28 Inspiration

12 November 2016

After my near death "egg & toast" episode yesterday (because of the Cheryl's concern about disobeying medical advice) I decided to be a good boy today. Liquid diet, no strenuous activities and lots of rest. I find my appetite is surging back now the radiation has finished but the next few days without the help of steroids may be uncomfortable. Within a week I should be able to taper off the pain medication and see some steady progress.

My big outing today was a walk completely around our land. I had planned on several laps but one was enough. The walk was quite tiring because at times I was struggling through knee deep expanses of leaves that had been blown by the recent high winds. We have lots of trees and by this time of year I have usually collected and disposed of all the leaves.

For me it has been a big internal struggle just to let go of all the normal home tasks that need to be done. I keep telling myself that the leaves are quite happy where they are and don't need anything. It is just me that has this need to get everything tidy. However, some tasks are essential and here is one image that gives me great inspiration and energy to do at least the basic Winterizing jobs.

It is a picture of Cheryl's mother, Rose, proudly displaying the leaves she had collected for pick up by the city. She was aged 83 in the picture and in the following years she switched to collecting the leaves at night because the neighbors didn't think she should be doing such strenuous activity at her age. She continued her leaf collecting for 3 more years until she died suddenly in the Fall. Of course the leaves, as usual, had been collected!


I just hope that if I am lucky enough to live even close to her age that I will have some of her strength of mind and body. She was a wonderful Mother-in-law who coped so well with the hardships in her life.

After my leaf wading safari I had an hour nap while Cheryl prepared her dinner. I only had to drink my glass of goop at dinner so I was much more talkative (in whispers).  It could be the morphine though but it does seem odd for me to talk while Cheryl listens! After some great conversation we had another early night.