Each Day Already is a Challenge

Two entries today

But I did warn you on the last one, right in the subject line. I said I would be back today. And here I am.

Earlier today, a friend from Texas sent some wonderful pictures of the beach at Surfside. He likes to walk the beach with his dogs early in the morning. His dogs romp in the sand and water while the sun comes up. Tom writes some wonderful poems, all about and for God, and I'm sure that's because he takes time each morning to be with God at the beach.

Anyway, along with the 20 pictures, he sent a few words of poetry, but they were not lines he wrote. He included them with the words, "author unknown" at the bottom.

As you probably know by now, that always bothers me. Author unknown? Why!?! The words were surely not penned by themselves.

So, I set out on a search for the writer and it was really a simple search. Took just a few seconds, actually. I think some don't realize how sophisitated Googling has become. One only has to type a line of poetry and - poof! - there's the information about the poet.

I found a few more lines from that same poem, but not the whole thing, which is supposedly 180 lines. It's in the last entry, but just so you don't have to go back:

"Question not, but live and labour
Till yon goal be won,
Helping every feeble neighbor,
Seeking help from none;
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own".-
~ Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-­1870).

I got curious about this writer, and trail lead me to some other writers and a bunch of quotations.

I found a quote that I've used before by Anais Nin - "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."

Then I found LOTS of quotations by Anais Nin:

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection."

"We are the sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them."

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

All of those were by the same writer. I discovered that this writer started keeping a diary at the age of 11, and that her journals ended up being published. And that those words written day in and day out were also the inspiration for her fiction novels and poems.

That's the reason why we keep blogs. Because as we're writing and thinking and pondering, other ideas emerge - ideas we can use for stories or poems.

I did it, you know. I had an entry for every day in April. Same thing for February. But not for March, since that's when hubby and I went to Texas to get my sfuff out of storage. But, yes, I had an entry for every day in April.

I'm not sure that will continue for the month of May. One day at a time.


The rest of this is about health stuff, so beware. If you dont' want to know, stop reading now. You have been warned.

Pain level: 5
When one has chronic pain, it is usually measured on a scaled of zero for none to ten for the worst pain ever. Actually, I have had pains I would define as fifteens.

Mood level: 5
That's my own measurement. I figure that there is no zero. I have to be in some kind of mood, right? But one would be pretty depressed and ten would be super-duper happy.

Tiredness level: 7
Is that a word? Tiredness? For this time of night, that's not a bad thing, being at a level 7 of tiredness.

Stomach yuckiness: 7
That's not such a good thing.

My gastro doc called me today - him personally, not a nurse or other staff - to tell me that the CAT scan showed absolutely nothing. He said that there's nothing that shows up that could be the reason for my pains. Not to mention the burping and passing gas that I do all the time?!???!

I asked if it could not just be part of my fibromyalgia. I've read that lots of fibro patients have stomach/digestive problems. He said that it could. Although I have a muscle relaxer already for skeletal muscles, he's probably going to prescribe a muscle relaxer for my digestive tract muscles.

Yippee skippy. I am certainly pleased as punch that there was nothing on the CAT scan, no abnormality, no growth. I really am.

I'm not thrilled about taking yet another medication. Although, since they cannot find anything wrong, perhaps I can stop taking the two digestive meds I take now and just take the relaxer when I need it? That could be a good thing, I guess.

Perhaps I should watch at least part of the news.

Later gators.