Aboriginal Innocence

R) How long did it take you to craft the story about the dime for Ari?

G) 5-10 minutes. I first wrote a longer, detailed version describing the street I lived on, and a more complete version about the woman who found the dime. Then slashed it, timed the new version, slashed again and timed it.

R) So, your new discipline (in addition to t’ai chi four mornings a week) is to take 5-10 minutes (three times a week) and send a short story to me.

G) Wait, wait…as I thought about it, it was 5 minutes to do all the typing, so it was more like 10-15 minutes!!!! Three times a week? That’s asking a lot. Where do I fit it in?

- I’ve joined a group of women from JRC who study with a non JRC rabbi, three times a month. Meet for lunch at the home of the hostess of the month…it’s greet, eat, seat and read. This rabbi is really great. He’s best described as totally with it. Reading’s in English, he reads the Hebrew/Aramaic (to himself) and ties everything to local politics, economics, cultures. Makes it real and living.

- Then there’s the once a month b’nai mitzvah group gathering.
- Then there’s the once a month ladies torah group that I’ve been a part of for about 30 years.
- Then there’s the Saturday minyan at JRC that I get to 2-3 times a month.
- Then there’s the FFM (First Friday of the Month) dinner group.
- Then there’s the once a month (Monday late morning) visit to the chiropractor.
- Then there’s the twice a year check up at the dentist.
- Then there’s the twice a year check up at the eye doctor.
- Then there’s the 3-4 times a year check up at the doctor.
- Then there’s the every 2-3 week visit with David.
- Then there are all the birthday celebrations.
- Then there are all the graduation celebrations (this year, at least.)
- Then there are the visits to friends who are in need of visits.
- Then there are the occasional classes…just tossed in at random.
- Then there are the 2-3 yearly visits to the Vet.
…And we haven’t even gotten to cleaning, laundry, sleeping and eating (a lot of that) and occasionally showering…and wonderful sleeping.
- Oh yeah!…Thanksgiving visits, Christmas Day visits at the Cuthberts, and Spring visits to Savannah (and Vermont)...and throw in twice a year movie, play, or concert…and YOU want me
to write THREE TIMES A WEEK? You are totally round the bend, darling son…but I’ll think on it.

Did I mention….

- Weight lifting every other day to build arms.
- Squats (from a sitting position) every day.
- Side leg lifts to strengthen the tush muscle that governs balance, every other day.
- Rock back on heels and hold as long as can (still in seconds) a few times a day to improve balance.
- Stand on one leg as long as I can, to improve balance every night…only in seconds so far.
- Stretching out on spine straightener (styrofoam roll) every day.
- Eye exercises, relaxation, 6 days a week.(30 min.)
- Feeding Jake.
- Cleaning his litter box.
- Letting him in and out, in and out, in and out…
- Watering and trimming and feeding indoor plants.
- Planting, weeding outdoors (very little so far…weather not cooperating)…but I have put in the pansies in the planters along the edge of the deck…and each day, as I throw out the garbage, I spend 5-10 minutes pulling something that’s not supposed to be growing where it is…mostly dandelions.

- Now I’m rereading “Chi Walking” and I’m going to start utilizing the information in it. I think it will help me regain good walking skills…I really should say gain.

- More will probably be sent along…as it comes to mind. Ha!

R) “The more to write about. Right?”

G) Here’s the more:

- Standing straight, with the palms facing forward…then pulling the shoulders back as much as possible…several times a day…to keep shoulders as straight as possible (getting rid of my right should kyphosis (sp?) – the rounding of it.

- Bridging…lying on floor with feet planted flat, lifting body and contracting abs…strengthening core muscles…helping back…every other day.

- Knee massages ( t’ai chi style) several daily.

By now, you have a good idea of what’s involved if one wants to remain active, flexible and relatively pain free in old age. It just about replaces the 8 hour a day work place schedule…and did I mention that I try to do a little reading each day…sometimes it’s only five minutes before I fall asleep.
- Gonna reread “The World According to Garp.” Currently rereading “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”

R) “The more to write about. Am I wrong?”

G) – And did I mention the foot massaging at bedtime…at least 5 -7 minutes……..
- And the Wake-Up-the Legs-and-Arms exercise before I get out of bed in the A.M…..that’s 10-15 minutes.

R) See. I knew you could do it. You found enough time to write a little story. Or at least sketch out the outline. Leave it to a busy lady to get something done.

Oh joyous gratitudinous
‘Twas thirty-seven degrees

The snow…all four plus inches
Was buckling at its knees

But lo ! …………………..
‘Twas not enough to please
The weather gods decree

So…Up it went…and Up and Up
It’s now a High For – tee!

The wind doth blow
The sky is low
And darkish is its color

The grass appears…
There and here
Its emerald hue aglow……………so

WE AIN’T GOT A WHITE CHRISTMAS EITHER

We’re now the “rain belt.” It’s been raining off and on for three days with promises of more for the rest of the week until Sunday.

Managed to clear away 95% of the weed piles and cut branches that were left to dry a bit before stuffing them in landscape bags to be hauled away to a landfill.

Ah! There’s a very busy squirrel in the lilac bush outside my window, jumping and climbing about, making the branches wave as if a great wind were passing through them.

I really enjoy sitting here watching the critters. Ooops…now he’s trying to get inside the window. It’s open and I’m about four feet away from him. Maybe he’s enticed by my ripe odor…haven’t washed for the day yet. It’s only 2 o’clock and I’m not meeting Phyllis R. for dinner until 5:30; our once-a-year get together celebrating our birthdays. Hers is in February!

Squirrel’s gone. Guess he didn’t like the screen being in his way. He really did have a long go at it…from several angles. But it was still there, for which I’m grateful.

Squirrel is back at the screen. Would be wise to close that window when I leave the room or he’ll be at the keyboard when I come back. Hope I remember to do so.

Oh my goodness…there’s a chipmunk climbing the lilac bush! I’ve seen them in the garage, on the deck, scurrying across the wood chips at the base of the deck, but this is the first time I’ve seen one actually climbing the bushes.

The branch barely moved under such a wee one. Not a leaf is stirring. The sky is bright gray. The air feels as if one were enveloped in a mist but really is not.

It’s a gentle stillness over the garden; even traffic noises are stilled. One could become pensive in this atmosphere, that is, one could if one were not hungry.

07-09-09
Well, it’s gone, and the pleasant surprise is yes, the yard is much sunnier but the tree at the way back, behind the big evergreen, has grown so much over the years that it visually covers part of the area that the plum tree had covered…so I don’t feel as “naked” as I thought I would feel…besides, it only leafed out in less than half the tree this year and next year it probably would not have had any leaves.

Next step, hopefully this coming week-end, is to have the dozen or so baby lilac bushes that sprouted last year transplanted against the back fence. Won’t that smell good when they’re grown enough to produce blossoms!

Hey! I’m getting tiny tomatoes!!!! and the pot with the dried up baby grapefruit tree (seed from the Florida House) that I’d cut off at the base and tossed the pot into the back yard to recycle – and forgot about-is growing a new tree!!!! It’s about 2 inches high already…that’s so exciting…the original seeds were from grapefruit that Lanni brought me about 5-6 years ago.






07-05-09
Put in my morning one hour of weeding. It really was clearing out and cleaning out the small space to the right of the back gate that had become a junk spot and was much over layered with rich black earth filled with energetic worms; all of whom now have a new home within the back garden proper.

I hope they make the new home area as loose and loamy as their old one. Amazing how much time I put into an area only about two square feet. That seems to be my usual time and space these mornings, but little by little, results are showing. Of course, I still have piles and piles of pulled weeds and cut branches lying about, drying out before going into landscape bags.

Later in the morning, while weeding in the area before the front windows, I heard a small sound, turned around and there were my tall and small neighbors from across the street. Small one, Phillip-age 1 1/2- had been on his own front lawn. He saw me working and kept pointing and pointing to me until his father, tall one, Albert, brought him over. At least that’s Albert’s version and I love it.

We went round the back and I pulled a huge amount of dill out of the tomato patch. They like dilled rice (so do I). I added some lemon balm for iced tea. I’m lucky to have such good neighbors.






06-05-09
The ladies of the FFM (First Friday of the Month) group will have dinner here tonight. My table decorations are small glass vases of flowers; lavender, wild geraniums and white blossoms from snow on the mountain ground cover, both from my back yard.

That snow on the mountain ground cover has spread all over the backyard and needs pulling out. Oh well, that’s next week’s chore.

Kristen, a young friend from the minyan, was here for an hour of digging out all the horseradish plants, ferns and garlic chives that have also spread all over the place. Now there are mounds of horseradish root piled in the way back…and to think, yesterday, at Whole Foods, they had organically grown huge horseradish root priced at $9.95 a lb!! I could send a kid to college for a year with the pile in my backyard!!!

It was wonderful having that help. Now the raspberry patch, which is what’s needing lots of weeding, doesn’t seem so overwhelming with all the rest taken care of.

It’s coolish, with bursts of warmish sun…rain on the way tomorrow and Sunday. The ground is still moist from last week’s rains, and the rains the weeks before then, so everything is growing at a rapid pace. Everything does look beautiful.

Ah! There’s the sun peeking out for a bit. Gotta take my weekly shower. All that weeding does enhance my natural fragrances.






04-23-09
My backyard looks like Spring has really Sprung!

The ground is covered with flowering vinca (the groundcover that has purple flowers like violets) and scattered hither and thither are clumps of white, plate yellow and deeper yellow daffodils—needs more daffy’s (next autumn’s big project) but the overall effect is delicious to see.

The peonies are peeking through their mulch, the lovage is almost a foot high and their split leaf pattern is really pretty against the wooden fence. Needless to say, the garlic chives are also a foot high and rarin’ to take over the whole place but this year I’m digging most of them out. The aphids that they’re supposed to discourage can’t be much more pesty. Besides, I’ve just driven special food and strengthening spikes around the roots of the climbing roses—maybe that will scare off the aphids. Worth a try.

Later, in May, all the baby lilac bushes that have grown throughout the yard will be transplanted along the back fence. In thirty years, they’ll be big and strong like the parent plant, towering over the fence and wafting old fashioned lilac fragrances around the yard. Won’t that be great!!!

Wish all of you could see this pretty picture I’m looking at, but my word picture is the best I can do—no digital camera for me, thank you.






08-21-08
It’s coolish…the breezes make it so. I spent an hour staking and cleaning up the tomato patch. It’s a tiny patch with only three large plants. They were leaning every which way. What inspired me were the three large, perfectly ripe heirloom tomatoes that the squirrels bit into, then left the rest to rot. Aghh!

I had thought to pick them in the late afternoon, having read that’s the best time for picking because all the nutrients have come up into the plant in the morning and not yet gone back into the earth for the night.

Don’t have a clue if it’s valid but the squirrels sure don’t wait until evening. They’re out there munching away in the early morning, bless their little pointed ears.

From now on it’s morning picking for me! I’m trying to work up the energy to go back out there and make a dent in the weed population. I’ll do some stuff but it’s going to take much energy to really make a dent in the south side wildflower garden.

It looks like a wildflower jungle. Many of the plants are over 6 feet tall and the not-invited-vines are sprawled over everything growing there. Ah well, that’s what happens when one lets Mother Nature show her charms.

If there weren’t a neighbor’s vegetable garden on the other side of the fence, I’d probably just let it go completely wild. I’m lucky to have good neighbors who don’t complain (at least to me) about what a mess my side is this year.

03-31-09
Spring has arrived today in Skokie. I’ve opened windows that have been shut for months, cleaned floors that have been neglected for months and in my zeal managed to break off one of the blades on the kitchen fan which was so coated with dirt that the edges looked black…well, they really were black, the grease and dirt were so thick.

Ah! The joys of being able to move both arms comfortably. It really is joyful to be able to do simple household tasks easily once again. I have gone back to the sword class, just in time to try to relearn the first form which was taught two years before I joined the class and which I have learned in practice sessions from the others in the class.

Norm was teaching the last part of it by that time. The second form is much more complicated and vigorous than the first one and while the whole class had managed to struggle through all of it by the end of last June (before I left for Israel) they have had all these additional months to really learn it better. I will not even try to get back to it.

Norm is set to start us on the sabre (I did tell you all this didn’t I?) next month and there are rumblings of discontent from some in the class who want to learn the third sword form. Yesterday one of the fellows in class told us that it is considered a sacred form and is taught only to those who are initiated into a higher level and that it is not to be taught to everyone…whatever that means.

Perhaps, as in other martial art forms there are levels/degrees of skill, so too are there levels of integration for those who would learn the third sword form.

Enough conversation…Back to Cleaning!!!!
The forsythia are in bud…it truly is Spring!






03-28-09
My herniated disc has, thankfully, gone back into place. I still do a few of the back stretches each day to maintain it, but it’s not a real problem anymore. Now I’m back to working on strengthening that little muscle in my tusch that controls leg balance/strength so I can comfortably and safely return to my T’ai chi sword class; which is turning into a non-sword class, I’m told.

The instructor says we’ve spent enough years on that and should move on to something else, but several of us have been out with injuries or illness for many weeks so nothing’s been decided. Hopefully, after Pesach I’ll be back in class.

Today, my back yard looks as if Spring is really arriving: bulb greens popping up all over the place, Snow Drops beginning to look a bit wilted (they’ve been up and blossoming for almost 6 weeks…a record), the Scylla are a small brilliant patch that catches my eye when I throw out the garbage (the container is outside the back fence), and the Lilac branches are swelling. What could be a better indicator in these parts, I ask ya?






05-12-09
7A.M. and I’m at the computer??? What gives? Me, is what gives.

Think I told you that my right leg, whole calf area, has been hurting for the past couple of months. Didn’t know why. Told the chiropractor about it a few weeks ago and he’s been working on it…with moderate success. Two weeks ago he used a different method and this seems to be more helpful.

I hadn’t been in my t’ai chi class since January (herniated disc, remember) and two weeks ago I started back in class. Well, Norm is so concerned about my well being (any student’s well being) that he suggested that I work with the “beginners” class that does a lot of chi kung and doesn’t involve any of the twists and turns of the knees that the sword work requires…and when my leg is better I will come back to the sword work.

You may remember that the sword class meets at 7 A.M. The other class meets at 8:15 A.M. (not hard to take at all). Well, today will be my first 8:15 class so naturally I woke up at 6:10 A.M., in time to get ready for the sword class!!!!! And that’s why I have time to write all this to you so early in the morning. Don’t expect too many repeats of this wondrous feat.

Sunny this morning…may it shine wherever you wander.






05-12-09
By the way, this morning’s class was very different. It’s a form I’m familiar with, but doing something (part 4 of 14) over and over (many beginners in the class) made my right knee sit up and take notice…not in a kindly way. I would sit down, massage knees, rest and then rejoin the action. Norm told me to just bring a chair next to me so I wouldn’t have to hobble over to it…very kind gesture and I’ll sure do it on Thursday.

However, interestingly enough, this afternoon the knees feel better than they did before the class. So, I hope that augurs well for the future.

Next Monday is the last session of the ulpan, and I think I’ve actually learned something. I known the names of rooms in a house, I’m working on furniture names, I can say a few (very few) simple sentences asking about where someone is from, where someone is going shopping, and I’m working on—are they walking or driving there.

What I’ve really learned (and this amazes me) is to read and write script. The writing is easier, not that my handwriting is so legible, but trying to read it is tough. I think that’s because when I’m writing, I write letter by letter. But when I try to read it, I want to read words. I’ve been working on that aspect in print for 10 years…but that, at least, is improving some.

Still don’t know what I’m reading in Torah class…but I’m reading!!!

07-05-09
Did all my weight lifting for my arms. They’re in such sad shape but the biceps are beginning to look a bit more like there might be real muscle there someday…if I can just keep going. Have read the Exercise Manual for Seniors about triceps strengthening and that version just might work for me.

The usual version, for normal folks, was just a bit to much for me because I was trying to use the same weights that I use for biceps building…too heavy…and, I actually did the leg lifts for my left leg, too. Have neglected them this week…favored weeding.

Two televisions in my house and neither are working. The downstairs one just favors me with nothing (Yes, there’s a digital box attached). Turned it on the other day and it just brought forth a totally white screen. Unplugged it, let it rest a day, replugged it. Now, nothing, not even the white screen.

The upstairs one needs to be reconfigured through the video player, and so I’m going to do something rare for me. I’m going to Steve and Lisa’s to watch Masterpiece Theater Mystery. It’s a Miss Marple mystery (one of my very favorites) and there’s a new actress playing Miss Marple. Didn’t really like the portrayal of the previous gal (too Un-Miss Marplelike) so I’m looking forward to the new actress. Glad it’s all the little things in life that thrill me, I am.

Supper time and then leaving time.

P.S. I’m being very faithful to backroll time. At least 3 x a day, or I’d look like I’m trying to tie my shoes all the time…and not succeeding. ‘Nuff bragging.

P.P.S. Danny (my geek squad guy) was here this afternoon and now both television sets and VCRs and the new DVD are all working. Now I’ll be able to leave two working sets and go work in the garden instead of leaving two non-working sets to work in the garden. That’s progress in the 21st Century.