I've been missing in action for the past month. I had surgery on November 5 and was in the hospital for five days following that. I'm pretty much on the mend now and get stronger every day. Although I can't really concentrate to read for long or get settled in comfortably in any place I'm weaving a little each day on my tapestry diary.
I have a lot of days to make up to weave the image for the month. I'd anticipated a few weeks of down time following the surgery so in late October, I'd drawn a stick that was pretty thin and planned to use it for November's image. About the tapestry diary work I do, you may or may not know that I weave an indicator of every day of the year in my tapestry diaries. So each color change in the margins around the larger images represents a separate day and is woven on that particular day. This 2018 tapestry diary is the fourth year in which I've shown larger images woven throughout the months, surrounded by the individual days.
My hospital days were woven on the second day after I got home and are the black and white alternating bands at the left margin. My follow up visit to the surgeon was yesterday and he release me. That happy red-letter day is shown in the red band on top of those black and whites. Last week's dreary days of pain and discomfort are the gray areas at the right margin. Today is dawning bright and beautiful so I wove the soft yellow above the gray for the day. Every day will be better. I keep telling myself that--and, so far, it is!
I believe I can finish the November image by the end of the month. That's my goal. My husband asked me yesterday what my non-medical goal for the day was... I said walking two blocks. He said that, no--that was medical-related. What else? So I said I'd work more on my tapestry diary if I felt like it. Every day that's going to be my goal now. Stop thinking about the medical and start thinking about other things I need to be doing. And do them as I gain strength and focus.
So many people are going through much worse than I am. Health, hurricane, fire. On and on it goes. It's hard to see positive things but they're always there. They're there in the faces of loved ones, young and old. In the caring shown by strangers through donations or physical labor to help rebuild. Here's to a new day and one that will be better than some of the ones before.
