Thunder Shirt

CHOP SUEY SUNDAY

Sunday, a day of rest – supposedly. Since I’m retired every day could be a day of rest. I haven’t found it so. I’ve lost my knack for idleness. I hope to tap my way back to my chaise lounge. I used to be so good at languishing and contemplating my navel. Oh dear! What has happened to me? Can I get myself back?

No use in crying over lost skills and spilt time. I should focus my attention here and write  this post for day 26 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I get myself all a-jittery shifting my attention to one thing, then another. What I need is something like a cattle chute or Temple Grandin’s hug machine. Oh, great! Now I’ve diagnosed myself with autism as well as ADHD. I guess if the symptoms fit, I might as well learn and work with them. It might be of benefit in the grand scheme of life. I wonder if Sheba’s thunder shirt would work for me.

In the meantime, on with the post. It must get written. Sunday is our morning of sourdough pancakes. I feed Oscar (my sourdough starter) daily for that purpose besides making bread. I like mine with just one fried egg and smeared with just a tad of maple syrup. I look forward to them as much as my occasional whole enchilada breakfast at A&W (2 fried eggs, 3 breakfast sausages, brown toast and hash brown) after my Saturday morning swim. It’s like a winter getaway for me. AND it’s much cheaper than going to Mexico or Cuba, even if it’s an all inclusive.

I’m cheap to keep if I need to be kept. Lunch is on in the Instant Pot. I’m making chop suey soup. Chop suey means a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I opened the freezer and found a bone and 2 slices of ham. In the fridge was some leftover roast beef, wilted celery, 3 still plump mushrooms and a couple of carrots. They all ended in the pot with a few other items and some water. The lid is closed. I pressed the soup button and and 75 minutes. Now we are minutes away from eating.

Did you know that Canada is a chop suey nation? There’s a Chinese cafe in almost every small town in Saskatchewan/Canada. I had a mission of visiting them this summer but only managed one. Someone else already had that idea and written a book about it. It’s called Chop Suey Nation if you are curious. It’s my story and every Chinese immigrant’s who or whose parents had a cafe. So much for writing today. Onto some other chop suey. Here’s a fun video to take us out.

 

I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN

IMG_6221Just when I think I have a handle on things, dare to relax and let go, life – that perennial jokester, shows herself again.  I shake my head.  What makes me think that there is smooth sailing into the sunset from now till eternity?  It’s an illusion, happening only in movies.  I know that, but still I hold onto that dream of Utopia.  I am a little blue and sleep deprived.  Sheba has had a little relapse with her anxiety yesterday.

We were too happy too soon with her recovery the other day.  I thought it was behind us. But nothing is ever that easy.  We all I know all that.  How many times have I been sure that  I will never be afraid again and I will never feel depressed again?  And time after time I have been wrong.  It is the cycle of everything.  What goes up, must come down.  There’s the good times.  There’s the hard times.  Otherwise life would be stagnant.  The Universe would be a huge yawn.  Do I really want a Utopia?

IMG_2449So Sheba is going through a rough period again.  I take a deep breath.  What do you do when your child is afraid?  You can’t abandon her or tell her to snap out of it.  You hold and love her.  And so we put on her Thunder Shirt.  It helps with the shaking.  We stand over her while she eats.  She looks over her shoulder with every bite, checking for the bogeyman.  We can’t see or hear him but then we don’t have her senses.

Just when she is able to settle for the night on her mat at the foot of the bed, she is jolted upright by some energy.  I don’t know if my imagination was at work or not, but I could feel ‘it’ at the same time – not the same intensity as Sheba but I sensed it all the same. There was no calming her.  She would not lay down and she cried softly.  How can you go to sleep when your baby is crying.

In the end, I took her out to the living room and we laid down on her big fluffy pillow. It was not big enough for both of us but I made do with three cushions and a couple of blankets.  She relaxed and went to sleep.  I was able to wiggle myself free and laid on the sofa within her sight.  She was happy with that and stayed on her pillow.  Surprisingly, I had a restful though short sleep.

Today, she is better though we still did the Thunder Shirt in the afternoon.  We still stand guard when she is eating but she is restful tonight, going off to bed by herself.  Yoga is good for both of us.  She likes my mat.  Hope it lasts but no one ever promised me a rose garden for ever and ever.

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