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A Postpartum Check-In and One Word

January 19, 2017 By Sandra Heska King

LIGHT

I just pulled out a calendar and had to count and recount the weeks we’ve been here. We moved in on December 12. That means not quite six weeks. Am I counting right? It seems longer, but makes me feel better about not yet being settled, especially since we’ve seen Christmas come and go and had company for ten days afterward. At one point, ten of us dodged still-stacked boxes.

Six weeks. That makes this kind of a postpartum check-in considering when I last wrote I realized we’d been on a nine-month journey, a pregnancy of sorts.

This morning I slipped outside into a rocking chair, damp with dew though under cover. I thought I saw two rocks in or at the lake’s edge. I wondered if D had decided after all to “decorate” the shore with ones he’s started to remove from the yard. But as dark filled with light, it exposed two brown ducks, floating still as stone. Mottled ducks maybe? See me shrug? They’re small and brown and sweet. I’ll look them up another time.

As the sky pinked up, I could see Moscovy ducks nestled across the lake in the neighbor’s backyard. When we remove the chain link fence that mars my view, they’ll waddle into our yard, probably, and make a mess. Again I shrug. It’s a small price to pay for the privilege of “lakeside” living. I wonder if I’m the only one enraptured with it. I’ve never seen anyone else outside unless they’re letting their dogs out or doing a little mowing or yard clean-up.

Since we’ve been here, I’ve watched the ducks, white and glossy ibis, cormorants (pretty sure–they could be anhingas, or maybe both), herons and egrets enjoy the water. It’s distracting, really. I keep stopping to pay attention to them instead of keeping my focus on what I “should” be doing. And who knows? Maybe one day after we clean up the view, I could be distracted by a giant “lizard” on my patio. The neighbor says she thought there was a baby alligator in the lake last year that’s since gone on its own way or hitched a ride. Oh, and across the tree line behind the houses across the lake that we’ll never step a toe into? That’s the Everglades.

Speaking of light… Tweetspeak Poetry is hosting a discussion on Dark Times Filled With Light, by the Argentinian poet, Juan Gelman–someone I’d never heard of. He survived a horrendous period of state terrorism, though his own family ended up among the “disappeared.”

The Argentina that nurtured the tango, and then “disappeared” its people, became the crucible for a poet. Steeped in the authority of his wound, Gelman’s poems transform the unspeakable into an affirmation that locates light even in the darkest of times. ~ from the “Introduction.”

You should pop over to TSP and check it out.

I’d been considering a word to guide me through 2017. I had flickers of ideas, like maybe “home” for the third year in a row because… new home. I thought about “literary” and “poetry,” but nothing had flashed any signals until Tweetspeak announced this book club. I had to practically shield my eyes from the light of it. So light is the word I’m going to live with this year and explore in all kinds of connotations, from finding light to being light to living light(ly.) Besides, after all, I now live in the “Sunshine State” after living for years in what someone recently called the “Gray State”–or the “Grey State,” the spelling my friend Laurie Klein says she prefers because it just looks colder.

If I can’t find light in the Sunshine State, I’ve got a big problem.

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Comments

  1. Martha Orlando says

    January 19, 2017 at 3:03 pm

    Light is the perfect word, Sandra! Know that whenever I read your posts, I feel your light shining through your words. Thank you for that blessing!

    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 19, 2017 at 6:47 pm

      You are such a gift to me, Martha.

  2. Betty Draper says

    February 2, 2017 at 9:39 am

    Great word. The first thing that came to my mind was, He is the light of the world and makes us see through that light what ever is before us. We have had almost 30 moves in my 70 years and I can tell you without a doubt there is light where ever we have lived, stateside or on an island half way around the world. Light follows me…just as it follows you. I hope to stop by more often to read how your words produces great post.

    • Sandra Heska King says

      February 3, 2017 at 7:23 am

      Thirty moves! Oh my, Betty. And I used to think we moved a lot. Back in the day, we used to be able to look at moves at adventure. I’m finding this one has become that, too. I’m following that light with you and grateful it follows us both.

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Talking with D about his grandfather. One of the f Talking with D about his grandfather. One of the farmhands said Grandpa King was one of the toughest men he ever knew. In the dead of a Michigan winter, he wore a baseball cap instead of a knit hat. In April through October he never wore a shirt.
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Once he was raking hay and while trying to get the rake in gear, he fell against the tractor fender. He finished raking hay. Then for the next two days, he rode on a combine bagging oats, bouncing and breathing in dust and lifting bags. After 3 days, he said, “I don’t feel very good. I’m gonna go to the doctor snd see what’s wrong.” He had two or three broken ribs, a punctured lung, and pneumonia.
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D said he only saw him tear up three times.
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1. When his 19-year-old grandson died from a heart condition.
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2. When D said, “ Goodbye Grandpa. I’ll see you in the spring.” ( D was maybe 11 or 12. ) Grandpa was on his way to FL for the winter and knew he probably wouldn’t be back. He died about a month later.
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3. When he talked about the fact that the hotels in FL would not let black baseball players stay there. That was in the 50s.
“Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.” “Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.” -Rumi
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Even if it’s spring.
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This evening’s walk.
Happy place. Happy place.
E.T. phone home. E.T. phone home.
Side effects update - 50 hours post Covid vaccine Side effects update - 50 hours post Covid vaccine #2...
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Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nope. None. Not even a sliver.
No chocolate this year. Besides, the neighborhood No chocolate this year. Besides, the neighborhood raccoon we saw up the tree the other night has (had?) a sweet tooth and stole the box the next-door hubby had delivered--took it around the side of their house and ate it all.

Also no flowers or cards. 

Just this. And her name shall be called... drum roll...

We loved all the suggestions. But we also wanted to keep the love connection--and I wanted to let D finally get to choose a name for our 13th (if I've remembered all of them) cat. The rescue named her Valentine, so since she's the only Valentine either of us are getting today, we decided to keep that name--but as a middle name. D has been calling her "Lucy Vallie."

Lucy--for Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy) and her mischief and troublemaking. We've already seen signs of mischief in the shattered antique bottle we'd discovered next to our farmhouse in Michigan. It sat on the windowsill over the bathtub--silly me in having neglected to totally cat-proof--and in the missing top to my contact lens case--that D finally found next to the litter box. 

Also, there's the light-shedding Luci Shaw... whose poetry I love. 

And Lucy Pevensie from the Chronicles of Narnia who superly loved Aslan.

So now we have Lucy the Goose and Lucy Valentine whom we already love and expect lots of love and light and laughs from. And probably lots of mischief. She also has trouble staying still long enough for pictures.

How is Sophie taking to her? Well, they are still pretty much separated. This morning there were some barks and squeals and hisses and growls. But we will get there.

Happy Valentine's Day to us. And to you from all of us. ❤️
Peekaboo... I see you little cutie in the next doo Peekaboo... I see you little cutie in the next door neighbor’s tree. (I’ve got to start carrying the camera at all times.) #eveningwalk
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In other news, since I was able to hike last night, I’ve been cleaning up my “nest” where I’ve hung out for the last month—elevating, icing, snoozing, reading, watching more movies than I’ve watched in a year. I’m happy to report that during this time I’ve read every book in The Chronicles of Narnia, including The Magician’s Nephew that I had to get from the library cuz I don’t know what happened to my copy. First time. Don’t judge. Though I *did* see the LWW when the movie first came out if that counts.
Saw this beauty on our hike last night. Check out Saw this beauty on our hike last night. Check out those feet. And it moved more gracefully than I did. #purplegallinule
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Also, my FB memories told me I canceled PT for something (I can't even remember what) 11 years ago this day. I took both cheers and jeers for that in the comments. 😂
He thinks I can’t see him. He’s wrong. Camoufl He thinks I can’t see him. He’s wrong. Camouflaged but not concealed. #kingofthehedge
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Time out for a little #berniememes fun. Time out for a little #berniememes fun.
“We don’t know when he will act. In his time, “We don’t know when he will act. In his time, no doubt, not ours.” ~ Peter in Prince Caspian
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It’s Inauguration Morning. Prayers for the incoming and the outgoing. Prayers for all of us because we are all exhausted. Prayers for peace and patience and safety and wisdom and more compassion and more kindness and more love and unity. And, please Lord, no more virus.
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