207 Days to Go

I just realized that I neglected to blog yesterday. My youngest brother and his wife were here visiting and we headed out in the morning, and ate a very late lunch together before they headed back to the Cape.

By the time I got home, anything to do with a computer completely slipped my mind.

As Bill the Cat used to say in the comic strip Bloom County: "Aaacckk!"

Today is my Mom's birthday. If she was still here in the flesh, she'd be turning 83. She had a difficult time wrapping her head around the idea that she was more than 80 years old so I have a hunch that celebrating 83 would have been a bit of a challenge.

But it's a good day to pause and reflect. It's been nearly seven weeks since she died and I have a little more than half a year left in this project, The Power of Sixty.

Dealing with Mom's last journey has been a lot like hitting a very large rock when you're riding a bicycle. The whole experience put me on a whole different trajectory.

Now that she's with me in a different way, where am I in this process?

The book writing, except for the Power of Sixty e-book which gets written in this blog (nearly) every day, is off course. My book on publishing has been languishing for two months but that will once again become part of my daily work on Monday. (That's books 1 and 2)

There's a complete novel that needs attention, and a novel in process. (Books 3 and 4)

The fifth and sixth books will be quilting books, one to accompany the novel in process. (Books 5 and 6)

My list of plants to get to know better is up to 21. I've deliberately held back on some of this collection so I can do a little more research and have some green to enjoy during the winter. I just did a quick count and I believe there are enough plants in my photo collection to get to 60 easily enough.

There are 47 creative acts left to go and this was a bit deliberate because the cold months, after the gardens are down, are when I come inside to crochet, quilt, sew and knit. Gardening is indeed creative but that wasn't how I defined this category.

Deep thrills went into suspended animation while I was tending to Mom though her memorial celebration was so deeply felt, I think it will stand as the deepest thrill of all this year. We lost her but we knew just how to celebrate her and we succeeded.

The Slow Fun experiences will pick back up as soon as the gardens are down this weekend and Jay has totally finished the roof. Then we are released back into the wild to hike and snowshoe.

And there are 38 books still to read this year. A lot have been started but reading got difficult during my time with Mom. I'm still not ready for too much that's serious but there are lots of other pieces to read.

So there I am, a bit more behind than I wish but it's OK because I got to spend time with my Mom. And that makes all the difference.