There was a time when I blogged 2-3 times a week. Facebook didn't exist then and the most special part of blogging was the comaraderie of 30 or so regular bloggers, I among them, who shared and supported and enjoyed each other's posts and opinions and talents and gallivants. I miss those days. Unlike Facebook, we didn't know one another in person--we were from different backgrounds and different countries--but over time we did KNOW each other. A number of my real time friends were born from my blogging friendships.
I've begun this post explaining this because I'm utterly failing to blog regularly these days. My photos weren't uploading. But today: they are! So here I am, starting with a glimpse of where and how I live. It's a spit of land in the shape of a boot at the very tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, winter residents 3000, summer residents 20,000. It doesn't get more beautiful than here.
The first photo is of Mattie watching over her neighbors and neighborhood. She turned 2 this month, rescued at 10 weeks from the streets of Aruba, and she's a nice dog. Every dog owner knows there are great joys and plusses in sharing life with a dog, but there is also inconvenience and sometimes guilt in leaving them behind.
The second photo is our new deck off the kitchen. I like this picture because I think it shows my lifestyle these days. Summer is a slow-down season. For the second year, we again have access to a salt water pool one block away, and bobbing in that pool and lying in that sun is close to heaven for me.
The third photo is a quick shot out the window of a local restaurant. It's actually a commonplace picture because almost everywhere you look you can see light bouncing off the sea.
A word about myself: I've had serious back pain for months now (actually 2-plus years) and there have been times when I couldn't bear weight, period. I can't believe I'm better now, but I am. I underwent this private pay, non-surgical, non-traditional program, 3 days a week for 5 months, run by a chiropractor, laser and other cell repair treatments, and I'm as surprised as anyone to say it's worked. I'm not ready to dance the night away but I'm walking and moving and ready to enjoy my summer.
My other big news is I've (finally) finished my second novel--a 330 page manuscript that seems promising. I've had 2 independent editors and a few friends read it and the feedback is good. This summer I'm working with one of those editors, chapter by chapter, to get the book ready to shop around. It is my fondest wish to be picked up by a publisher and in my own way enjoy even modest success. In any case, I love the process and don't mind the work. I'm rooting for myself!
I am trying extra hard to be fair and kind these days. I figure we seriously need as much of that kind of energy as each of us can muster, to offset the damage from He-who-I-refuse-to-name and other white supremacists.
I got an email from Snowbrush today, wondering if I'm okay. Thanks, Snow. For the 10th time I'm going to try to blog more regularly. I'm also on Facebook and if any one here wants us to follow one another there, I'm interested.
Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by and thanks for everything.
love
kj
Nice post Karen. I too have restarted my blog. Hope I keep it up. Its fun. So glad you are pain free.So glad you took the alternative route and it worked! And living in that beautiful place. Fingers crossed for your book. You are very talented. Have a marvelous summer dear friend.Love, Suki
ReplyDeletethanks, suki. I'm so glad you restarted your blog. let's keep it up!
Deletelove love
kj
KJ, you posted for Peggy's birthday--how thoughtful!
ReplyDeleteI am pleasantly floored that you have not only survived your ordeal but are prospering, apparently through treatments that are alien to medical doctors. Of course, correlation doesn't necessarily prove causation, and every person on earth is subject to the placebo effect, yet I am so impressed--and so desperate in my own life--to see you go from where you were to where you are that if you have a link(s) to your practitioner and/or the kinds of treatments you've undergone, I would love to see it.
I love seeing a big dog standing on her hind legs. If I added the weight of my four cats together, they would come to about 45 pounds, which would make but a few good meals for Mattie (which is name that I love, and one that used to be common in my family). My favorite writer, Margaret Deland, lived up the coast from you in Kennebunkport, Maine (moving there from Boston after her husband died), and she too loved big dogs, but hers were always shaggy. Peggy and I have talked much about getting another dog (she more than I), but we know the cats wouldn't approve, and after many years of each, I might feel like a bum for saying it, but I'm at a time in my life when I prefer cats. Our cats (Brewsky, Ollie, Scully, and Sage) love us, and they love one another, and it's hard to beat that. Although we've had them for years, their trust and affection in us still shows signs of growth, and so it is that part of their magic for me is the fact that even when I think that my relationship with them is really, really good, it just keeps getting better.
I don't use Facebook, and, like you, I don't blog as often as I used to, nor do I visit other blogs as much as I used to. It wouldn't be fair, surely, to blame these changes on Trump, but the fact is that I have lost followers who walked away without a word, and while, so far as I know, only one of them was a Trump supporter (and that one, Marion, still comes around on occasion to blast me for my anti-Trump posts), others were conservative, and still others looked upon blogging as a way to escape the affairs of the world rather than be deluged by them. So, people I had been friends with for years, people I thought I would always be friends with, are gone without a word, and then there are the ones, like yourself, who have been absent due to health issues and/or problems with Blogger. I well remember the years that I very seldom mentioned politics, years that my posts very seldom had an angry tone, and here I am entitling posts, "Frothing with Loathing." What else can I do, though, in response to knowing that America is more divided now than it has been at any time since the Civil War, and that the bottom is nowhere in sight... No longer do I hear people speak in terms of Americans looking at what we have in common instead of what separates us, the truth being that we have so little in common.
What was it that Sanders said the other night about being good to one another, by which I took him to mean that those who oppose this evil regime must needs face outward at our common enemy rather than fighting among themselves. May it be so.
KJ, you can't imagine how happy I am that you responded to my email query, how happy I am that you posted, and how happy I am that you're doing well. I SO worried about you because better, perhaps, than most people, I know how bad bad can be when it comes to living in pain all day everyday, and for you go go through that was horrifying.
hi snow, darn blogger isn't holding my comments so I'm never sure one will publish. so I'll keep this brief for now: you're right about my pain. it was wicked. I cannot believe how much better I am.
ReplyDeleteMattie's not too big--35 pound. she just looks ferocious guarding the yard!
I pray for our USA.What a mess. It's hard for me to acknowledge that people I know and don't know don't mind the idea of separating children from parents and treating human beings of all ages in sub-human ways. I want to believe more and more Americans will reject trump come Election Day.
Thanks for staying in touch, snow. xo
love
kj
I'm beginning to think you are nothing but a big tease - every few months an "I'm going to start blogging again" post and then ? You get my hopes up only to be dashed yet again. I hope it is for real this time. But either way, I am so happy to hear that your back problems are resolving and you are able to enjoy more of that gorgeous beach life.
ReplyDeleteLove the photo of Mattie and it's so nice to read your words again. Glad your back is better too. Blogging has changed a lot I find but I still enjoy getting my thoughts out of my head and enjoy posting my photos as well. It reminds me of pen pals in a way and that's a nice thing.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you - i love this world of blogging too - where we don't know each other's real names, but we know each other's real selves. :) I want that world back so much! Please do blog more often. I always leave your blog with a lovely smile. And look forward to your posts. When you don't blog i just come by to your blog anyway, look at what some of your friends have been writing, and that also is peaceful. But your posts are something else.
ReplyDeleteMe, too - I still treasure the blog community and yet I don't have it in me to blog nearly as regularly. In the early days I used to post nearly every day!
ReplyDeleteMattie looks like a great guard dog...Still blogging after almost a decade...So glad you are feeling better, too.
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