My sincerest thanks for all the love and comments, both on and off the blog, in response to my previous post. The freedom to express myself and the loving responses are really helping me through this challenging time.
Happy Friday the 13th! A lucky day for many, I know. Today's prompt: Ten Things You Can't Do Without--the desert island emergency kit. I like how WEGO suggest that this list could be expanded on in future posts as well, focusing on why these items are important. I should start by saying that the whole concept of "ten things I can't do without" strikes a discordant note for me. There has been so much emphasis in my life on "doing without." Even now, living in what feels like relative luxury, I live without a bathroom or toilet in a not-quite-two-room cabin, driving 20-some-year old beat-down automobiles. I've lived without electricity, without a convenient water supply, without food, without friends. Probably the "no friends" scenario was the hardest of all. I get really into certain foods and think I'll eat them every day for the rest of my life, and then I can't look at them. So, whenever I try to think of something I'll certainly need and couldn't do without, the chances are that there's either been a time in my life when I've done without it, or that I can envision a time when I'll do without it in the future.
With that disclaimer, here are ten things I love, not necessarily in order:
1. The Sun!
Like the moon, I need the light of the sun to respond to--I reflect its light and shine back myself.
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| full moon last September |
Even when the sun is filtered through snow clouds, it fuels me and lifts me up.
I feel blessed to see the colors the sun throws through our atmosphere--winter sunsets are one of the best things about winter here.
These last few days, we've had the "solar oven" effect in our cabin, which I love. I miss the warmth of the CA and HI and Israel sun--but find so much to appreciate about the sun here.
2. People
If it wasn't for other people, I definitely wouldn't still be around. I mean that both figuratively and very literally.
If it wasn't for my mum--and my dad, of course--I wouldn't be here in the first place. And my mum has also been a wonderful rock and help to me through some dark times in my life.
Phil, of course. Even if he's ashamed of me at the moment, his love, his kindness, his generosity, his general all-around awesomeness are green shoots in the parched and chilled soil of my existence. He's so beloved by so many people, and I feel truly blessed that he directs so much of his abundant love toward me.
Everyone who reads this blog! If you didn't read it, I wouldn't be writing it, so I "wouldn't be here" in that sense either. Having lived in so many places throughout my life, I have the bittersweet Persephone blessing of dear friends scattered all around the world. I am grateful, so grateful, for all my friends--both those whom I'm blessed to see on a regular basis and those with whom I have to keep up by electronic and spiritual means, including some I've never met face to face.
(Now, how would I take "people" with me to a desert island??)
3. Writing (Pens, notebooks, computers)
If not for writing, I'd have no sense of perspective on my life, and I'd perpetually feel like the unmilked cow. I wouldn't be giving as much either to my community or to my immediate environment.
I'm so grateful for notebooks and the trees from which they came.
And for my computers, as frustrating as they can be at times! Yes, this is a snapshot of using both computers for recording a lecture (slides on one, script on the other)--but even writing lectures is a valid part of writing!
4. Rocks, and Hiking to Find Them
We're blessed to live right on the edge of a beach that is rocky, dynamic, and often deserted. I'm one of those who has to limit the number of rocks she brings home from a hike, and I'm somewhat obsessed with rocks with holes in them! Last weekend, when Terry was visiting, she and Phil hiked without me while I nursed my 'flu and worked, and both days they brought me home a "hole" rock. I'd have loved to have been able to join them for the hike, but those gifts made me feel so special and loved, and included.
5. Creating Food for Other People and Gifting It
Another thing I couldn't take to a desert island so easily!
As non-visual and messy as I am, it's really meaningful to me not only to make delicious food for people, well-chosen food for each person's tastes and preferences, but also to make it beautiful and to present it in an attractive way.
6. Herbs
I make up for all the things on the list that I couldn't take with me to a desert island by including something I would likely find right there!
This reminds me that I should resume my series of Herbal Projects blog posts! Wildcrafting, growing, harvesting, playing with herbs--I've been doing it since I was about 4 years old when I served our coal delivery man a brew I'd made from herbs in the back yard! As mercurial and changeable as I am, this is something I've always come back to, and whether or not the herbs themselves are efficacious (often they are), it seems like the activity of being engaged with them is a total positive for me.
7. Carrots!
I should do a compilation post of all my carrot recipes sometime! This is one of the things I'm afraid I might end up "going off of," but carrots have been a staple in my diet for an impressively long time by my standards. I wish they had fewer omega-6's and more omega-3's, but they have very little of either. I love their taste, texture and versatility.
We still haven't figured out how to grow wonderful carrots here, they've tended to be woody...
...although this carrot is a winner, and it's even paired with another of my favorites, mint, and with a beloved notebook and Vitamix in the background...
8. Pills
I hate to say it, and would love to think that this may not be true sometime in the future, but I'd be remiss not to include medications in this list. As resistant as I can be to taking them, they're the first thing I pack whenever I go on a trip, and I know that if I go without them for long, bad things happen.
9. Green Growth, Inside and Out
I'd hope that my desert island wasn't a sandy desert but had at least some rainfall and water--but even in parched sandy soils, green things grow. As the sun lifts me up, the green in the ground calms me and gives me a sense of connection with life beyond the bounds of my own body.
Plants in the house breathe for me.
10. Muscle...and Fat
I've buried this all the way at the bottom, where perhaps no one's reading anymore, so if you're still reading you get to tell me whether this is brave or just bravado. Part of my incredulity about the danger and criticality of my current situation stems from the fact that in the past I've been at much lower, scarily low, weights than I am now--and here I still am, so what's the big deal, right?! So I'm reminding myself that with 20 fewer pounds on me than I have now, what I would lose would be mostly muscle. It was hard to move around with that little muscle back then. I need muscle. I'd go as far as to say it's essential. And I hate even more to say this one, but in addition to muscle, I need some adipose tissue. I still see plenty of fat on my body--that's not negotiable, that's not there to be gotten rid of. Thyroid and steroid hormones, like progesterone, are held in fat tissue, so if I don't have anywhere to put them, taking my pills won't do me any good!
That's my Ten, and it got long! I've seen some wonderful Ten Things on other people's posts already this morning, being "behind the curve" in Alaska Time. What are YOUR ten things?
