8/27 in Onward Into Etc.!

Empty socket shows signs of healing in lower jaw. Have tried to not use pain meds but give in to it. Ahhhh. Some swelling but the actual hole seems to be doing well. Stitches like a spider’s web in my mouth. I sent a photo of the operation area to my dentist and she told me it looked good. Her husband did the work. They are both very good at their work. Good people, too. Pain is coming back again and will try to just face it. Give my liver some relief in processing the drugs. I get impatient to heal. The older I get the slower the healing process is. What once healed in a matter of a few days now takes weeks.

Retirement is still weird to me. Go someplace and someone asks me “How was your weekend?” I laugh and reply that now that I am retired, every day is a weekend. I still feel like doing any work DURING the week.

I find it helps to not think of myself with the label of “OLD”. Don’t dwell on age. See the changes and keep going. Like illness and injury. See, accept, and keep moving forward. Crawling, walking, or running. I have my low times but then rise like today full of good humor and ambition to do SOMETHING. Wow, got the dishes cleaned yesterday! Simple things accomplished become award worthy tasks. I save things to do as a special event of having something TO do. Little projects become major tasks to think about and plan and find passion and joy in the execution of it. Such as that clothes dryer stand I built last winter. I had so much fun planning and building it for weeks. Even then I made an error in measuring but for that? Good enough. Structurally sound. I enjoy making little things for the 2 birds to use. Imitating nature with tree branches in some areas. I have some 1/2 inch rope I will use to wind around an open shelving unit on my desk. When they use it there will be a feeling of joy to me. Ah hah! I added more good to your lives!

Repotting and caring for houseplants is another chore that I find joy in. A part of me groans about having to do it but I plan it and find joy and affection in the repotting. I mentally ask the plant to continue to live and give me small joy with its life here. As I write this, I see I wrote a truth of my life: SMALL JOYS. We do not need explosive miracles. Just small joys WE can create when doing a good or positive thing.

I worked in an extremely loud factory for much of my adult life. There is a joy in the quiet of now. Max the bird flies onto me and cuddles under my neck. Quiet and stillness bring me joy. Look for the joy and we will find it in such small moments. Ahhh quiet without the noise of humans.

I see I just meant to write a boring entry here but it turned into writing about small joys in life. Writing is that way. Without conscious thought, truths and gems leak out of our fingers onto a keyboard into a screen. Truths of little joys.