Calm

It was such a beautiful day yesterday, the breeze seemed to caress your face. After all those soggy days, it was especially welcome.

Katie weeded and planted, and I followed after her watering. She sang as she worked. We did it later in the day at the magic hour, keeping at it until it was almost dark. We stopped to admire the colors in the twilight sky. These long days are so nice, especially when it's not raining.

I wrote before that I felt out of sorts due to my inability to exercise or go to yoga, or even do much yoga on my own because I can't put too much weight on my fractured foot. Yesterday I remembered a meditation CD that I got in the hospital which includes brief calming exercises. I'm just not good at meditating; I either get antsy or I fall asleep.

But these were short exercises that anyone could do. So I tried Dr. Andrew Weil's relaxation technique, a variation of one type of yoga breathing. He said he recommends it to all of his patients.

You let all of the air out of your mouth, then breathe in through your nose quietly to the count of four. Hold for seven breaths and exhale to the count of eight with a whooshing sound. Repeat this for four cycles, twice a day, increasing to up to eight cycles as you get more comfortable. He said you can also do this when you are especially stressed or if you're having trouble going to sleep.

I tried this yesterday, and the calm did indeed permeate the day. Also I tried to remember throughout the day to stop and breathe deeply when my mind got all chattery.

One of my stresses is the eruption of a bunch of purple marks on my forearms due to thinning of the skin from prednisone. They are puddles of blood close to the skin; one oven broke open and bled. Last night I noticed a particularly angry-looking one larger than a quarter.

My first thought turned to suddenly lowering platelets, but I know the sign of those are petechiae, a cluster of small dots. I double-checked with Melissa today and she said not to worry and that it's common. I may have even bumped against something without knowing it.

Still, it feels like backtracking, even though it doesn't mean anything.

We're heading to Maine this weekend for Joe's graduation, and the spots pose a wardrobe dilemma. It's going to be warm, and I wanted to wear a sleeveless top. But I don't want to show my arms; I worry it looks like I have leprosy. It's a variation on the theme of a teenager getting a pimple on the tip of his/her nose before a big date.

The solution is easy, of course. I closet-shopped for a nice light sweater and a jacket.

Small potatoes.

The focus is on Joe's graduation and on being there as a family to celebrate a great accomplishment.