I carved this turtle out of a piece of cedar firewood my Aunt Harriett had given me back in 1990. She thought the wood had better potential than providing twenty minutes of warmth via her fireplace I hung onto the fragrant cedar with its strong demarcation between the red and the lighter wood within it, … Continue reading On the tyranny of things
Category: Polio
Polio Blogs 6: Hospital intermission
The changeable weather typical of early spring in the middle of New Mexico of late reminds me of the confusing alterations in life that tossed me this way and that during the several years of my childhood between major hospitalizations. To me living in a spacious western state is as far as it was convenient to … Continue reading Polio Blogs 6: Hospital intermission
Polio blogs 5: In which my reintegration into life lurches along
When Boston’s Children’s Hospital deposited me and my small bag of belongings onto the sidewalk with my mother I was about to leave a place where all the other kids had handicaps like mine, and the adults had the job of equipping us to get around in our new state of paralysis. Nobody asked questions … Continue reading Polio blogs 5: In which my reintegration into life lurches along
Onto a new path
’Tis another washed out, grey day dawned in the high desert. An anticipated big snowstorm failed to have its way with us. Cheers for that. Firing up Apple Music on my iPad Mini first thing this morning, my fingers found their way to an album from my long ago folk music names. A Joan Baez … Continue reading Onto a new path
New Year’s Eve is for creating…
New Year’s Eve: In which I muse about a long awaited change of venue… If transformation is the norm, then spiritual transformation falls into place as an extension of where life has been going all along. While still remaining who you are, you can bring about a quantum leap in your awareness, and the sign that … Continue reading New Year’s Eve is for creating…
Polio Blogs 4: Little brother and gifts
You can only wobble around hospital corridors, showing off your new skills with leg braces by kicking your popular young doctor in front of his peers, for so long. Children’s Hospital discharged me just before I was due to start first grade, at the age of six. Oddly, I remember almost nothing about the event, … Continue reading Polio Blogs 4: Little brother and gifts
Polio Blogs 3: She learns to walk again
The last blog in this series left my six-year-old self lying in an old hospital bed with chipped enamel railings, devouring two bowls of vanilla ice cream smothered in mustard. That bizarre meal — following a hunger strike — marked the end of my sullen rage at what paralytic polio had done to me. For … Continue reading Polio Blogs 3: She learns to walk again
Polio Blogs 2: Getting fitted for a new kind of life
Most of those infected never get seriously ill. They may feel unusually tired, stiff, and achy, but they recover quickly and assume they had a bout with the flu. When they return to school or work, the virus returns with them. But in about 2 percent of all cases, the virus penetrates the central nervous … Continue reading Polio Blogs 2: Getting fitted for a new kind of life
Polio Blogs 1: The polio bug
Here begins a new series for me, partly due to the Ministry of Encouragement in the Creative Group at Bedlam Farm, partly to my long ago promise to various medical professionals to write my experiences for them, and partly because of visions such as this one right below. November 19, 2015 from Darlene Gait Witt’s … Continue reading Polio Blogs 1: The polio bug
Rising Over the Smoke 