of change, stress and ill health, it seems like all I have done is cope, not live.
I spend too much time thinking of work and not enough time thinking of R, our family, our marriage and what we need for our life to be a happy one ( despite everything )
Its time to get my priorities in order.
And make time in life, for living
For like the Buddhist saying goes
" You must meditate for 20 minutes a day .. unless you have no time. if you have no time .. you must meditate for a full hour "
Dear friends, like my own blog, I have neglected coming to say hello to your blogs. Promise to stop by and get connected.
