Two Months in One

Our hawk friend is having conversations on morning walks.

From the very beginning of each day, I am thrust into nature all around. It's such a blessing to walk out my door and feel the cool sea air, listen to the owls hooting to each other from atop the trees, and catch a sighting of this hawk beauty perched on a nearby fence. Wizard first notices the piercing of its squawk, then I see its silhouette before daybreak. Once the morning sun shines right on the hawk's gorgeous feathers, all seems right in this world.

And, that's saying A LOT.

Combining two months' worth of musings this go-round has me wondering what all I can cram into this blog edition for both October and November. Since the former month is waning (and I turned 66 years young early into October), I can almost sense a shift in my responses and reactions to people and things. Not that getting older does something to a person, but it kinda does.

Ending October with a subtle bang. Why? Because this is a LONG month, and I packed in things that seemingly flowed from one end to another. After my birthday in the early week of the month, I had so many revelations about where life's at and what my place in it is. The best I can gather is that my Los Osos homelife is absolutely wonderful. I garden to my heart's content. Wizard is growing up to be a fine, young dog who knows his way around my heart and the neighborhood. And, my couplehood with Greg is perfect.

October saw Greg's son turn 28 years old, a fine young man, I must say. Wizard is a fine young dog, and Evan is a fine young man. How 'bout that? Other updates for October include conversations with Mom and her current state of health. She's thriving! Isn't that cool? At 95 years old and doing well, aside from the typical concerns of the elderly when approaching nearly 100 years in age.

That's October in a nutshell. Moving into an epic place of love, blissful living, my garden going gangbusters, and five years with the same man whom I could never imagine my life without.

Now, onto November. Although the month hasn't gotten fully underway, what is apparent is the approaching holiday, what with us road-tripping to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with Mom and my brothers, and stopovers in Joshua Tree--both coming and going to AZ. The trip will be a true test of where things are with my family. I say this humbly, mainly because once Mom entered the assisted living center in Phoenix, her world underwent a 360-degree change.

She never wanted to be apart from her family. She never wanted to be relegated to a "nursing home," as she so eloquently put it. She only wanted to spend her remaining years on this earth, living independently, being around dogs, making simple meals for herself, and having the freedom to come and go as she pleased. It all changed so rapidly last year, all in part due to her falling a few times while living on her own.

Every time I phone her, she is sad, angry, combative, and victimizing her situation. It breaks my heart to know she's in this place, emotionally void of everything she knows and loves. So...once we arrive in AZ in late November, we're all going to sit down with her and have a heart-to-heart. I hope it goes well, but I can never know what my brothers are thinking. You see, we're not exactly a chatty family. We hold our cards close to our hearts, and I, for one, wish it were different.

Ah well, live and let live.

The other piece of November is how unbelievably awesome our coastal climate has been of late. We typically get the best weather in October, meaning zero fog, lots of warm breezes, and days that become shorter. I prefer that, strangely. Summers and long foggy days are pretty much a depressing time for me and Greg. He's better at dealing with it all than I am, but safe to say that summers in Central Coast California aren't what tourists think. We have May gray, June gloom, no-sky July, Fogust, and slight breakthroughs in September.

I'm not one to dwell on the weather, but my sensitivities do get affected. When that brilliant Mr. Sun rises high with the backdrop of a crystal clear blue sky, I'm on cloud 9! Being olive-skinned and super inspired by the light and brightness of a beautiful day, I'll admit I do get a tad giddy. As a Libra, though, the flipside of the coin is that I enjoy the balance between the sunlight and the fog. Coastal living ain't for the faint of heart.

As I type this, I gaze down at Wizard lying in his bed by my desk. He has the cutest face and body. He is growing up to be such a wonderful pup and fun little guy to be with daily. Both Greg and I have reached a place with Wizard where he is literally another limb for us. We take him everywhere, and I mean, everywhere. This little guy has captured our hearts with such unflinching love that we find ourselves planning each day around him. What does he want to do? Not a single soul who lives in our neighborhood finds us strange for carting our dog along as if we can't leave the house without him.

Um, we can't and we don't. He's a treasured family member who has a say in all of our affairs. Wizard has taken his magical self and transformed Greg and me. I feel it and I know it.

So with that, I'll bid adieu until December. Let's hope the unkind rhetoric that predominates social media these days gets tamped down a bit. Scrolling and reading mean things that make my stomach turn need to go away. I'm sensitive there, too. I've abandoned Facebook, NextDoor, and LinkedIn due to the constant barrage of political messaging. And I have never touched Twitter, TikTok, you name it, and I don't partake in it for that very reason. However, Instagram has been rather fun for me, only because it's Wizard's page and my followers are superb human beings who happen to love dogs and animals. I place my energy there whenever I sit at the computer.

Big hugs and the onset of Autumn blessings to each of you. I still LOVE to write and share my imaginative heart with you. My garden is thriving, and the greenhouse in the backyard will be going in soon. Did I mention I'm getting a greenhouse to ensure I have success with the plants that nourish my soul? Kale, tomatoes, broccoli, Swiss chard, carrots -- all the goodies I plan to grow and harvest in the structure without the annoyance of rats or gophers eating my food. Ha, I love the little foraging critters, but they can ruin my crop overnight. It'll be a new challenge to grow vegetables indoors from seed to harvest, yet I'm willing to give it a go.

All the best in love, good health, and togetherness of hearts.

Gerry Ellen xoxo