It’s been years since I blogged regularly. Maybe ten years? In that time I have finished my bachelor’s degree and earned a master’s. I have sold my house and downsized to a townhome. My beautiful baby has graduated from high school, started college and turned 21. We’ve managed to thrive during this Covid pandemic, despite the madness of the outside world.
Frankly, I’m exhausted.
My art took a rest during this time. I can validly say that I’ve been too busy to play. In this time, though, my mind has been working in the background. I am coming to new relationships with color, texture, and process. And so I am both returning to complete unfinished works, and starting new projects. Kind of like my degrees. I’m setting aside a couple of hours after dinner to dip into art. I need it to decompress.
In the past two or three years, I have also gained back all of the weight I lost starting in 2008. Dreadful? Nah, not really. I see myself in the mirror, and I’m beautiful thin or fleshed. But I don’t like how I move when I’m heavier. I can’t bend or twist the way I want to, and I feel like my face do any show the expressions I intend, so I want to bring it down. The weight has to go.
My weight gain has come from a couple of habits, mostly related to convenience. Since I wrote last I’ve also been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which may well have been hidden for years. And I’ve been watching when, what, and how I eat to find those extra calories. I’ve discovered that convenience is the key. When I feel tired and I’m in pain, the last thing I want to do is spend an hour cooking. I just want to eat. The breads and pastries I keep on the counter have been providing the energy to cook. So I eat two meals in the place of one.
That’s the key. I need to have healthy food that I can prepare easily and quickly to avoid the before-dinner bagel with cream cheese.
So here we are, back at a new beginning, but with a whole lot of life to work from.
Here’s one of my WIPs, a pullover in Kauni multicolor and Rauma Finnukgarn.
