Meanwhile, Back in Recoveryville

Paul Klee – Dancing Girl

I’m no good at this shit – recovery from back surgery, that is. I have a good day so I start acting like I’m ALL better. I shift furniture about, I exercise, I sit in my unforgiving, hard backed, no-tilt desk chair and attempt to work. I make big plans which are near invariably banjaxed when the pain from overdoing hits.

A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller.
~ Paul Klee

In other words, two steps forward and one and a half back, Whoopee!

Scars are not injuries.… A scar is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole.
~ China Miéville, The Scar

I’m gonna be SO damn whole but, mega sadly, not today!  Also, I’ve got so many damn scars now, my head and back are beginning to look like a Boston road map.

You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town
~ Anne Lamott, Grace (Eventually) 

My monkey? Not drugs or booze – it’s the damn Nf2. If it ain't one goddamn meningioma or neuroma it’s another. This circus never leaves town.

You were sick, but now you're well again, and there's work to do.
~ Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake 

Gettin’ there, Babe, gettin' there.

Karl Marx: "Religion is the opiate of the masses."

Carrie Fisher: "I did masses of opiates religiously.”
~ Carrie Fisher, Postcards from the Edge 

Coco keeps a close watch from her queenyly aerie

I look forward to opiate-free days. Soon, soon. I must be patient. NOT one of my superpowers.

"One day at a time, sweet Jesus." Whoever wrote that one hadn’t a clue. A day is a fuckin’ eternity .
~ Roddy Doyle, Paula Spencer

Oh, you betcha, Brother!

We've been there and come back. When you fall in the pit, people are supposed to help you up. But you have to get up on your own. We'll take your arms, but you have to get your legs underneath you and stand.
~ Bucky Sinister, Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos 
 
Truth! I’ve got a lot of wonderful helpers but only I can make this recovery happen.

A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare
to the jeweled vision of a life started anew.
~ Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry 

Yeah this one’s a little over the top for how I’m feeling this morning but, ya know, maybe not. That nightmare, by the by, includes the bazillion surgeries I’ve survived, the slings and arrows of outrageous, thoughtless, narcissistic, assholian “family” and, most especially, the loss of my MOST Amazing Bob,

I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive.
~ Frida Kahlo

I’m with ya, Sister!

Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes.

Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more.

You’re doing just fine.
~ Charlotte Eriksson 

Yup!