Thriving (Not Just a Slogan) in Everyday Ramblings

They were talking about this kind of Verbascum as being drought tolerant on Gardeners’ World on Friday when mentioning which plants thrive at the shore. Getting us ready for the unfolding change in climate. Furry leaves retain water.

I took this picture yesterday morning down at the garden. The low fall light is so intoxicating. I am beginning to collect maple leaves for mulch to mix in with the acidic oak leaves that are already covering the garden and will continue to fall for weeks to come.

This morning I made a brief stopover at the garden again as I was coming back from getting some fasting blood work done. I had reordered some meds and the clinic called to say the doctor wanted blood work and the nurse suggested I would get clearer results if I did it without having breakfast. Much to my amazement the lab opened at 7AM. On a Sunday!

That is so cool, because I teach every weekday morning at 8AM and I would be a seriously hungry bunny if I had to wait until after class to go down. There are many drawbacks to living in the city, but one true benefit is that I was able to walk to the lab, which happens to be down past the community garden.

I know my doctor wants me to go back on statins. I stopped taking them because the leg cramps were intense and messing with my ability to sleep. I was happy to see that the lipid panel was slightly better than it was two years ago. So, I have a defense. My numbers were only slightly better when I took them.

After I got the bivalent booster and flu shots on Friday at the local CVS, I sent a message to ask if I could get a speech therapy referral for my voice. My audiologist recommended that when I saw her a few weeks back.

My yoga teachers’ group has been talking lately about what a crapshoot medical science is these days. These amazing people can do amazing things but there is a lot they can’t do. And science tests and learns and changes things over time. Folks act like there is certainty and most often there isn’t.

We have been talking about that in terms of our teaching. I don’t know what is going on with each individual student. I take class from someone now, a woman a little older than me that teaches as if this is the way you fix this, and this is why that happens. Sure, one can make inferences based on experience because we have all these tools, but it is all one big experiment. She doesn’t know.

It is so satisfying when one makes a recommendation, and it helps a person feel better. I think over time that can solidify into an assurance that one has answers. My advice usually is…you could try this. Whatever this small thing is.

I get frustrated when people don’t try things. Not “my” things. Things in general. I think this comes from the perspective of a person with a genetic defect that manifested as a chronic and undiagnosed condition from the time I was 17.

On my own I had to try to figure out how to manage it while all the time thinking somehow it was my fault. I wasn’t doing something I was supposed to be doing and felt great shame.

Overwhelming shame. And then, miraculously, ten years later I found a doctor who said, um, no, it is your body that is not doing what it is supposed to be doing.

So, I have this spirit, this motivation, this idea, a kind of training that if I am feeling discomfort or an overwhelming mood tone or anything that I don’t understand I need to figure out a way to make it better. And usually, it is a combination of me being curious and working with communities of experienced experts that does make it better.

Having a chronic condition has been this twisted gift. It taught me that consistency and gentleness over time has great rewards. And I want so very much for other people to experience that too.

That is why I get frustrated.

But I also understand. We all have our own individual journey. And because we are human, our superpower is that we adapt.

Like the Verbascum.

May our leaves grow soft and furry, and our roots grow long to reach and sample the fresh clear water that is there to sustain us and help us thrive.

Last updated October 03, 2022