April turned out to be a very good reading and blogging month, due to the health issues I discussed in a March post that are being addressed. My left foot is permanently damaged and I have to walk with a cane, but the pain has diminished greatly with a foot binder and I can walk very well. This is a big relief. I am hoping to try trail walking soon. I finished the skin cancer protocol and after a wait of three months (end of June) I will see if the treatment worked or if I’ll need surgery. My scoliosis will be addressed in October. Thank you for all the words of support and encouragement. I think I am turning the corner in accepting the things I have to live with and the new ways to incorporate some slowing down in my life.
I started April off with the John Steinbeck novel, Cannery Row. Short, but wonderfully character driven, I hope to read the sequel soon.
Zoladdiction gave me reason to take down Pot Luck from my shelf and I was kind of obsessed with it. I may have to read another Zola before next April.
April’s installment of the Narniathon continued with The Horse and his Boy on the calmgrove website. Such wide ranging thoughts on this book in the comment section. I found much to enjoy and ponder in this, my second reading.
Spring struck me abruptly and I couldn’t help but go to Abbie Graham for some deep words of wisdom.
My cynicism of Earth Day ended up with a challenge to myself to find an action to take.
My tentative reading plans for May include:
The Poor Little Rich Girl, by Eleanor Gates that I should have finished by April 30th for the Classics Club Spin. Oops….
An Old-Fashioned Girl, by Louisa May Alcott. I have not read anything by LMA since Little Women several years ago.
Edith Wharton. Not certain which title, but I am about half way through her published work.
I hope to finish Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day, by Diane Ackerman. Early morning and the stirring of life has become a magical time for me. Ackerman is a poet with how she writes about dawn.
Dara Horn’s, People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present has such a grabbing title. She asserts, “Jews are “loathed in life, and loved only when they are safely dead.” This is so provocative, but believable to me. I have to see where she goes with this.
This is all I know for now. I have more books I am eager to try from my library trip at the weekend.
May has always seemed a little emotionally unpredictable to me. It’s a little Spring, but not quite Summer. In school years it was the end before the beginning, we just wanted it to be over! So there is an energy, but it’s not very stable. Who knows where the month will take us? Wherever, I hope it’s a good, healthy and satisfying one for All!
Relevant Obscurity 
I’m glad to hear that things have improved for you, from where they were last month. My mum is going through some major health issues atm and has found it hard to stay positive. She is finally at the point where they have worked out what the problem is, and they are on the way to addressing it, so hopefully she will feel more hopeful from this point on too. Having a plan and a way forward is a much better position to be in.
At least you are finally moving into warmer weather; we’re about to descend into winter! Ugh.
Take all the little wins along the way and take care xo
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This is very true. Once you know what you are dealing with, even it is hard to hear, at least you know what to DO. I know what I am dealing with for the most part and am able to be proactive now in my treatments. I hope this is true for your mom and that she able to find some control now over how to live her life. I wish her very well and you, too, as you all go forward.
And yay for spring and warmer weather. I can do without a cold nose for awhile!
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I’m envious as I add another layer of clothing to go outside….
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I hope your health concerns are indeed turning a corner, Laurie, even if not the corner. In the meantime I’m impressed with your reading, and grateful for the appreciative mention of Narniathon! I’ve only read one Wharton, and no Zola, so many unexplored regions still to visit.
Hope your Spring has finally sprung, ours here can’t decide whether to get going or stay in bed, but at least this last weekend has seen our much delayed music festival finally occur. Bach, Haydn, Purcell and miscellaneous other classical and more contemporary works for singers and instruments certainly raised the spirits!
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Oh, that music festival sounds wonderful. Here, we get a lot of surfing festivals!
The weather is just gloomy most mornings this time of the year and often stays that way all day, being close to the ocean. This month is ‘May Gray’ and next will be “June Gloom.’ No one has come up a quip for July. 🙂
Yes, getting older takes some getting used to. Parts just seem to be wearing down. But still, I am lucky in many ways and I try to remember that.
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I’m looking forward to seeing which Wharton you choose! I’m inspired by your feelings of acceptance, that is such a hard but important and necessary thing to do.
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I was really down, but I had to figure out what to do not to stay there!
I *think* I am going to read The Marne. Not one of her better known and an earlier work.
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Sounds like a very productive month, indeed!
I’m so sorry you are having to tackle health issues — but I also know what you mean. I have some of my own and the sooner I accepted that I have to learn to live with them, the sooner I stopped letting it drag me down. Amazing how when we can change our thinking and it makes a difference. I think Charlotte Mason said something similar: if we just think about doing something, our bodies will follow. Something like that.
Great shot of the Egret.
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I agree. Accepting the limitations stopped my defeatist attitude-not to sound dramatic, but I really thought my life was over as far as my foot went. Now that I understand there are gadgets I can use that help with the pain by holding the bones together I just have to incorporate that into my life. And accept the cane! Our minds are powerful, that’s for sure.
This part of CA is full of waterbirds and I love love them!
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I’m so glad your medical issues are resolving. I’ll be in your neck of the woods all summer so perhaps I can join you on a walk.
I admire your efforts with Zola and Wharton, and look forward to seeing where you go with them.
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I’m sure we can work out something. I am in a much better place than earlier in the year.
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