Yvette took pictures of me lying on my back during Driveway Yoga to show me my body was straight. Let me tell you, I am not a candidate for a beauty contest, but I can lie down with a straight spine. This is huge.
I washed the kitchen floor and started cleaning the lanai rug. No, it doesn't look dirty, thank God. The carpet has a close weave with shades of brown, beige with flecks of red close. It doesn't show dirt. However, given that it is open-air and can see the dirt accumulating on the wood and glass-topped furniture, I can safely assume that the carpet is dirty.
I had grand plans for the day, vacuuming, then going out to do several chores, picking up medicine from the vet, drop off parts of the old fans to Habitat for Humanity, and mail my fingerprints from the post office. You cannot fold the print sheet. I repurposed a large envelope my accountant had used to return my 2019 taxes.
Then I went on Zoom for my live session with the Step Up Tutoring Program. I was prompt. Nothing. I waited. Nothing. I was the only participant. Not even the host was online. Okay, what had gone wrong? I imagined that I was the only one who had signed up. There was nothing. Disappointed and confused, I took a nap.
I got an email from someone named Sam at the Step-Up program that confused things even further. The email told me they heard I was interested in participating; there would be many more students than tutors. Please follow the application procedure. Oaky, this is where I came in.
I replied to Sam, saying I was confused. I thought I had successfully completed the instructional part of the program. I had received confirmation of completion from Laura. Why was I getting this email? Did this mean that all my information had been lost? I also asked why there was no live session at noon my time, 3 pm theirs.
He apologized for the email. It is automatically generated. As for the live session, he told me there had been none at 3pm, but there had been one at 6pm. This means that the computer program gives the time adjusted for my time zone, Hawaiian Time. Good to know. I must tell Laura that is the case. I have some vision of this organization being run out of a small storefront by folks in the twenties. Watch, they're all over fifty.
Judy came over with Luke. Luke is severely disabled. He is close to 2 years old, and everyone is thrilled that he has learned to turn over. He can do it in both directions. He can 'swim' across the floor now too. He has a two-month-old younger brother who is learning to roll over. There is not much hope for Luke's progress. He is a FoxG1 baby and has a severe case of it to boot.
However, however!!! Judy told me that the other day his mom, Jazzy, was saying, "I love you," to him, and he imitated her sound, not just once but three times in a row. That cannot be accidental. This is amazing. He responds to his caretakers, but so do plants. Imitating sounds is a whole different level of relating to his environment.
I can think of ways that his behavior is not significant. For instance, when we make the same sound as others, our brains function at the same frequency. Doing that is a source of pleasure. He may just be responding to that pleasure, entraining with his mom, and not reacting socially in a more complex way. It's worth exploring.
I recommended that Judy play the phonemic awareness audio I created. It has had a dramatic effect on several people. A seven-year-old whose speech was so garbled that his older brother and sister couldn't understand him started speaking clearly after listening to the audio file every night for a month while he slept.
His 15-year-old brother, who put the tape on each night before he went to sleep so his brother could hear it in his sleep, found that his ability to understand others improved significantly. What is there to lose? Worst-case scenario, he will find the tape disturbing and cry. It may be able to help him. With children who report finding the tape irritating, I break down the words phonemically but much more slowly. I mean, really much more slowly. I slow it down until the student tells me they no longer find it irritating. When I have done that for a while, I speed it up. Usually, one slowed-down session is all that is needed to get them comfortable with the rate of phonemic breakdown on the audio file.
Judy's visit had a purpose, actually two. She helped me get the hair out of poor Elsa's ears. I had bought the ear powder she said was helpful. I have no idea how. It isn't advertised as a product that loosens the hair from its roots or makes it easier to grip them. I brought out the hemoccult I had. It's a little plastic jobbie I got from the dialysis center when Mike was there. Judy couldn't get it to work either. She had a metal one with a much better grip. I will have to buy one.
Judy also came to help me with my doTerra account. Adam, who is now selling the stuff, had signed me up to receive some pills once a month. Well, I'm not taking the prescribed amount, and I now have three months' worth piled up. He finally changed my order. He put me on a monthly order of doTerra toothpaste so I can keep my loyalty points. I can't use toothpaste with an abrasive in it anymore. It scratches the surfaces of my enamel caps. Then bacteria collect there. It goes from bad to worse. I did order some grapefruit oil. I will be needing more soon.
I wasn't hungry for most of the day. I had some leftover soup for dinner with a piece of bread and some cheese. And of course, some lemonade with my pills and Hersey's milk chocolate kisses with almonds.
My favorite weekday NPR shows are on Thursday, What did You Say? and Hidden Brain. Hidden Brain addressed a question that had been burning a hole in my mind, what is empathy? The speaker discussed the positive and negative aspects of empathy. I question the definition, or I should say the label. I think a lot that is called empathy is really sympathy. I still don't understand the difference between the two.
Yvette came up to give me a massage before the radio show ended. I planned to listen to it tomorrow and take notes. I have a big issue with the definition of empathy versus the definition of sympathy.
As Yvette worked on my mid-back, my left groin muscles tightened up. I felt relief in my leg when she worked on the muscles on top of my shoulders, where the epaulets sit. But the real relief came when she used the trigger point gun she lent me on the muscles around and above my shoulder blades. I felt immediate relief in my leg. Okay, THR or upper back massage? It's a hard choice. One takes two minutes, costs only as much as the electricity to charge the machine for that length of time. The other requires major surgery requiring total anesthesia, costs a fortune, leaves the recipient with an artificial joint. Gee, let me see which I prefer. My physical therapist, Katie, told me that I would hate how the hip replacement felt with my heightened kinesthetic sensitivity.
I tried to watch some TV before I went to bed, but I couldn't find anything satisfying. I had enjoyed several episodes of Catastrophe, but the joke was running thin. The theme of the show is how sex is dealt with in marriage. The show is insightful, but there's more to marriage than a sexual relationship. They touch upon the other aspects, but most of the show is strongly tipped toward the sexual element.
I went to bed at a reasonable hour, knowing that I could stay in bed until whenever in the morning- no driveway yoga.
________ ________ _________
Musings:
I could never connect with babies. I thought they just didn't like me. Then my grand-nephew came into my life. He was an extreme preemie, something like 1 pound something. I could feel that connection with him. I described him as generous.
He, like Blanche Dubois, always had to rely on the kindness of strangers. In his case, he also had loving parents. They spent as much time as they could at his side in the hospital. But when they weren't there, he was taken care of, held, by a bevy of nurses. He learned to take goodwill and affection where he could get it. I believe that experience made him open to accepting a connection with me where no other infant ever had before. It's not that they didn't rest comfortably in my arms; the difference was in the energetic connection.
I believe people who had children relate to other people's babies because it triggers their remembered love for their infant children, not the baby at hand.
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