Sometimes life kicks your butt.
Right?
Aaah, yes! Everyone’s been there
before. Laid out on the floor. Sometimes you’re afraid and you just don’t feel
that tough.
But
you stand back up, right??!!
Six months ago I decided to have
hip replacement surgery because I was nearly laid out on the floor, for real. In
the beginning, I was going to beat Mr. Arthritis. You can believe during the
last four years, I gave him a good fight. But the Old Codger kept upping his
game and I finally caved. Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war.
Six months, the waiting time for
surgery, became like six months in cat time…. a long time. So what does one do when
the world stops, drops you off and then proceeds to pass you by?
I
went crazy.
What? Six months? No drive thru
window for hip replacements? Am I
supposed to live like a gimp, unable to do anything for what already has been
forever? My blood pressure spiked. Surgery was pushed even further into the
future –– my now depressing, lousy far-away future. I am not happy.
My only
choice –– Acceptance.
Until I get a handle on the patience, which
acceptance requires, a crowd begins to form inside my head. Already used to
sharing my bed with Arthritis Guy at night, I calm him down by overdosing him
with Ibuprofen.
But now Downer Depression Guy has entered
the scene and invited his dad, Father Time. They both remind me that I am now, officially old. Soon this will be my future for real, they
say. I saw them laughing. And then Intimidator Thug shoves his way into my overcrowded brain, warning
me to be careful or else things will get worse. My mind begins to feel like a
jail cell on Saturday night.
Life’s solutions are rarely easy to
acquire. There’s no app. No “Easy Lives -R-Us” stores. Sure, there are pills
and pot, but they are not quite the fix I was looking for. So what can I do?
I Stand back up, kick ass, and break out.
I packed up the motorhome. With no choice but to travel with my four uninvited occupants, I drive to Arizona making stops in Yuma, then Quartzite and on to Phoenix.
The vastness of the dessert, the blue-sky weather and the open roads are like
happy pills and pot rolled into one big fat joint. I’m as gone as gone can be, feeling free and wild.
Downer Depression Guy, his dad and Terminator Thug, abandon their cause somewhere on Interstate 10 between Quartzite
and Phoenix. They had heard stories about the unwanted who mysteriously disappear
in the desert. Arthritis Guy was stoned
on Ibuprofen. He was not going to bail so easily.
After spending a soul –warming month in the Arizona sun with good friends and family, my spirits rose to new heights and my blood pressure dropped to reasonable levels. I traveled back to California to finish out my time in Hemet at the plush, Golden Palms Village RV Resort with old and new RV friends before I turn myself in into the Saw-Bone Surgery Center in Redlands.
All of this time I never stopped writing. Writing is my salvation. I wrote from dawn to dusk. Now looking back it seemed those endless days of writing while I waited, became like living in the Magic Kingdom. It was as if Tinkerbell’s sparkling wand swept
through the air and the time served and ....poof! My two
year project, The Grieving Gift, emerged.
But a
little more for lavishing sake ––
That little more, which is worth
all the rest.
And if you suffer –– as you must ––
And if you doubt –– as you must ––
Do your work –– Put your heart into it and
the sky will clear.
Then out of your very doubt and suffering,
will be found ––
The Supreme Joy of Life.
Author unknown.
On a death watch, you get to know things about a person you
wish you didn’t. It is like a roller coaster ride. And like most rides, it
brings us back to the place we began, reminding us of who we were and who we
have become.
Janice’s older
sister, Margaret, wanted to believe the LA doctors at Cedars Sinai Medical
Center held a magical deck of cards. After eight years they dealt their final
card. The Hospice card. No miracles for Margaret. But Janice reassures her big
sister she will be there holding her hand until the end.
Unable to deal with
the reality of their mother’s death, Margaret’s sons root themselves deep into
denial and blame. Dealing with her nephews’ harsh criticism causes Janice
to doubt who she is, forcing her to re-examine
bittersweet events of her past.
The twists and turns,
ups and downs of this emotional ride transports Janice back through the
repercussions of her teen pregnancy and into the present estrangement from her
daughter whom she has not heard from for the last sixteen years. Is her dear Charlotte dead or alive?
Coming to terms with the grief of losing her sweet Maggie
and dealing with the fear of a future living alone is too much to imagine.
When Maggie’s soul goes to rest in LA heaven, how will
Janice face the emptiness? Will there be such a thing as a Grieving Gift?
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