Waiting for the Light

 

Happy 2018 everyone!

It’s been quite a while since my last post. I hope you have missed me 🙂

At the end of the year people tend to take stock of what the previous year was like, and determine what they wish for the upcoming new year. Instagram compiled my top nine posts together in one display.

There were definitely some awesome moments captured. But, one memorable moment for me is not documented anywhere online, until now.

My family and I lit this Advent wreath each Sunday as we waited to celebrate the birth of Jesus-our light to shine in the darkness. Key words here are waiting and light.  

This homespun wreath is not the epitome of craftsmanship, but it is a reminder to me of my time in a holding pattern close to 17 years ago. After one of my hospitalizations, I needed occupational therapy to strengthen my hand muscles (atrophy as result of a medication reaction). Recovery was slow, and I was very impatient (shocking, I know). In September my physical therapist suggested that I choose a craft to strengthen my hands. She knew I loved using my glue gun. But did I choose something simple with the glue gun?

Nope. I chose to construct an Advent wreath that required using an ivy leaf stencil on two different colors of felt, cutting out that shape, stuffing with a little batting, and then hot gluing them together. I then used pins to arrange them on a Styrofoam craft wreath (btw, it’s not as easy to stick them in as you might think) and glued a little red pom-pom onto the leaves.

A time-consuming and arduous process to say the least. I didn’t just want to rehabilitate my hands-I needed to prove to myself that I could still accomplish something-something other than having the less than 1% reaction to most medications known to man.

To have it ready for the first Sunday of Advent, I knew I had to make a decent effort each day. Also, my daughter looked forward to coming home from pre-school and checking out the homework her Mom completed. I couldn’t disappoint her, especially with the guilt I had for being away from her so much when I was in the hospital.

Amazingly, I finished it in time-well barely, but finished. I learned that even though events were not happening in the time frame I wanted, I could still have something to show for it. As a side note-make sure you have someone carve notches in the Styrofoam for the candles before you cover it with the ivy leaves. Not that it happened to me of course, I had this friend…. 🙂

So, fast forward to this year. As I unpacked the wreath from the storage bin, it struck me that my life had hit the big ol’ pause button once again. This year’s moment in November when the ultrasound tech confirmed I had a blood clot, events from 17 years ago flooded my memory and anxiety floated to the surface. Once again, I’m up the creek without a paddle, although if a had a paddle, I couldn’t grip it since my hands are worse now, anyway—I digress.

After my new blood clot diagnosis, I dreamed about my hospital stay 17 years ago which brought back the feelings of isolation, fear, and the need to hoard cranberry juice (that’s a story for another day). That was the first of many sleepless nights and re-emergent panic attacks. It didn’t help that my recent blood clot diagnosis came the week of Thanksgiving. That same week three years ago, my Mom’s health began its downward spiral before she would pass away a mere 3 months later.

I guess you could say I was dealing with my own form of post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). It prolonged the time that I couldn’t focus on any writing/researching my work-in-progress, reading for my own pleasure, or marketing The Last Cherry Blossom-which already were on hold because of my October surgery.

So, looking at the Advent wreath a couple months ago, I remembered the painstaking hours making it, and that eventually I completed it. So, I applied that to my writing and started journaling. Very rudimentary, sometimes just list of emotions I felt, and sometimes full sentences. A few days later, it dawned on me that my character, Yuriko will be dealing with PTSD.

Although I may have different reasons for mine, and my reaction may not be as intense, but I could understand some of the feelings her actions will be based on. So maybe I am accomplishing something after all and I’m not stuck on pause. That moment of revelation (this is where the light comes in) won’t show up on any top 2017 list, but it helped set the stage for how I’m approaching 2018.

Wishing you all peace and light this 2018!

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Have you ever?

Have you ever noticed how in one moment something can change, just like that? Have you ever thought, wow if that car I was following wasn’t driving so slow I surely would have gotten a ticket because there was a cop just around the corner? It can’t be just me, can it?

Or have you ever arrived home after a very long, aggravating day just in time to receive a letter from a loved one?  Some people must still send them, right?

Have you ever been out when a flash of lightning turns a fun picnic into panic?  But soon, the clouds part to reveal a rainbow.

My recent moment was this past Sunday night.  I finally uploaded my first blog post! My husband innocently asked me, “What will your second post be about next week?”  What?! Second post-AAAHHHH! I ran to my laptop to search for “okay smarty pants you wrote your first blog post, now what……”

Then there were a string of more serious moments 13 years ago.

A routine five-day hospital stay turned into 14 days.  Soon followed by 14 more in a rehab hospital-no, not the Lindsay Lohan rehab, a physical rehab hospital.  One minute I was wearing my favorite sweater with this great long black skirt and these really chic black boots-I got such a great deal on those boots-but I digress.  I came home, unzipped those stylish black boots I got for a song, and my left leg inflated like a balloon.

Okay I thought, that was soooo not normal-quite an accurate clinical diagnosis if I do say so myself. But, just to be sure I looked up the symptoms in my medical book-yes I have one-OCD research is not a new trait for me.  The symptoms I had matched the ones listed for a blood clot.  Within an hour my husband and I found ourselves basking in the romantic ambiance of our local hospital’s emergency room. Oh, I should probably mention it also happened to be Valentines’ day. Yup, it was.  Can you hear the violins amidst the code calls?

I want to go back 69 years to another moment, albeit, not mine, but it affected me nonetheless. A 12-year-old girl in Hiroshima is outside laughing with her friend.  It had been raining for the past few days, so to be outside beneath the blazing sun of a clear, blue August sky was a welcomed change.  A bright flash…a loud popping noise… darkness.  Once the dust, fire storms, and ash cleared a 12-year-old girl’s life was turned upside down, shaping the person she would become. She faced enormous loss and change.  Yet, she is someone who never lost the ability to love.  She is a brave woman and I admire her with all my heart. She is my mother. That horrific instant in her life led her on the path to eventually marrying my dad, becoming a U.S. citizen, and giving birth to me.

In my manuscript, THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM, a character states, “Cherry blossoms are like life itself—so beautiful, yet so fragile that they bloom only a short time.”  Moments (unexpected-the good and the bad) we all have them.  I believe that these moments lead to the memories that our heart carries for a lifetime. Moments strung together make us who we are.

Have you ever?  Please share your moments below.