tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117879212024-03-07T20:05:08.326-08:00Dorian Dorey RhodesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11787921.post-85066454536186418502014-09-16T23:04:00.000-07:002014-11-22T18:08:36.990-08:00A Chance for Change<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; border: 1px solid #bbb; padding: 5px 8px;">Building a life is a blend of hard work and varying luck; building a fulfilling life takes some imagination as well. <a title="my post, The Speed of Life" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-speed-of-life.html">We do what we can</a> with the building blocks we have yet there are no guarantees. The principles, priorities, and projects we create a life from are seldom constant so it’s just as important to be ready to deal with loss as it is to be willing to let go. Sometimes, the only way to improve a situation is to change it entirely. A steady improvement of circumstances is certainly the goal though not always possible. It’s the choices we make in the face of loss or when facing a dead end that really matter. Whatever our situation, it’s up to us to make the most of it. If opportunity knocks, it’s up to us to answer. We must take a chance to make a change.<br />
<blockquote>“There are two primary choices in life: <br />
to accept conditions as they exist, <br />
or accept the responsibility for changing them.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Denis Waitley</div></blockquote><a title="Dave's blog, The Rhodester Chronicles" href="http://rhodester.net/">My Hunny</a> and I have run the gamut of fair to middling circumstances, living paycheck to paycheck and making positive moves as opportunities arose. We went from apartment to townhouse to owning our own home only to end up selling it when the work dried up. We moved, started over, moved some more, and were rebuilding when the crashing economy led to Dave’s first layoff. Suddenly moving again, we chose to simplify – having always pared down to essentials with each move – and redefine “essential.” Having let go of the material, it was time to let go of a life filled with quantities rather than quality. Focused on survival but missing the mark, we nearly worked ourselves to death with ever increasing hours and continually decreasing health.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: auto; padding-top: 10px; border: 1px solid #53cd85; text-align: center; font-size: 70%; width: 520px;"><a style="margin: auto;" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmhic72UAgMmf8OXGrAK9SDgu3HpChtlwr8kBoG1Y2OduBWgXiKFREicM9jQqtLbcXkptsBPILPk7G6ILzoyfxmNEhRs_voEO2FAf_04jUOz5cx6MiQnL8Bsla7dsB0ZPqk8vK/s1600/ChoicesChancesChanges.jpg"><img title="click to enlarge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmhic72UAgMmf8OXGrAK9SDgu3HpChtlwr8kBoG1Y2OduBWgXiKFREicM9jQqtLbcXkptsBPILPk7G6ILzoyfxmNEhRs_voEO2FAf_04jUOz5cx6MiQnL8Bsla7dsB0ZPqk8vK/" alt="The 3 C's of life: Choices, Chances, Changes; You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change." width="500px" /></a><br />
image via <a title="Choices Chances Changes" href="http://inspirationboost.com/choices-chances-changes">InspirationBoost.com</a></div><br />
I’d dealt with <a title="my post, Pain is inevitable.." href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2013/04/pain-is-inevitable.html">chronic illness</a> throughout my life and I could no longer pretend it shouldn’t affect my choices. If all change starts with the choice to take a chance, one choice I needed to quit making was the chance I kept taking with my health. Quitting my job meant starting over yet again but we had nothing left to lose. Perhaps we should’ve moved home to San Francisco then but a different opportunity knocked, we answered, and new experiences are never regrettable. Our circumstances had much improved by the time Dave was laid off once more, as I strove to reclaim what health I could in a studio we loved. We were, however, in a town we’d never be happy in with nothing to hold us there. It was finally time to go home, and thank God we did.<br />
<blockquote>“The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, <br />
but in rising again after you fall.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Vince Lombardi</div></blockquote>Always determined to bloom where we’re planted, we chose to take root where we’d flourish. The expense had kept us away long enough and aspects of <a title="my post, San Francisco calls to me." href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/05/san-francisco-calls-to-me.html">living in San Francisco</a> make up for any relative hardship, from its public transportation and healthcare to the diverse culture and moderate weather with so much in between. <a title="my 'about me' page" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html">As a spoonie</a>, such benefits are life-giving and allow me to have a more active life here than has been possible elsewhere. The debt-free healthcare proved <i>life-saving</i> within a year of making the City by the Bay our permanent home when three decades of <a title="Endometriosis fact sheet" href="http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/endometriosis.html">Endometriosis</a> nearly ended me and led to three surgeries in under three years. My Hunny and I have spent the past year recovering – financially for him and physically for me.<br />
<blockquote>“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— John Wooden</div></blockquote>Now that this final geographical move to the one city we’ve both loved since childhood has improved our quality of life, we’re ready – <a title="my moving fund" href="http://rally.org/coffeesister">and almost able</a> – to improve our living situation. Repeatedly rebuilding has left me grateful to have a home at all but unwilling to settle for mere survival. We’re <a title="my Hunny's post, The Best Girls In Town!" href="http://www.rhodester.net/2014/04/the-best-girls-in-town.html">in a residential hotel</a> and the conditions here exacerbate my own compromised condition. Moving to the city gave us a fighting chance, and moving within the city will allow me to keep fighting. Unless we’re making progress, we’re facing stagnation and the time has come for taking action. Faced with the need to move despite limited resources, I’ve taken a bold action and started a <a title="Help Dorian Move for Health" href="http://rally.org/coffeesister">crowdfunding campaign</a>. I’m determined to thrive, not just survive, and this is my chance.<br />
<blockquote>“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Jack Canfield</div></blockquote></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11787921.post-23393287376642910972014-06-30T18:21:00.000-07:002014-08-10T20:52:42.890-07:00The Speed of Life<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; border: 1px solid #bbb; padding: 5px 8px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The hurrier you go, the behinder you get.</span><a title="Thank you, Grandma." href="/#wisdom">*</a> Whether it’s mistakes made when rushing that then need to be fixed, things forgotten while hurried that need to be found, rash decisions that lead to delays, or unrealistic goals that leave us scrambling; going too fast slows us down. We have an optimum speed, like any machinery. As biological machines, we need to honor the time it takes to function well and balance the speed of our motor skills against the rate of our mental processes. We each operate differently so the worst thing we can do is compare ourselves to others. I’m hindered by <a title=my post, Pain is inevitable.."" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2013/04/pain-is-inevitable.html">chronic pain</a>, for example, and it doesn’t just slow me down physically but mentally as well. <a title="my 'about me' page" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html">Spoonies</a> often get stuck in a cycle of all or nothing since it takes so much to do so little and the harder we push, the more we crash. I became the embodiment of “the hurrier, the behinder” when years of pushing through the pain left me bedridden. It’s human nature to push through and it often seems like the only alternative is to give up but we don’t just have an on/off switch.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: auto; padding-top: 10px; border: 1px solid #53cd85; text-align: center; font-size: 70%; width: 520px;"><a style="margin: auto;" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtanFNGq78Sh-rXr4xc_OenEeTiMRWoRrr36xCY2b1uCW6y1iuttdqlmMMhAbMGLJ3ogDsI5yWu2jKmws5VM-fBp4inzZkmPaWxLthizDbDmSN4rjNkANk6V256WiynEds-V-u/s1600/IMG_20140701_173958.jpg"><img title="click to enlarge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtanFNGq78Sh-rXr4xc_OenEeTiMRWoRrr36xCY2b1uCW6y1iuttdqlmMMhAbMGLJ3ogDsI5yWu2jKmws5VM-fBp4inzZkmPaWxLthizDbDmSN4rjNkANk6V256WiynEds-V-u/s600/IMG_20140701_173958.jpg" alt="" width="500px" /></a><br />
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon, as <a title="via Quote Investigator" href="http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/05/06/other-plans/">quoted in <i>Beautiful Boy</a></i><br />
~ image via <a title="Busyness" href="http://www.twoplacesatonceblog.com/2013/09/busyness.html">Two Places at Once</a> ~</div><br />
In a world with so much to do, and too much to be done, we default to a setting of ‘busy bee’ and can end up too busy to just be. I found myself rebelling against that busyness this month. I couldn’t keep putting in so much effort for so little return and staged a slowdown. Now I’ve confirmed the more obvious but equally problematic truth that the slower you go, the behinder you stay. The extra <a title="my Pinterest board, books 2 read" href="http://www.pinterest.com/coffeesister/books2read/">reading</a>, bonus <a title="my Pinterest board, shows 2 watch" href="http://www.pinterest.com/coffeesister/shows2watch/">TV marathons</a>, and addictive puzzle-solving were good for my brain but became another form of busyness. Whatever we fill our time with will leave us with no time to spare if we don’t pace ourselves. Finding an optimal speed of life gets even trickier when any uptime requires increasingly more downtime and energy is being borrowed against a deficit. The need to prioritize is universal, as are conflicting concerns, and I may be dealing with more than my share of opposing interests but we’re all dealing with something. What we prioritize and how we spend our free time not only decides our days, it affects our happiness and can impact <a title="my post, Be You to Love You" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/05/be-you-to-love-you.html">who we are</a>.<br />
<blockquote>“It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. <br />
What are you industrious about?” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Henry David Thoreau</div></blockquote>The more we try to do, especially in any given day, the less we’re likely to accomplish. It’s not necessarily our goals that set us up for frustration, if we’re willing to let go of certain ones or postpone things as needed, yet our expectations are often unrealistic. We seldom allow for interruptions or downtime, both of which can provide some of the best moments of our day. Switching up the kind of busyness I focused on for a month proved what I, of course, suspected; all those ongoing endeavors I was avoiding, as important as they are to me, just aren’t that urgent and don’t need daily attention. Better yet, I was reminded how important it is to include a steady supply of escapism – or I’ll need to escape again. It’s time to pick the pace back up, so long as I don’t get in a hurry and I remember happiness is only possible one day at a time. Our days are finite and each one matters so let’s quit measuring them by what we’ve accomplished but instead by whether we enjoyed ourselves in the process: Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.<a title="also quoted by John Lennon" href="#time">**</a><br />
<blockquote>“It is only possible to live happily ever after on a daily basis.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Margaret Bonanno</div></blockquote><hr><a title="The hurrier, the behinder." name="wisdom">*</a><span style="font-size: 70%;">One of the many gems of wisdom <a title="my tribute to her, YOU so silly!" href="http://bit.ly/G-ma">my Grandma</a> made sure I knew.</span> <a title="wasted time quote" name="time">**</a><span style="font-size: 70%;">This is commonly <a title="via Quote Investigator" href="http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/">misattributed to John Lennon</a>.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11787921.post-72899312932460699862014-05-30T15:02:00.000-07:002014-08-10T19:53:44.849-07:00Maya Angelou, Our Angel of Hope<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; border: 1px solid #bbb; padding: 5px 8px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">We are more than the sum of our parts.</span> This paraphrase of Aristotle<a title="the original quotation" href="/#aristotle">*</a> sums me up, especially given the many broken parts that come with being a <a title="my 'about me' page" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html">spoonie</a>. Dr. Maya Angelou beautifully embodied this concept that speaks of not being limited by our limits nor defeated by our defeats. The desire to be more and the need to overcome are universal, they encapsulate what it is to be human – as did Maya, in word and example. She refused to be limited to her parts, from the parts of her born of horror as well as hope to the parts she played in helping us face our horrors and find our own hope.<br />
<blockquote>“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Maya Angelou</div></blockquote>The difficult and ground-breaking parts she played in her own life, including <a title="an experience she shares with my mum; my post, Happy Mother's Day!" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/05/happy-mothers-day.html">teen mother</a> and <a title="we share the experience of San Francisco; my post, San Francisco calls to me." href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/05/san-francisco-calls-to-me.html">cable car conductor</a>, along with the world-changing parts she played in our lives, through the arts and activism, are immortalized in her writing and the part it will continue to play in the human experience. By sharing her own experiences, with as much honesty as hope, Maya Angelou exemplified for all of us the ability to become more than the sum of our experience. Through her shared parts and experiences, she not only exalted our individual humanity but expressed our shared human condition. <br />
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<div style="margin: auto; padding-top: 10px; border: 1px solid #53cd85; text-align: center; font-size: 70%; width: 520px;"><a style="margin: auto;" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lOLKfB_K-pD5KMspyHq6IEBxi5yYOFk2rKsGgNY9gcaKd9R6cZEdxyQ9P8A4WTuLAkcLgLqAa3l_NftV6zkK1IU_R50QD872cBgDSpPbIb84GyKeC0BWbp67dDBQBF4NrRD8/s1600/MayaAngelouPostcard.jpg"><img title="click to enlarge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lOLKfB_K-pD5KMspyHq6IEBxi5yYOFk2rKsGgNY9gcaKd9R6cZEdxyQ9P8A4WTuLAkcLgLqAa3l_NftV6zkK1IU_R50QD872cBgDSpPbIb84GyKeC0BWbp67dDBQBF4NrRD8/s600/MayaAngelouPostcard.jpg" alt="I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. — Maya Angelou" width="500px" /></a><br />
handmade postcard <a title="her post, Famous Woman In History Featuring Maya Angelou" href="http://chelmariescreativecorner.blogspot.com/2013/01/famous-woman-in-history-featuring-maya.html">by Michele Quam</a></div><br />
Maya was living proof that our stars aren’t fixed and our lives aren’t dictated. Our circumstances aren’t always in our control but what we become within, beyond, and despite those circumstances is. Whatever we’re in the process of overcoming, whether it haunts us like the childhood trauma she endured or overtakes our lives like the <a title="my post, Pain is inevitable.." href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2013/04/pain-is-inevitable.html">chronic illness/es I’m fighting</a>, when we remember that we’re all struggling – that we’re all fighting something – we realize that we’re not fighting alone.<br />
<blockquote>“You may not control all the events that happen to you, <br />
but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Maya Angelou, <i>Letter to My Daughter</i></div></blockquote>She understood, and taught by example, that our individual insights reveal universal truths. My experience is utterly unique yet it has elements that connect to yours, and we can learn from each other, and we are the same; we are human and, in that shared humanity, there is hope. Maya survived unthinkable struggles by choosing to thrive, overcame hardship by allowing it to fuel her, fought prejudice by becoming a loving activist, and – in perhaps her most compassionate act of all – wrote it all down for us.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>“…I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as making a ‘life.’<br />
I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.<br />
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; <br />
you need to be able to throw something back.<br />
I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, <br />
I usually make the right decision.<br />
I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.<br />
I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone; <br />
people love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.<br />
I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.<br />
<span style="font-size: 14px;">I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.</span>”</i> <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Maya Angelou, <i>I’ve Learned</i></div></div><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px;">Maya Angelou makes us feel hope.</span> She said, “I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.” Not only will she always be known as intelligent, courageous, and loving but her intelligence, courage, and love taught us that we can be too; she taught us by being true to herself, she taught us to <a title="my post, Be You to Love You" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/05/be-you-to-love-you.html">be our true selves</a>. When we heed her heart, we learn that we’re enough.. “You alone are enough, you have nothing to prove to anybody.” May our marvelous muse rest in peace for, through her, we have indeed been <a title="see the full poem, via my Pinterest, pinned on my 'poetry 2 ponder' board" href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/260505159670881977/">Touched by an Angel</a>:<br />
<blockquote>“…We are weaned from our timidity<br />
In the flush of love's light<br />
we dare be brave<br />
And suddenly we see<br />
that love costs all we are<br />
and will ever be.<br />
Yet it is only love<br />
which sets us free.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Maya Angelou, <i>Touched by an Angel</i></div></blockquote>Her “mission in life was not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” In so doing, she taught us how. Maya’s our angel now, an angel of hope who lives on in her poetic legacy, encouraging us to live and love fully in turn.<br />
<hr><a title="my paraphrase simply personalizes this truth" name="aristotle">*</a><span style="font-size: 70%;">“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” ― Aristotle</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11787921.post-8794222205477233762014-05-11T18:53:00.000-07:002015-02-02T17:14:06.098-08:00Happy Mother’s Day!<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; border: 1px solid #bbb; padding: 5px 8px;"><span style="font-size: 110%;">From Pooh Corner to poetry <br />
With courage and coffee <br />
Thru Art for art’s sake <br />
She inspirited me <br />
<br />
From Upstart Crow to unity <br />
With trust and tea parties <br />
Thru Truth for my sake <br />
She inscribed her love <br />
<br />
From Camp Nelson to crazy <br />
With freedom and fantasy <br />
Thru Faith for our sake <br />
She inspires me still </span><br />
<br />
© Dorian Dorey Rhodes 11 May 2008<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: auto; padding-top: 10px; border: 1px solid #53cd85; text-align: center; font-size: 80%; width: 520px;"><a style="margin: auto;" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFaEYujvdW2gEMYBobjok2BLO3LPIxxB_dviyFZmZwiePZMTrwd2mh0Sszl3vxVIagH8D5SHy9jdTofT4UwmrJpe0fTsi0hxZDN_TOeDyrEFXq4OvgkFcfnxYJsMNaerxQ3S0q/s1600/White_Bird_Flying-DoreyThiessen.jpg"><img title="click to enlarge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFaEYujvdW2gEMYBobjok2BLO3LPIxxB_dviyFZmZwiePZMTrwd2mh0Sszl3vxVIagH8D5SHy9jdTofT4UwmrJpe0fTsi0hxZDN_TOeDyrEFXq4OvgkFcfnxYJsMNaerxQ3S0q/s600/White_Bird_Flying-DoreyThiessen.jpg" alt="bird soaring through the forest" width="500px" /></a><br />
White Bird Flying <a title="her Pinterest boards" href="http://pinterest.com/doreyart">by Phyllis Dorey Thiessen</a> aka <a title="my posts labeled 'Momma'" href="/search/label/Momma">my mum</a></div><br />
<blockquote>“Hold fast to your dreams for, without them, <br />
life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 80%; font-style: normal;">— Langston Hughes</div></blockquote><br />
<strong>I’m the happy result of an unlikely event</strong>, a planned teenage pregnancy. Unhappy with her life, my mum made a bold change; she married at 16 and had me a year later. Momma hadn’t found a better life but she had realized her dream of becoming a mother and her brave pursuit of something more gave us each other, <a title="my next post, San Francisco calls to me." href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/05/san-francisco-calls-to-me.html">and San Francisco</a>. From that nontraditional beginning, through impromptu poetry readings to her own artistic endeavors, she raised me first and foremost to be creative. That gift is as important to me as her unconditional love and unwavering belief in me. <a title="my post, Home Virtual Home" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/04/home-virtual-home.html">Creativity as an end</a>, not just a means, has enabled me to see possibilities beyond my limitations as a <a title="my 'about me' page" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html">spoonie</a>. Momma not only taught me to dream but to dream creatively.<br />
<br />
<strong>Our mums bring us into being</strong>, guide us as we grow, support us if we’re lucky, and befriend us if we’re ridiculously lucky. I’ve been ludicrously lucky but, then again, I started life as a dream come true – what a legacy!? Momma wonderfully captures our creative journey in her response to this poem,<a title="this poem has a mum" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/05/happy-mothers-day.html#poem">*</a> “We’ve both been through all kinds of crazy since <a title="my post, A Bit of the Mountains" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-bit-of-mountains.html">Camp Nelson</a> (playing at the creek!), & Winnie the Pooh curtains, & huggable Eeyores – not to mention coffee & books at the Upstart Crow – but what we found there has brought us through the tough times, & lit up our memories of the good times, & added the magic!!” She’s described me as her alter-ego and she’s my inner compass; my mum and I are more than compatible, we’re complementary.<br />
<br />
“<strong>A mother is the truest friend we have</strong>, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Washington Irving</div><hr><a title="this poem was born of another poem" name="poem">*</a><span style="font-size: 80%;">Appropriately enough, this poem grew from seeds planted while writing <a title="my post, All The Best" href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2015/01/all-the-best.html">a birthday poem for Momma</a>.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11787921.post-8211352576008182392014-04-28T17:32:00.000-07:002014-08-10T17:18:25.761-07:00Home Virtual Home<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; border: 1px solid #bbb; padding: 5px 8px;">Where does the time go? Three months have gone by since the momentous <a title="my previous post, I post therefore I am." href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2014/01/i-post-therefore-i-am.html">decision to acquire our own internet again</a> and we did get back online. That’s the good news. The lack of blog activity is the sad news. I’ve published & unpublished, started & abandoned, loved & ignored a number of blogs over the years. This one alone has seen many designs, posts come & go, <i>me</i> come & go, vied with WordPress, and – most recently – broken. Yes, no sooner did I get back online and start working on this poor neglected site then its dashboard presented with a permanent error. Its settings won’t open, Blogger help is essentially nonexistent, and <a title="my post, Pain is inevitable.." href="http://coffeesister.blogspot.com/2013/04/pain-is-inevitable.html">my energy is limited</a>.<br />
<br />
<i>So it is</i> that the relaunch of my online presence has been thwarted. Although this is far from its first thwarting, it shall be its last. That’s right. I’m going for the declaration.. “Challenge accepted.” I may not have settings but I have moxy so, by God, I’m going to rebuild my poor <a title="my Pinterest board, spoonie-isms" href="http://pinterest.com/coffeesister/spoonie-isms">spoonie</a> of a site. As Oscar Goldman<a title="classic science fiction reference" href="/#goldman">*</a> would say, “we can rebuild him. We have the technology.” Well, we have enough to fake it anyway and all spoonies fake it til we make it. I’m done keeping my creativity on hold; it’s too fragile: “Creativity is a fragile, delicate flower which must be cautiously cared for and protected from the harsh elements of ‘human weather.’” — Elle Nicolai<br />
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<div style="margin: auto; padding-top: 10px; border: 1px solid #53cd85; text-align: center; font-size: 70%; width: 520px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbHs7zVl0sm11ZYXq6QK-r7xKoV3Gyl3TvcOJ5eXvdCBGSaLu6Wf0R0YWfQL7FS394TMPDMjS-8zuKg-YkMAqpvehEvGloqnFwpG8a9cb07LWDm4nqUFH5Ekwy_9Qi_I7tStVQ/s800/Drive.jpeg" style="margin: auto;"><img title="click to enlarge" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbHs7zVl0sm11ZYXq6QK-r7xKoV3Gyl3TvcOJ5eXvdCBGSaLu6Wf0R0YWfQL7FS394TMPDMjS-8zuKg-YkMAqpvehEvGloqnFwpG8a9cb07LWDm4nqUFH5Ekwy_9Qi_I7tStVQ/s600/Drive.jpeg" width="500px" alt="Creativity is not a talent. Creativity is a drive." /></a><br />
cartoon by Hugh MacLeod aka <a title="Hugh's site, gapingvoid art" href="http://gapingvoidart.com">gapingvoid</a></div><br />
My personal weather is stormy and my circumstances rocky, making crashing common. A safe harbor is what I want. Just as <a title="my Hunny's post, The Best Girls In Town!" href="http://www.rhodester.net/2014/04/the-best-girls-in-town.html">my home-tel</a> is a haven in a shared existence, my virtual world needs a corner of its own. I thrive on, and in, the social spaces yet want someplace to collect what I’m doing there. My creative drive coupled with the desire to share what I’ve already created makes an online home a must. To hell with the lack of settings, I’ve got enough setbacks of my own. (<i>That</i>’s the bad news.) If I can’t fix what’s broken, I’ll work around it; pretty damn appropriate given that’s what it’s like to live with chronic illness/es. My broken blog and spoonie self are going to make do then – emphasis on <b><i>do</i></b>.<blockquote>“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” <div style="text-align: right; font-size: 70%; font-style: normal;">— Theodore Roosevelt</div></blockquote><hr><a title="sci-fi nerd alert" name="goldman">*</a><span style="font-size: 70%;">Oscar Goldman is a science fiction reference, for you less nerdy than I, and I’m quoting The Six Million Dollar Man.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0North Beach, San Francisco, CA, USA37.803806 -122.4104168999999737.79126 -122.43058689999997 37.816352 -122.39024689999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11787921.post-36460263716429033722013-04-21T16:03:00.001-07:002014-05-11T19:29:53.360-07:00Pain is inevitable..<div style="background-color: #f7f7f7; border: 1px solid #bbb; padding: 5px 8px 5px 8px;"><b><big>..suffering is optional.</big></b><br />
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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 and accompanying syndromes worse, to the point that I'm no longer able to maintain one activity for any length of time. <a title="Dave's blog, The Rhodester Chronicles" href="http://rhodester.net">My Hunny</a> explains it better than I can:<br />
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"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 difficult 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.<br />
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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."<br />
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<div class='separator' style='clear: both; text-align: center;'><a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK29KkL78U4h7_-3TTTvpfEoBis0GqWTzC9A_eLhGovDJCY-DIxM4Tew6rmfN8ujZpYmq8FSr26XbeTH9kcqf8NZJU3UoX1dcaakltrAwtBZRhjJfSFyrDdZCzX6FrpUqEhPPX/s1600/IMG_20130420_071811.jpg' imageanchor='1' style='margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;'> <img border='0' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK29KkL78U4h7_-3TTTvpfEoBis0GqWTzC9A_eLhGovDJCY-DIxM4Tew6rmfN8ujZpYmq8FSr26XbeTH9kcqf8NZJU3UoX1dcaakltrAwtBZRhjJfSFyrDdZCzX6FrpUqEhPPX/s400/IMG_20130420_071811.jpg' /> </a> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1Mission District, San Francisco37.758114 -122.41841