Nearest Distant Shore

Monday Moment

When you're driving over the little bridge and the sun is just over the horizon and shimmering across the tidal creek, it makes up for having to go buy coffee at 6:00 AM.

Let Freedom Ring

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Summer in a Bowl

Thirteen (or more) Very Good Things About Summertime

1.  Hot weather
2.  Hydrangeas and gardenias and magnolias and roses of sharon in my yard
3.  Cold lemonade
4.  The rocking chair on my shady front porch
5.  Sweet corn, butterbeans and field peas
6.  The cool blueness of a swimming pool
7.  Ice cream
8.  Sleeping late
9.  The Liam and TL Book Club, complete with prizes
10.  The warm briny scent of the salt marsh
11.  Watermelon
12.  Freshly caught seafood
13.  Late sunsets

Nine

It seems nearly impossible that my darling boy is nine already.

I've always been ridiculously proud of him, but this year even more than usual.  On the heels of a months-long period where his daddy was totally unreliable and a separation that broke his heart, he then had to grapple with my being seriously ill, and the treatments and surgeries and being away from home that my illness required.  Sometimes he seems closer to 39 than nine, and his little shoulders carry burdens that no child should be asked to carry.  But he does it, and with more grace than many grown men would show.

My Liam has the spirit of a warrior, but a little boy's heart.  He is as fiercely protective of me as I am of him, and I bless the day he entered the world.  I'm so fortunate to be his mother.

Happy birthday, my sweet boy.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

We're twenty minutes into a brand new year and I'm sipping a glass of champagne, watching the neighborhood fireworks through the window.  At midnight I kissed my son and wished him and his friend a happy new year, then I went outside to toast the universe and wish on a star.  Staring into the night sky, I lifted my glass and shouted "Happy New Year!"

2007 was definitely a milestone year, a difficult year in many, many respects.  It was also the year that I learned how truly wonderful my friends are, how people truly do want to help, and what it means to accept that help, and I learned how love and prayers for healing will lift your boat into the rising tide until you can row it yourself again.

And rowing I am, as hard as my tired body will let me.  I've had 15 chemo treatments, 3 surgeries and various procedures, countless vials of blood drawn and I've grown a new liver.  After a nice little break I will start chemo again this Thursday, and the following week I have to have a stent put in to strengthen places the chemo has weakened.  My lungs and liver are clear, my CEA markers are a little high, but the procedure next week should take care of that.

Most importantly, I'm alive.  I lived to see another birthday, the last one in my 40s.  I've watched my son grow more fearless as his confidence has grown, and in nine days he will turn nine years old.  I'm managing a pretty decent coparenting arrangement with Liam's father.  We are blessed to be in a warm comfortable home with enough to eat and decent clothes to wear.  Our Christmas was very low-key and warm and loving, and we have the world's prettiest tree.  I worry incessantly about money -- my savings are gone and I still can't work full time, though I'm trying, and walking on faith that I will continue to find what we need. 

But I'm ringing in a new year, filled with hope and promises of a better tomorrow.  I am looking forward to my usual de-Christmasing and scrubbing the house from top to bottom in just a few days.  I'm looking forward to sunny days on the beach in spring and summer, helping to put a Democrat in the White House in the fall, and turning 50 in the winter.  My gratitude for my blessings is overflowing, and I count my friends in the blogging community as one of my biggest blessings.  This journey would be so much poorer without y'all along for the ride.

Happy New Year is very inadequate to convey my good wishes, but I wish you peace and serenity, love and laughter and abundance in all the days to come.

Thirteen Reasons I've Been MIA for a While

1. It's hard work growing  a new liver.
2. But how often can I get away with that liver excuse, really?
3. Actually, it's been hard work just getting up and moving from bed to chair a lot of mornings.
4. There have been swaths of weeks where all I did was sleep and try to eat.  BOR-ING.
5. Most of the time if I'm on the computer, I'm using a laptop.  I still can't type efficiently on the damned thing.
6. I'm still not completely unpacked from the move in July.
7. Did I mention the sleeping a lot thing?
8. For a while there was nothing new to report, and repeating the same old stuff gets tiring really fast.
9. Even when there was nothing new to report, a lot of days I would have been very whiny.
10. I sleep.  A lot. 
11. I haven't been to the beach ALL SUMMER.  Do you know how sad that is?
12. I'm pretty much over cancer being the center of our lives (and conversations)  around here.
13. Still sleeping a lot.  In fact, I'm thinking very seriously about going back to bed for a while.

What's new with you?

Let Freedom Ring

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

(what has become my traditional Independence Day post--sorry it's so late this year)

Moving Right Along

Moving day is looming large at my house, with half-filled boxes all over, pictures leaning against the walls and empty boxes stacked in the kitchen.  I go from completely freaked out about getting everything done to an oddly Zen-like state that says of course I will; I always do.

Today I'm finally using the Molly Maids gift certificate given to me by an invisfriend way back in January.  I've been tempted to use it several times throughout these last six months of half-ass house cleaning, but I held fast and am so glad I did.  They're going to tackle windows and blinds, baseboards and door frames, plus the stove.  That will save us a lot of time on Saturday.

Both tomorrow and Thursday I have folks coming in to help me pack.  I'm okay with the packing part, but stretching and reaching causes incisional pain, and I'm trying to avoid that.  Deb and I are doing my room and my bathroom tomorow, then Mama and her hub are going to help me with the kitchen on Thursday.  Sean's sister and her kids packed up all my books and CDs last weekend, which was a huge help, and Liam has his room more or less squared away.  My office is the problem child room, and I'm chipping away at that slowly.

It will all get done.  It will all get done.

The best thing, of course, is that this time next week I'll be in my new house.  Still surrounded by half-packed boxes, but in my new house.  Hopefully I'll be one week stronger, too, and able to get a little more done every day.  And in the cool of the evenings I can sit on my new front porch and relax with a cool drink.

Life is looking better every day.

Friday iPod Random Ten

1. Back in the USSR-the Beatles
2. Hello Stranger-Emmylou Harris
3. In My Life-the Beatles
4. Hickory Wind-Gillian Welch
5. Flamenco Sketches-Miles Davis
6. Mustang Sally-Wilson Pickett
7. Hit Me With Your Best Shot-Pat Benatar
8. Neon Moon-Brooks and Dunn
9. Shotgun-Junior Walker and the All Stars
10. Save the Last Dance for Me-the Drifters

This list just screams Terrilynn!!!!!!!!!!! doesn't it?  Although I find it so odd that the Beatles, of all artists, show up twice.

Happy Friday!