A year ago this week, our residence in Floyd County was full of boxes and crates—a house no longer home. In a week, we would drive away from Rock Hill for the last time, from Floyd, from Virginia, from every place and every one who had been dear to us for almost three decades.
Without a doubt, the past 12 months have been the most significant challenge to body, mind and spirit. I have confessed as much. But I am still standing. And even hopeful.
This post is just say thank you for all who have been cheering me on, encouraging me through your kind comments, emails and support.
A HEALTHIER ME
I boldly claimed well before we moved that, in a year, I was certain I would be in better health in every way in a year. I was wrong.
The first 9 months here were given almost entirely to managing Ann’s needs as her abilities to remember and comprehend and cope declined from day to day. I could not leave her alone for a single hour, and so my needs came last.
Since mid-May when she entered Memory Care (just one floor down a few hundred yards of carpet away in the same building) I have been increasingly looking after my own health and future, and having some successes.
In July I treated myself to an Apple Watch that, combined with a fitness app (Walkmeter) is helping me to make cardiovascular progress in a daily before-breakfast walk. I am approaching a 15 minute mile around the perimeter of the campus (see the map below) while watching my heart rate response. It is getting easier. Over the next few months (before the cold winds force me onto the treadmill in the gym) I will increase the distance to two or three trips around. Might happen.
My weight is down from a number that had been only a covid high, reached again after we arrived in Missouri. I think this was partly from stress eating; and also needing to go to meals when I wasn’t hungry so Ann could gain weight.) I am in reach of my pre-covid and desired summer weight before winter adds some of that back on again.
STRANGERS NO MORE
Since I have been able to negotiate the community on my own terms, conversations have become easy that were not possible when my attention was elsewhere and every situation and conversation was unpredictable.
And so I now know some couples and individuals with whom I share a common set of interests, sense of humor and generally accepting and kind approach to life. I have been able to emerge from the bubble of stifled anonymity to resume a fuller and more complete version of who I used to be. And it feels good to breathe again among almost-friends.
Aging is not a solo act. Companionship is oxygen.
GETTING OFF THE RESERVATION
OSHER classes for fall will be announced this week. I already know I will sign up for “The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie” offered by fellow-resident Larry Brown—a story-telling character in his own right, who is also in our writers’ group here.
And through my new contacts with Audubon folks, I am signed up for an all-day conference (MOBCI) where I will likely be the only unaffiliated attendee in a focus on many different agencies looking at the status of bird habitat in the state. And of course, in the end, it is about the health of the whole of nature, not just the birds.
The Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative (MoBCI) is a partnership of organizations that “get excited about birds,” care about bird conservation, and/or have formal legal responsibilities for bird conservation. It is an organization of organizations, a diverse partnership dedicated to the conservation of wild birds and their habitats. The MoBCI was formally established August 16, 2003 following the written commitment of 28 organizations to unite in the pursuit of integrated all-bird conservation. A series of communication and consensus building meetings preceded the MoBCI’s official formation. Now 72 organizations have agreed to. participate in the initiative.
EYES OPEN IN AND OUT OF DOORS
There have been fewer hours outdoors after sun-up for a couple of months now, the heat and humidity more like my native Birmingham than the relative summer coolness we had enjoyed in the mountains of SWVA.
But you take your dose of nature where you find it—in this case indoors, on the wood laminate floor outside the chapel. Do you know this dazzling, speedy, gaudy, poisonous, durable insect?
This is a velvet “ant” and it is a very interesting creature (there are hundreds of species seldom seen) and it is worth reading about. And wanna bet, now that you’ve seen one in a photo, you’ll see one in your yard or park. Look don’t touch. This is a wingless female wasp that is also called a “cow killer.”
10 Velvet Ant Facts (Aka ‘Cow Killers’!) – Fact Animal
SHOW ON THE ROAD
Percolating to the surface in the past little bit are the memories of conversations I used to have with groups of folks (friends of libraries, civic groups, book clubs and such) before covid.
There is something to the idea, maybe, as I remember who I used to be, get my voice back and my legs under me. So now I wonder if I have the will and energy to start over in this way. But what else am I doing, now that I can make choices about my time and focus?
Karaoke night is coming up, last Friday of the month. And I have shamelessly “performed” a few times already and so should know better. I’ve already had a half dozen folks wanting to know if I will embarrass myself in this way yet again.
And yes, most likely.
– Fred First is an author, naturalist, photographer watching Nature under siege since the first Earth Day. Cautiously hopeful. Writing to think it through. Thanks for joining me. Subscribe to My Substack HERE.
