Recovery, Recuperation

Everything starts and ends with family.

Day 0: In Your Prayers

In December, I selected my
One Little Word for the
journey led by Ali Edwards.

My 2015 word:  Seed
At the time I couldn't have possibly
known how the year would unfold,
but here I am continually planting seeds.

If you plant goodness,
you will harvest faithful love.
Plow your ground, and you
will harvest with the Lord.
He will make goodness fall
on you like rain.

                   Hosea 10:12

Day 1: Ready:Okay

Vai com Deus.

Day 2: Count Down

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.

                                                                Samuel Johnson

Day 3: Pray Warriors

Heavenly Father,
You alone are most high.
You have not only provide a loving
husband, children, and
extended family but a family of friends.

Thank you for being forever faithful.
For surrounding me with a shield of prayer
warriors lifting my name.

It is the deepest comfort to
know that others care so
much. For it is in the darkest
hours that we know our true
friends.

I praise and glorify your
holy name.

Amen.

2013

2014

 

2015

Day 4: On Reflection

It has been brought to my attention
that my count down at work has appeared
joyful;  like the excitement prior to a vacation.

Mr. Lee also shared that I may have
scared some of my loved ones. Letting
them know that I was okay with dying,
apparently is not a comfort.

For me, surgery is scary.  Like
my big sister, Mericia, used to say, you never know.
In truth, I live my life like you never know.
Don't leave home angry, tell people you love
them, and say you are sorry.  Be vulnerable.

But if you love and must needs have desires,
let these be your desires: To melt and be like
 a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

I have traveled

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief:
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, 
Depression, and Acceptance.

Only this time, I skipped over the first three
stages right to Depression then on
to Acceptance.  Right now, I am 
celebrating.  Pain gets old fast 
and I have experienced some form of 
chronic pain since the age of 
14.  Last Monday was the kicker, 
I just wanted my right leg to 
drop off and the pain to stop.

Now is the time to be excited, to 
welcome the possibility of relief. 
I've never felt abandoned by God
or required the comfort of addiction.

My journey has only molded a better,
stronger, more compassionate version
of living.

Day 5: Proverbs 24:3-4

Hand work is meditative and elevates pain.

Sampler from ClementinePatterns.
One of my favorite readings.

Day 6: Pain is a Buzzitch

But the Lord
stood with me
& gave me strength.

                    2 Timothy 4:17

For my friend's 60th Birthday.

The 60 glows in the dark (Sublime thread).

Day 7, Count Down

God has a reason
for allowing things to happen
we may never understand his wisdom
but we simple have to
Trust His will.

                                          Psalm 37:5


Here's my constant companion, Clovis.

Day 8: Happy Birthday, Mother

Happy Birthday, Mother. 
Mother loved birthdays
and simple gifts.  She was happy just
to be surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

When we were sick we longed for her.
No matter the distance she came to
care for us. 

Mother, You cast a giant shadow. 
We will never forget you.

I have found 
the paradox,
that if you love 

until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt, 
only MORE love. 

               Mother Teresa

Oh, how I wish she were still with me.


In the last months of her life,
I would sit for hours holding her
hand. I thought I knew, how much
I would miss her touch, her healing
power, and her compassion, but I only
knew a little.

Count Down Day 9

Amici evino devono
essere vecchi.

Wine and friends must
be old.

What a sweet sentiment.

Stitching this 1978 beauty up.
Focusing helps relieve the pain.
Only 9 more days.

Planting the Seeds

Ask yourself , "How long am I going
to work to make my dreams come true?'
I suggest you answer, "As long as it
takes."                   
 
Jim Rohn

God Speaks - I am hard of hearing

²⁰ The Lord is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth be silent before him.

                                        Habakkuk 2:20

God speaks to me all the time.
My hearing is bionic but with
God it's like there are cotton balls
shoved into my ear drums.

I hear but have more
difficulty listening. 

He sets up the perfect time and
circumstances. Allowing me to know
there are no coincidences.

This moment I have prepared for you, PAY
attention.  

Pumpkin Cottage uses old bowling balls

It's looking a little haggard.

"I have set up the perfect time 
and circumstance. Listen dimwit."

Saturday morning, Mr. Lee says,
Get ready you have a hair appointment. "


Not, I think.  "It's on Sunday,"  I say.

Mr. Lee:  I don't think so.  It's on my
calendar and yours.

Me: Okay, I will text Stephanie.

Yes, my appointment is in about an hour.

So I go, there is one other customer there,
I have seen him many times before.  He is
on the right and I on the left of politics so
I usually stay quiet.

My beauty time is the best therapy
and I don't squander a single moment.

Stephanie and I start chatting about
my fast approaching surgery.  The guy says,
"I just had hip surgery. Where you having your
surgery?"

Me: Just at Kaiser (HMO). (Minimizing - Like,  I couldn't
possibility have anything as good as he has.  What
it that about?)

Guy: Me, too.  Who's your doctor?

Me: Dr. Yu

Guy: Me, too.  He's the best.  This
will change your life.  It's not bad at all.
All the people with knee surgeries have a lot
of pain but not the hip.

Guy:  You will be so happy.

Me: Oh, I am already very happy.

Guy; This will make it even better.
Good luck, I can't wait to hear how
well you are doing.

There you have it.  That's how
God speaks to me.  And if you listen
and pay attention, God will speak to you, too.

Amen.

Pumpkin Cottage Kitty

Rose with her witchy poo stockings.
Cleopatra line liner. 
Betty Davis eyes.
Pink eraser nose, that's from Susan Branch.

There are two means of refuge from the misery
of life - music and cats.
                                           Albert Schweitzer

See what I mean?

I think Pumpkin Cottage deserves an umbrella or
two. 

Quilts and a Garden, Oh My

Quilts in the Oaks, Alden Lane Nursery, Livermore, California.
This nursery is a beautiful destination nursery on its own but
dress it up with quilts and you really have something special.

 

Freddy Moran quilter extraordinaire.  Isn't she
beautiful?  Meeting her made me so happy.

Yarn bomb. The get-along-gang.

Brown Sugar Kitchen

Pumpkin Cottage is in love with October. 
Yesterday, it rained.  We sat in the living room
with the front door open to listen to the rain. 

Everything is a little bit greener and brighter.
In Southern California, the rain clears the air, calms
the dust, and perks up everything.  

At the end of September, the get-along-gang,
got up before the crack of dawn
to travel to Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, California.

For those of you unfamiliar with California,
it's long and the world's eighth largest economy. 
We know what other states say
about us: steers and queers and a bowl full of nuts.

I would not have it any other way. California has everything.
Coastlines, lakes,  mountains, valleys, desserts, redwoods and the
mighty sequoias.  We have diversity in all that is California.
And this family loves their road trips and their good eats.

All seven of us had chicken and waffles and
coffee.  Every bit phenomenal. 
We highly recommend a visit, even if, like us,
you have to leave home at 1 a.m.

“There is communion of more than our bodies when
bread is broken and wine drunk.”
― M.F.K. Fisher

What Jacob?  It's so good, you what
to visit again?