1 July


GRATITUDES:
1. Another day of life
2. My morning cup o’ joe
3. My little Herkimer diamonds sparkling in the morning sun
4. The color green

No, they aren’t REAL diamonds, and I certainly wouldn’t leave them out on my hospital window sill if they were! Herkimer diamonds are a type of double-terminated (pointed at both ends) quartz that are mined in a specific region in New York State. I saw my little babies winking at me in a rock shop in New Braunfels and had to take them home with me. They’re currently sharing space with my two chunks of Druzy quartz, my amethyst cluster, and my big rough slab of fluorite, all of which are keeping company with a little opalescent glass sea turtle who wanted to come along for the ride. My singing bowl still takes center stage though. Damn, I love that thing, its tone is amazing. One of the hospital chaplains came in the other day and I played it for him. He was familiar with Gregorian and Tibetan chants and the healing quality of some sound frequencies so he totally got it. He’s one of my favorites, so kind, and his prayers are sweet, gentle, and love-filled. Yep, being in a hospital sucks, but if you’re surrounded by good caring people, the days are considerably brighter.

The light slowly dawns. I finally know why my nurse, Adriel, is such a rapid-fire chatterbox. He’s ADHD and on meds for it. Makes perfect sense!❤️

It was a quiet day. I spent most of it watching documentaries on Netflix and attempting to draw Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby from “Peaky Blinders” but that didn’t go as planned. I’ll tackle it again tomorrow and see if I can make more progress. In the meantime, this inmate is getting sleepy and thinking about bed. I hope I don’t sleep like a pretzel again and mess up my neck and lower back even more. These hospital beds are… umm, not conducive to good spinal health.