Waking up Monday

After about 30 minutes walking through the neighborhood I had a thought. I felt like I was awakening from one of those great sleeps. The type where you wake slowly, the sun is filtering in through the sheers on the windows, and it's quiet. The world feels like it was waiting for me to wake up. I could imagine that the sheets smelled fresh and I stretched my arms and legs and fingers and toes out. Just feeling that great, well-rested stretch. Like after needing a good rest, finally that sleep came. Now my body is repaired and ready for what's ahead.

Either it took my body 30 minutes of walking to wake up this morning, or, it was a metaphor for how I feel lately. I've mentioned that I felt like a new chapter was coming and I think it hit. I think that the page has been turned on all that drama, the treatments, the side-effects… and now I can get on with it. I'm not a different person, I don't have to reinvent myself because I had cancer. I'm just a year older and know the depths of my own fortitude and the support and love that I have surrounding me. That is a gift.

I wish that I could bottle that feeling. Some days I could really use that and it isn't always there. Putting it to words may give it a longer life, though, and let it linger as I build up to whatever is next. I'm off to the "studio" I made in the basement. Wish me creativity for that art show I want to submit to.

Be brave enough to live creatively.
—Alan Alda