It’s been a month now that I’ve been out of the hospital and rehab facility for extremely low sodium. I’m still dealing with fatigue and brain fog. I’ve got Physical Therapists coming to work with me a few times a week till the the end of August. So it’s been a long strange summer so far. But yesterday, I was out looking at my little patch of zinnias and other flowers and saw my first big butterfly of the season.
When I got back from the Rehab Center, my hibiscus had gotten so big that I had to cut it back to get around the porch on my wheelchair. In this extreme heat, it’s growing new leaves and gave me a bloom this week.
My neighbors had to cut down an old oak earlier in the year. It was at least 100 years old, but was diseased and a threat to their home. Last week, they planted 3 new oak saplings in their large yard. It made me happy. Urban nature is more important than ever.
The old oak’s girth had spilled out beyond the yard and onto the sidewalk. When they took the tree down they left that small bit of the tree there. Then when they planted the new trees, the workers offered to dig out the old tree remains. But my neighbor said to leave it, it’s part of the legacy of the magnificent oak that graced his yard for decades. I was so pleased to see that bit of natural art on my stroll by their house.
The delicacy of a butterfly, the strength of an old oak, the abundance of annual plants reaching for the sun, creating life and color from nothing but water, soil and sun.
Meanwhile, I’m learning to type with a new wrist/thumb brace to help with arthritis with this gadget so I can continue to type and keep in touch with all the lovely people who read this blog, who are part of nature, subject to sudden shifts in their health, and their emotional and economic lives. We are as delicate as a flower petal or butterfly, but strong as oaks. And very creative in coming up with way of helping each other in small ways, and in big ways like inventing a gadget to keep me working on the things that make my life matter.
I’m working on a new painting, recreating an old one, for the Opulent Mobility show. The deadline for entries is the end of August. The show celebrates disability as powerful and opulent and I’m working as much as I can to make the deadline. I’m trying new materials and new methods of working that are more friendly to my changing body. It’s an exciting journey.
I hope all is as well as it can be in your part of the world and that you can spend some time each day focusing on way the world keeps making beautiful things in spite of the ways of people who think they are above the forces of nature.
And speaking of the forces of nature, I thought I’d share this video of an iceberg “flipping” in Greenland. Notice all the colors and shapes of frozen water.
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