03 May 2013

A bit of the mountains

Me mum's in the mountains with Granddad just now &, tho' tis hard not to be with them, a simple ziplock bag makes me feel closer to them. O_o ::heehee:: Sometime back – no doubt her last visit to see her Dad – they sent me a care package & the ziplock was from G'dad as it had Bear Clover in it.. Nothing quite smells like Bear Clover; it smells like the mountains!

29 April 2013

Simply Celebratory

Dave & I were at a graduation for the marvelous CHEFS certification with internship program that some friends of ours are going thru. The true celebration was the meal so the tables were made appropriately celebratory, yet simply so.. Decorated with confetti, they had the certain je ne sais quoi they needed & I couldn't help thinking of our goddaughter, knowing she would approve so this one's for her; for +Katherine:

27 April 2013

Can a tree a day..

..keep anarchy away?

"If we don't make earnest moves toward real solutions, then each day we move one day closer to revolution and anarchy in this country. This is the sad, and yet potentially joyous, state of America." ― Louis Farrakhan

23 April 2013

Earth Day

Green, living/alive
Seeking to thrive..

Nature seeks naught but need
No need to waste; waste not, want not

So much we can learn
Ideas taking seed

Using what's needed
Sharing what's not

Built-in recycling
Reuse revives


© Dorian Rhodes 22 April 2013

[I celebrated Earth Day in my own little way, as I do most holidaze: the design on the tank is a tree too so that darling pin will likely stay a parmanent companion. |_|)]

21 April 2013

Pain is inevitable..

..suffering is optional.

I'm in the process of attempting to quantify something I've always lived with yet has never been fully diagnosed; Although I've been in pain for as long as I can remember, my pediatrician was unable to determine why. One example is that my chronic stomach aches were explained as stress yet I've since learned that Migraine often presents as stomach aches in children. The few jobs I've been able to hold over the years have each made the pain & accompanying syndromes worse, to the point that I'm no longer able to maintain one activity for any length of time. My husband explains it better than I can:

"Dorian has about an average of three good hours of energy output per day, whether it be working on a light task, exercising creativity or even socializing with other people. After a certain threshold there is a rapid decline in mental acuity and rest is needed. Short naps don't do the trick as they do with most people, rather, a period of several hours is needed to “recharge,” and this can be spent either sleeping (although it is based for her to fall asleep) or engaged in something passive like television watching, as long as it doesn't take much thought or creativity. Reading takes too much mental acuity during this time and will often sap her energy further.

Her level of chronic pain on a daily basis takes its toll and often tasks her energy reserve early in the day after such chores as showering, preparing a meal or getting ready to go out. After the three-hour period her mental acuity declines to the extent where she has trouble tracking names and events, and her memory fades a great deal. She often experiences confusion during this time, and will frequently lose track of her own whereabouts and any tasks that need to be done will quickly be forgotten if she is stressed. When leaving her residence or a place of business if she has been out, she frequently forgets such simple, everyday objects such as her cane, bag and/or sunglasses - needing to return to retrieve them. This happens more often than not."