December 2, 2020

Secondhand...

(Prompt or not: Secondhand)

~*~

I wonder why the pointers on an analog clock are called hands? Hour-hand. Minute-hand. Second-hand. The second-hand is actually a third-hand. Or maybe the first-hand, if one counts seconds first, before minutes and before hours.

Clocks. Last night I watched Neil deGrasse Tyson taking me into Possible Worlds of light and the history of the scientific discovery of how light works. (Waves. No, particles. Waves and particles?) And how by the act of a witness observing the light, its particles change into waves. Or something like that. And still, no science can explain how that happens. How that just by a witness observing the light changes the way light expresses itself. He spoke of a quantum clock made with the element strontium. 

Strontium?! I take a strontium supplement every day for my bone health. 

Along with calcium and vitamin D and the consumption of leafy greens. And I take the drug Boniva every 6 weeks, right before my every-6-week injections which alternate between a steroid lumbar epidural and steroid cervical spine trigger points. Steroids help keep me mobile, help keep me functioning. I had to start on the Boniva a few years ago in order to continue my corticosteroid treatments. I wish I didn't have to get steroid injections every six weeks and take prednisone every day. 

Roids and I. We have a very long relationship. I could write volumes on their effects, their side effects, their moods and swings and confusion. And the relief they bring. Decades ago I labeled them "the trash can drug." You think you are better, but you're not. They hide symptoms, like putting a lid on a trash can. The trash is still inside. 

As I watched deGrasse Tyson last night, I was enthralled with the idea of possibilities, with the little I know of energy medicine that perhaps most allopathic western physicians consider woo-woo. But, I've had experiences that I can't deny, with energy modalities. 

Today I felt scattered, disoriented, a type of hypomania. Partly, mostly, due to my routine epidural I received Monday. This morning, when I went to unplug my headlamp from charging, the green blinking light would not go off. 

Are you hypomanic too? 

My headlamp works as my reading light. Today my reading included some of Leviticus, which I'm slowly getting through (after detours for Hebrews and Job). Which led me to reading about the history of the God Molech. All the sacrifices and blood shed to these gods. It's appalling. 

I unplugged my headlamp and it just kept blinking, without being plugged in. It does that on occasion. And when it does, it won't turn on. But usually the blinking stops in about 30 seconds. Yet, not today.

After about 3 minutes, I decided to hold it in my palm and try some energy woo-woo, tidbits I'd read up on some years back. Plus, if observation can change the way light manifests, maybe my intention of peace could stop the blinking. 

It worked. 

Probably coincidence. But it's a fun thing to think about.

Monday was my 32nd epidural. I received my first one in December, 2013. I get wearied, but I muster gratitude. In comparison to most of the world, if I die tonight, I've lived a rich life. 


A peek inside...

(Prompt or not: Hiding)

~*~

My brain feels so scattered, disoriented. I don't know if I can write anything worth sharing tonight in the writing workshop. 

Do I just go back through my journal pages? Which too are scattered, literally. Some pages are in my handwritten journal, some in my current Sudoku puzzle book, some on my private blog. 

I really like my current Sudoku book. I'll be sad when I've finished all its puzzles. I have only 9 to go, of 162. The book is spiral bound. The pages have wide margins, and the paper is really nice -- sturdy, easy to draw on. In the margins, I often doodle and sometimes journal. I Sudoku and doodle and journal as I lie in bed awaiting sleep, at night or at a daytime nap.  

My doodles end up with lots of faces. All sorts of faces made out of random, abstract lines and circles that I allow my hand to freely draw. In the abstracts, I see foreheads and noses and indention areas for eyes. So, I draw them into characters. Birdy characters. Bears. People. Aliens. A seal riding a bicycle. What is it with faces? Most always, I draw a smile. I want them to be happy.

The word "happy" has gotten a bad wrap, maybe? In The Way, we were taught that happiness is circumstance oriented. But that joy is an inside job, not dependent on circumstances. Joy is godly; happiness is worldly. "Worldly," meaning not spiritual; but rather of the material, temporal realm. Joy is eternal.  

What a sucky way to complicate emotions which are already complicated enough. And it calls into question one's motives. Like, if I'm only happy and not joyful, I'm living in the material, temporal realm; not the spiritual, eternal. 

Sometimes I doodle what I call "Squigglies," faces with eyes made out of a twirly motion which I can't describe in words. Sometimes I doodle "Wrinklies," faces with wrinkled borders. 

~*~