Originally published at Am I the Only One Dancing?. Please leave any comments there.

Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Husband had shoulder surgery on his right shoulder just under two weeks ago. He’s still in pain, but this pain has an end visible. It makes a huge difference in my life.

I’ve been cocooning, reading a ton of books (reviews as I get a chance) kitting a baby layette and then crocheting an afghan for another baby (not done yet, but looking good), planning some sewing projects (planning is still much easier for me than doing, when it comes to sewing) and working upwards of 50 hours a week.

I fought a nasty head cold to a standstill and returned to exercising, and dealt with one mini-crisis after another in the nuclear and extended family. I started a blog for various fiction and poetry, and another that is a fictional account of the Knitpocalypse. No guarantee that I will keep up with either on a regular basis.

I’m watching the political horizon and see storms ahead that make me worry for my country’s future. I see the effects of long term stress and poverty on the people I work with and fight despair.

And yet, like my husband I feel half healed, like a long infected wound has been lanced and is bleeding free.  I can breathe again. I can find my balance and reach out to others. And in my own tendency to isolate when I most need to reach out, I find compassion for those participants in therapy who suddenly vanish right as I know their lives are taking a nosedive, only to reappear later having dealt with whatever it was, feeling strong enough to again delve into the depths of their lives.

As every year, when spring begins to peek out from under the dead leaves and (nonexistent, this year) snow, I renew with the earth and feel new creative stirrings.Energy wells up from wherever it was hiding all winter and infuses me with optimism.

purple crocuses with closed bloom Français : Des crocus violets, avec leurs fleurs fermées. Italiano: Infiorescenze chiuse di piante del genere Crocus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Image via Wikipedia

Bulbs are peeking up in my garden. The first crocuses (croci?) have already started to bloom and I’m about to have a carpet of daffodils and paperwhites, followed by tulips and lilies a little later. I have lettuce and cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cabbage, etc) in a flat under plastic in one of the raised beds, and have promised myself I’m starting the next flats this weekend.

It’s a beautiful thing, here in the Northern hemisphere, this spring. What are you doing to enjoy it?

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