Summer's gifts

As a child, I always looked forward to June. School was out. I could sleep until I woke up late in the morning. No pressure, no deadlines, no homework, just freedom, peace, and time to read and play. 

Our family never took vacations. We had a farm, and that meant working every single day to care for livestock, milk cows, and ensure all animals stayed within their confines. My father and his four sons worked all day, every weekday, in the fields. Summer was the growing season for peanuts, cotton, and corn. 

I was infatuated with corn. From its earliest days, when two shoots came out and tentatively tested the air, corn amazed me. Those two green shoots became a stalk with long leaves. Next, tiny ears of corn appeared on the stalks that were taller than I. I liked walking in corn rows. I felt like I was in a tunnel as the leaves reached out across the space between rows. 

As the corn matured, the plants towered over me, and the ears of corn grew fat in their husks. Silky streamers protruded from the ends, sometimes white or pink before they turned reddish-brown. They became the hair of glamorous girls in my imagination. Sometimes I stopped and braided the silks the way Mother braided my long hair. I learned that each strand of corn silk is connected with a kernel of corn.

We often had boiled corn for our midday meal, which we called dinner. It was so good with Mother's homemade butter. I hated the job of silking the corn. We had to find the tiny strings embedded between the rows of kernels. 

When I was a child, corn was not as sweet as it is today. It was always good, however. A few years ago, I bought some corn at an outdoor produce stand. The corn had been enhanced to make it extremely sweet. It did not taste natural. What disappointment! We humans think we must enhance or improve all of nature's plants to suit our cravings, sugar being one of the worst.

Here in the city where I now abide, Publix has begun buying fresh corn. My sister, Gay, has brought me several ears and I am happy to say they tasted good, not overly sweet. 

My deck garden is doing well. My squash plant has been full of yellow blooms. I hope they become crookneck squash. One of my tomato plants has three green babies, and one is beginning to blush. I can't grow corn on my deck, but I have flowers and lots of Hosta.

Yesterday, Stu, my bil, put up holders for my bird feeders and hung a plant holder on my deck. He is handy with a drill and a screw driver. He is also kind and helpful.

June is the birth month of my beloved sister, June. The 25th is embedded in my memory. I often say a little prayer of gratitude for having such a generous and loving person in my life, one of the women who made me who I am today. 

My sister, June, sitting in the chair. I miss her

If you are a regular reader, thanks so much for stopping in today. 

If you are new, please come back again soon.

A Second Home

Here I am snuggled into bed in my apartment.

On Christmas Eve, I slept here for the first time. I know what it means to be a minimalist now. Borrowed items from my sister's kitchen and the electric skillet I received at Christmas can be used to make my breakfast.  

The rooms are pretty bare, the cabinets and drawers are near empty. Strangely, I feel better here out of the clutter I live in at home. I am convinced that my own home makes me sick. I want to clear out most of what is in my house in the mountains. Much of it will be brought here, but not all of it! During the past two years, I lived almost all the time in my kitchen, dining and living area, and bedroom. When my dining room became my office, the clutter began to grow. I soon was drowning in paper. It seemed that my furniture grew or multiplied and my open space shrunk. One bedroom became a catchall space and no one could sleep there now. Clutter is bad for me, and I will do something about it when I go home.

I have two closets here at the apartment and love all that empty space. I brought some clothes and shoes and will leave most of them so when I come down in the future, I won't have so much to pack.

We had a quiet Christmas Day.

My nephew began to run a fever and felt unwell that morning, so his mother said she thought it best if we didn't come over.  

However it was fun opening presents with Gay and Stu and having our dinner here, just the three of us.

I did not get Christmas cards mailed as I have done in the past. I did send out some Email Christmas letters. I love the cards sent to me by friends and family.

It is so nice to be remembered and to hear from them.

I have a friend on my mind tonight. 

She has been taking chemo for the past year. She is in the hospital now and was under Hospice care at home until yesterday when she was moved to Asheville NC under strong pain meds. She is suffering so much.

That is why I support Compassion and Choices. I watched my sweet husband deal with the horrible pain of cancer and I know, if I had a choice, I would want to have a say in how I want to end my life. I think anyone who has watched a loved one suffer knowing there is no cure, would want that person free of pain more than anything. I know I felt that way with Barry. Unless someone tells the doctor what the patient wants and what the family wants, the doctors will continue to prolong the suffering as that is what they think they are supposed to do.

HOSPICE

My friend, Ellen, a doctor who works in a Hospice Center, says many relatives or close family members will insist they do everything possible to prolong the life of the patient even if he/she is suffering great pain and has no chance of recovering. 

Don't we suffer enough just living with our illnesses and aches and pains, with our losses and griefs? Why make us suffer even more at the end of our lives? 

I am grateful for my kind and loving sister and brother-in-law who do so much for me, even providing a relaxing retreat for me. Lexie is not sure she wants to stay here, but she finally decided, if she couldn't go upstairs with Gay and Smokie, she would stay with me. In her own bed, she is curled up and is sleeping away.

ACCEPT AND MOVE ON

I am trying to look at the positives in my life the past two years instead of dwelling on the things that have been tough, and the changes that will likely be permanent. We must accept those changes and move on in new ways to enjoy our lives.

Hope you have escaped COVID and will have a happy and healthy new year.