January 1, 2015
This year has begun with a brighter day than most we’ve had
in December. The sun is shining and that makes me smile.
The first day of a new year is like opening a new writing
journal for me. I have a clean slate on which to begin. It is mine to
do what I will every day, make it mundane or exciting. On my Gratitude List today, number one is: I
am here in this lovely place which inspires me to write and to share with other
writers.
Last May, as I started up my stairs, I had a sudden muscle
strain in my left hip, fell and for two months, as I visited one doctor and
another, I worried that I might have to stop holding classes in my studio,
Writers Circle around the Table. I could not walk up and down stairs for three
months without extreme pain. Prescription drugs became a way of life for me.
Depression set in as I visualized myself moving to be near family, leaving this
place I love so much.
I am not a city girl.
The first time I lived in town, I shared an apartment with two girls after
college. The girls were great, but I missed my privacy and the open green space
of my rural home. When my husband and I
married we lived in a furnished apartment for less than a year. Our poodle,
Brandy, soon made it obvious that he was not a city dog. He chewed everything
in the place and shredded the sofa cushions. We had to move to a place with a
yard.
That was when we claimed our five acres of my father’s farm.
My husband delighted in living in the woods and Brandy spent all day outside.
For thirty years we lived there and when we moved to the
mountains of North Carolina, we found a house surrounded by trees, very private
but only five miles from our small town. After my husband died, I remodeled my
downstairs for my studio. Already, I have excellent instructors lined up to
teach classes in 2015. (see Schedule page)
Thankfully, the stairs hold no challenge for me now. With
the help of my orthopedic massage therapist and an acupuncturist who introduced
me to Pete Egoscue’s book, Pain Free, A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain, the pain in my hip is gone.
I do one simple exercise every day. It is called Static Back. The book has many
of these e-cises and I also do many of them, but Static Back is the one that
fixed my hip problem.
So on my Gratitude List today are two very wonderful young
men, Jay Gibson and Chris Bassett, and a young woman
massage therapist, April Stewart.
With massage, acupuncture, and the dedication of these therapists, I feel
better than I have in a long, long time. Seldom do I need any pain medicine,
and when I do, it is over the counter, not prescription.
We have to manage our own health, learn all we can about our
problems, and follow our gut instincts. I was told I needed to see a back
surgeon. I was told that all of us live with pain and I could expect to deal
with it the rest of my life. I would not accept that.
When Chris Bassett told
me I didn't have to live in pain. I could work on my posture, aligning my body by lying on the floor twenty
minutes a day with my legs on a chair, I wanted to cry with joy. He took time
to show me how I walked, what I was doing that aggravated my muscular problems,
and gave me the hope I needed to go to work on myself. Simple stretches every day will keep our muscles from atrophying. The acupuncture helped with the pain, as did
the massage therapy, but I had to continue treatment on myself so that I was
not re-injuring myself.
Yes, this New Year has dawned bright and beautiful and full
of prospects for challenges and successes.
I hope all of you, my readers, will have much to be thankful for
in 2015, and I hope you will start your own gratitude journal today. Write five
things each day for which you are thankful. This stimulates the positive in
your life instead of the negative.
I might write “I am thankful for the butterfly flitting
around on my flowers.” I might also write, “I am grateful today for the good
test result for my friend.” This is your
journal and no one needs to see it.
Although we hear all the horrible things on the news that
make us feel that our world is coming apart, our words, deeds, and ideas can
help to make a better world. They really do matter.
