Thursday, December 28, 2023

 Thursday, December 28, 2023

This was the first day in a while with some sunshine. We’ve been plagued with heavy cloud cover. It’s not over the whole island, just in our area. It’s not personal. It’s coming over Hualalai, our mountain, and not over Mauna Loa. Its worst impact is on the solar panels. It vastly reduces the amount of electricity we get.

 On being personal, the way people use the term drives me nuts. Someone does something hurtful; if you’re hurt, it’s your fault because you take it personally. Did I mention Buddha’s answer to this issue, the theory of the two arrows? The first arrow is the one that strikes you; the second is how you respond. Let’s face it, folks! There is no way that the first arrow won’t do some damage. It’s going to hurt. The second arrow is the one we bring to the pain. There will be some pain, but do we need to enlarge it. Somehow, taking that first arrow personally is supposed to be the cause of all the pain. No, we are injured. Knowing it wasn’t personal does not resolve the pain.

  I recently heard a podcast on Hidden Brain on the impact of rudeness. Not only are we negatively impacted by someone’s rudeness to us, but we’re also negatively impacted by someone’s rudeness to someone else. How personal can it possibly be if someone else is being attacked? Our nervous systems are designed to respond when treated negatively by another human being, whether it’s ‘personal’ or not.

  Vicki called from the dentist’s office to give me an appointment. A tooth cracked or chipped near the gum line. She got me in around noon. My acupuncturist was scheduled for eleven am. I wouldn’t make it to the dentist on time. Vicki said we could do twelve twenty. That would work.

  The acupuncturist placed pads under my shoulders as I lay on my belly to stretch out the muscles in front of my shoulders and reduce the curve of my upper back. I  complained about my mid back on the right side. She was surprised the problem was on the right rather than the left. For the first time since we started working together, she used cupping. It felt great. It relieved the sore point on the right side of my back.

 The dentist felt for the hole in my tooth. KC took three X-rays, which confirmed there was no infection. An old filling at the gum line on top of a cap hadn’t adhered. I needed a new cap. Should I get another implant? No, this tooth would last me till the end. Yes, I’m calculating when my end may come. Given my mother’s longevity, I expected to be around for a while.

   I met with Mama K’s crew. Both of the twins are showing improvement in their ability to rapidly recognize words. 

I use Fry’s sight word list. It could be any list of words. I am teaching them how to memorize rather than specific words. The Fry list is good. Fry was one of my professors when I got my master’s in reading at Rutgers. It is a computer-generated list of words in order of their frequency of appearance in text. I hope I can get Twin A to a high third-grade level by the end of the summer before she starts fifth grade. Twin E needs a breakthrough before I can be optimistic about her progress.