We Show Up

Today we motored to Mankato.  Dennis’ great granddaughter Lux was five today.  Last month we were in Mankato for  great granddaughter Luella who was two.   The month before that is was Charlie B’s second birthday.  Oliver turned six in late fall.  There are a total of eight great grandchildren that we are invited to their parties.  When we get invited . . . we show up at every possibility.  Why not!  A chance to see children having a good time, brings a good feeling to us.

It was good to get home this afternoon.  We drove in snowflakes that fluttered.  We have no idea what the forecast is . . . it doesn’t matter.  We take the days the way they come.

When I got home I took several Aleve Gel Caplets.  The neck and shoulders can’t wait to get back to physical therapy on Tuesday.  Does the fact that there is pain surprise me . . . no. 

Last week as I was doing something, a memory of this time of the year, several decades ago, flooded my mind.  At the time we were burning wood in a Warm Morning wood and coal stove.  I was driving school bus for the Buffalo Lake Public Schools in the mornings and in the afternoon routes.  In between times, I was in the backyard chopping wood as we were filling the wood storage for the winter.  I was actually pretty good at it.  Between Orlin and I we would have the storage room filled before the snow would cover the pile of wood, yet to be chopped.

Bill and Esther Miller lived a stone’s throw across the tar road from us.  It was not unusual that right after their noon dinner, Bill would wave me over for a cup of coffee to share with them.  Bill thought I needed a break.  Both were very fragile and in their early 80s.  Bill and Esther never had a family and visitors to their home were far and few in between.  They were two very sweet individuals.  I digress. 

There has always been physical activity, and some labor intensive that was a part of my life.  I was a farm kid, I was a farm wife and I have always known how to show up when there was work to do.  There is a promise I hope to keep for myself this winter . . . no snow removal.  My heart tells me “get out there and do it!’  The reality is that I hope my God-given logic will override the heart in this respect.  I don’t bounce back as quickly as I have in the past when I overdo it.  The saving grace is that I do go for help when the pain lingers.  Nothing eats up energy as much as physical pain.  Hell’s bells.  I have plans and those plans are doable.  Those plans do not involve incapacitating myself.  Good grief . . . I hope I have learned my lesson and that includes listening to Dennis when he gives me his warning lectures.  

It goes to show that Mom knew what she was talking about when she was in her early 90s.  “I’m still watching you for signs of improvement.”  That statement had come to be a long standing comment from her.  She would spout it and have the most wonderful twinkle in her blues eyes the entire time it took her to say it.

This winter season I will show up to all those things that I can handle while doing no harm.