Here I am! Here I am!
I didn't check in last night because I was so wiped from the 5 hour drive over Steven's Pass. Slept 12 hours!
So, yes, I am ready for a "cuppa." I'm back in my little, studio apartment…back visiting my beloved Val in our nursing facility. They were right when they (staff) recommended that I leave the campus for the first time in over a decade. Val, age 100, no longer has a grip on time and so had no idea I hadn't been to see him in 9 days.
I sure missed him but I also had a wonderful visit with my daughter, Sonja, who, you may remember, is my ex-DIL. They have been divorced for 25 years but Sonja and I decided not to get divorced.
We talked our heads off, went to bed early and slept late, ate marvelous food (like homemade lasagna) because she's a fabulous cook, and laughed ourselves silly. She has 20 acres up on a plateau over the Methow River in E. WA. Very stark, beautiful and silent. There's a "bunkhouse" (as big as my studio) that is just "steps" away from her strawbale home. (Slipping and sliding "steps" on ice and snow but I didn't fall once and I loved the privacy!) I met some of her new friends and saw some of the surrounding territory. She relocated there after sustaining brain damage when rear-ended by an 18 wheeler carrying 90 tons. There's one gal, who, at 66, appreciates every day that dawns! We did Christmas and New Years…complete with our Miracle Lists…and shared our Winter Solstice rituals that we did separately before I went over but documented so we could share afterward. None of my offspring, real or imagined, will sanction my driving over the pass at age 84, so they haul me back and forth. Our plan is to do the same thing in March, September and November…the other three solstice and equinox celebrations.
I did the best I could to try to keep up with WWU but there is a world of difference in our computers. Mine is an iMac desktop and hers, a laptop PC. I'm not as adept at flitting back and forth as I once was. For that reason, my work on
www.MomResponds.com has piled up. Ouch! I have 15 question in the queue and each one takes up to an hour to answer. Oh, well, those who run and play must pay the piper!
I am glad to be home…and...living in a retirement center can be a challenge, at best. We are confronted every day with the reality of our own mortality. End of life issues surround us and there is no way not to notice the countdown. The lesson is to learn to live each day in grace and gratitude. Not always an easy lesson but/and well worth the effort.
So, cyber-family-of-mine, that's what goes with the "cuppa" today. Sending love…
