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Martin Luther King Jr. "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope"
So one thing I have done consistently this year is paint with the watercolor set my granddaughter, Daisy gave me for Christmas. It was a challenge to myself to not just stick it in a box of my other craft materials with the intention of getting to it later. I’ve never done much watercolor before, and my days of constant art classes ended in 1986 with a weaving lab that I ran while in college in Ashland. But I gave up that job when Greg and I decided to go to China as exchange students.
I also have been feeling better, still undiagnosed but some meds have reduced the symptoms enough that I can stay awake and not having as many muscle spasms means I’ve done things like shorter, 7 hour or less road trips, and attending plays and concerts again. I also take a lot of breaks on the road to move around, so like with the painting, I paint every day maybe an hour total but usually in ten minute stages. And I’ve been volunteering in the granddaughters’ classes at times. But it exhausts me enough to know I really couldn’t teach even a half day anymore. I used to read books, even write books, but now I tend to start them and then abandon them. My concentration is also more short term and more visual like photography and art and less wordy. Writing this letter is really hard and I rarely write actual Facebook posts but just share pictures and other people’s posts
I have been blessed by helping at the very beginning as people came together to create a “stiff Person Syndrome, and related disorders support group.” I have friends there who understand what I’m experiencing. Even though I haven’t gotten a definite diagnosis, the symptoms we share are so close that they have suggestions for things that really do help, and encouragement when I get exhausted assuring everyone I’m “fine” even though my fine is so much less ok than it used to be.
Greg, I guess he’s still doing good. He seems tired but liking the things he does. His friend who conducted the community chorale got sick and retired and no one else stepped up, so now Greg conducts three community singing groups, and is starting to plan a chorale trip to Europe for 2026. He also is still teaching full time at the prison. Our oldest granddaughter is in both the kids choir and the youth choir as well as having played basketball and soccer and started in band with playing trombone and in a chess club. She loves working with her grandpa on music. So anyway, he’s maintained the hundred pound weight loss all year, goes biking and swimming for exercise and goes camping, mushroom hunting, out on a friend’s boat and on road trips for fun. Emerson and Greg took Daisy to the San Francisco area to amusement parks and The Great Wolf Lodge at the end of June. That was one trip I knew I couldn’t handle physically. Lately Greg has been working on the not fun task of replacing the ancient plumbing in our house. We had our 40th wedding anniversary on May 21st.
Emerson and Austin are hard at work on the same jobs they have had for years now. Plus Austin and Tricia are raising chickens and a gorgeous garden and going hunting And all the grandkids are in the grade school years between first and fifth grade, so that is both fun and exhausting. Emerson took on coaching Daisy’s soccer team and that turned out great, both he and the team grew a lot and plan to be together again next season. I see the girls the most because they are in the same school, go to the same assemblies and activities a lot. My grandson is in a different grade school so when I’m really missing him I have to get out of the daily routine and go find him but he is worth it. He usually lights up when he sees me and gives me a brief hug, but pays me lots of quick smiles and giggles. He’s non verbal but pretty good at communicating nonetheless. He teaches me to be patient and appreciate every smile or glance or high five
