Hi Ho Friends, Family, and Countrymen!
Two remarkable items to share this crisp, fine, almost autumn evening.
Remarkable Item Number One, Part A: I am back at work! Three weeks ago tomorrow, SSCPS administration, faculty and staff met for two days of professional development and room set-up. And now, I’m working full time, teaching up to five classes a day, and totally surviving! It took being back for a week or so before I made the comparison to how I felt when I was at my worst, last April and May, to how I feel now. Back then when I taught, my heart would race, I would struggle to breathe, and could break out into a sweat from just talking. I would be absolutely exhausted half way through the day. Because it happened so gradually, I didn’t realize how bad it was. Now, I am feeling exceptionally better. My breathing is glorious. I have my own Art Room for the first time in 15 years of teaching, and it’s a smaller space, so I don’t have to try to fill a giant room with my weak voice. My amplifier works just fine, even with twenty 9 & 10 years olds competing to fill the space with their voices! And I leave the building still able to speak. That,my dears, with two paralyzed vocal cords, one with a gaping hole in it, is remarkable!
Remarkable Item Number One, Part B: Up in Maine three weekends ago, Dad, Matt, Larkin, Mars and I hiked Beech Mountain in Acadia National Park. If any of you is familiar with this mountain, behold the Beech Cliff Trail, also known as the Ladder Trail….a beautiful gradual hike with intermittent vertical climbs up 25 foot rusty ladders drilled right into rocks, under the trees. There are pulchritudinous views of Echo Lake below and Acadia Mountain across the way, when there’s not a bank of fog blocking your sight! Mars was a little mountain goat, climbing away, leading the pack (hiking is not usually her thing), Dad, who broke his ankle and foot in a nasty car accident two and half years ago, managed this whole trail beautifully with his walking stick, and I, who couldn’t walk horizontally two months ago without experiencing massive discomfort, was able to hike back at my old pace! I was so proud of us all. (Larkin and Matt were amazing, as usual!) Cordotomy, I thank you! Dr. Carroll, I thank you!
Beech Cliff Trail, Acadia National Park, Maine
The Top of the Trail with the crazy Lincolns and Tanners!
Remarkable Item Number Two: My biannual check up at Dana Farber was last Thursday. It’s amazing how that sprung up so fast; I’m accustomed to having six months between visits to that area of Boston, but I’ve been spending so much time there in the last four months. Dr. Haddad greeted us with the news that there are no significant changes in my tumors in the neck or liver. The bloodwork results have only increased a tiny bit (and I think one of them actually decreased but I don’t have my notes with me at the moment). This I believe, is testament to the power of my artillery of alternative therapies! Ramping up the acupuncture (I was going twice a week for a few months this summer, then once a week, now I’m going every other week), and adding qigong to my toolbelt, along with my regularly scheduled reiki, tong ren, yoga, essential oils, and meditation were truly beneficial to my mind, spirit, and health!
So three cheers to western medicine and alternative therapy combos. I am living, breathing proof that mixing methods can absolutely change one’s life for the better.
Exhausted from working so hard for the first time in four months, but absolutely at peace and super excited to be back at school and part of society again, I humbly thank you for catching up with me by reading my blog!
I hope you are all spectacular and fantastic and marvelous and super lovely (well, I know you’re all the that and then some!)
Love Big!
em🌀
Sunny, with a Chance of Can-sah 