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Friday, September 18, 2020

Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Working Out and Utter Frustration

My mind was occupied almost the entire time my body was participating in my gym class this morning;  chattering a mile a minute in time to the music; "isn't this just swell? I am strong and vibrant. I'm going to return home and write one humdinger of an inspiring blog post about how fantastic I feel today. It is all going so well. Everyone deserves to feel as good as I do right now, let's cheer them all up and share this abundance of joy."

One: The French at Home: A Conversation program is about to go live for a first round of testers.

Two: I slept enough hours to feel good when that 5:00 alarm sounded. Small but mighty victory.

Three: My wrist/thumb has been sore, but I decided to weight train anyway. Arthritic thumb confined to a brace all the way to my elbow? Yes, but HERE I AM. I am showing up, growing and making the most of this fabulous life I get to live. 

Back home, I had breakfast, watered the vegetables, new shrubs and flowers, tossed in a load of laundry, all mostly one-handed, and headed upstairs to the office to write. I opened up my laptop, began typing and yelped. pain. I tried a few more key strokes and had to give up. 

The universe may be falling into place as it should, but the wires are all crossed on the messages I am getting. Instead of making progress on a hundred dozen projects, I iced my wrist and had a day of reading, meditation, hovering as my kids did their at-home schoolwork, phone conversations with family, and wondering what it was that life is trying to tell me. Should I not be accomplishing something? Or is the picture bigger, the neglected parts equally needed to fulfill a life and make it whole? 

-Typed with six fingers. Take care, lovely, marvelous readers, and good night. It will look better in the morning. 


...at that point, Blogger crashed, leaving me with this post open and unpublished...but since it was still  here this morning, I'll consider it a keeper. I went back to the gym today and only did things that would NOT hurt. You know, one-handed pull-ups, one-handed push-ups, with a (gentle) clap on the way up? I did not. I worked through an Essentrics routine and did squats. I am also typing with all ten fingers. Carefully. 

I've added the above photo of a beautiful, beautiful road, tree-lined along the water, the way I like my paths to look. It reminds me of country roads in France. The end exists somewhere, perhaps, but the flowing water and the trees are right here, beside and above you, a reminder that what you feel, hear, see, smell and know in your heart to be true holds sway over the invisible end. Permission to jubilate.  

4 comments:

  1. I am so sorry about your wrist/thumb. Could it be caused by too much typing? I get that sometimes. I think you did a wonderful job, in spite of all the interruptions and you did do something. Just being present at home is doing something, maybe more than all the activities you had planned.

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  2. Is the French at Home meant for adults or also children?

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  3. Thank you, Eva! Your encouraging words are appreciated. I don't know about the thumb; a combo of knitting, typing, arthritis. I would like to believe it has nothing to do with weight-training, as I know it is important to keep...bones and joints healthy. You are correct; being present is everything.

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  4. French at Home: a Conversation, is the first program which will be available. It is designed for two people at home to use, and more geared to two adults. The second is....drum roll, because I wrote the material 10 years ago...French with Kids. It will be rebranded and re-recorded with a lovely slide deck, as French at Home: With Kids. Or some such. Name ideas welcome. Merci for asking!

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