Ever notice how the coffee tastes so good some mornings? Or tea, or whatever your wake up thing is? It’s so chilly this morning here. So uncharacteristically cool at 57°. It’s like September in New England, which is a lovely time of year there. The sun is out, it is a brilliant morning. It will hit almost 80° later today. But right now, wrapped in my blanket, the coffee tastes so good.

Even though I am alone right now, I feel happy. I have been thinking about happiness, and what it takes to be happy. I suppose I could be upset, and feel a little down if I was inclined that way. After all, I have diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. I have to really watch what I eat, and deal with some chronic pain.  But I just can’t get down about it, I mean, I can’t. I am not able to feel sorry for myself about it. I feel like my health overall is good.

I think it’s quality of life though, that makes us happy or not. So here I am in Florida where cold is 60°, where it’s sunny 90% of the time this time of year, where the beach is between a mile and 5 miles away, depending on where I want to go. I have this cute little house that I love. I don’t have to work any more! Ihave a bunch of new, good friends.  And most of all, I have a good man, a really good man to share it all with.

Diabetes and RA not withstanding, my quality of life is wonderful. I’m heading to my sisters today for the weekend. Beach time, pool and hot tub time, and maybe happy hour at our favorite place on the beach. Tomorrow night we have a Halloween party in her neighborhood. I can barely believe that after all the drama and hardship of the last 10 years, I am here, living this life. Even with a few physical ailments!

Time to get to work on those now that all else has fallen into place. Love and light, everyone.

I melt into the couch, the sounds of music still ringing in my ears. I have changed clothes, out of the jeans and t-shirt and sweater that seemed so out of place in this warm climate, but it was chilly tonight. Chilly enough for socks and shoes and sweaters. Some people had jackets.

The music was great, as it always is. So many talented people come to play at this small venue in this small town. They sing and tell jokes, and there is a lot of banter back and forth with the core of the audience, who show up faithfully each week. We celebrate the music, the cool clear night, our friendships solidified over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee or a glass of tea. The lights twinkle, and the performers perform.

I missed my man tonight. He has gone with me every time I’ve gone since we met. He sent me a text, telling me to check the weather where he was. I did and it was freezing, literally, and snowing. I guess I shouldn’t complain that the temp got down to 62 tonight, here in sunny Florida, while I was listening to the music. 62 is infinitely better than freezing.

I missed my man because even though I am not one of those people who can’t be alone, I am happier with him. It’s a surprise to me, and I think to him, to want to be with someone as much as he and I are together. But particularly on open mic night. It’s something we do together. He has become part of the landscape there too, a part of the whole, part of the symbiosis that occurs between the performers and the audience. He has gotten to know people there, and he adds to the whole. Much like he adds to my life. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts when we’re together.

Synergy, and symbiosis. What causes them to manifest? The universe, creating pathways for creativity, for relationships to thrive, for positive energy to flow unimpeded? It seems more than function of humanism, for the energies to mesh like this. It’s a joyful, uplifting experience. Who can say? I only know that I’m happy that I get to experience it.

Now, day is done. The music stopped playing for tonight. In my living room, I sit with a nightgown and a blanket wrapped around me. I talked to my man on the phone, and told him all about the night and he told me of his day, and his night, and I feel, once more, his energy and mine connect across the miles. I am balanced, and content. Blessed.

Love and light to everyone.

This post is written as part of the SoCS writing prompt by Linda G. Hill.  Her prompt this week was “season”.  If you’d like to join in the fun, please visit her page, https://lindaghill.com/2017/10/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-2117/  for the rules and responses to the prompt.

When I first moved to Florida, I was told that Florida had two seasons: Tourist and monsoon. This was truer than I imagined. I got here in September of 2016. Rainy season was just about over, and the weather shortly turned incredibly beautiful. Warm, hot even, days, low humidity, no rain, really, no rain for months. I didn’t even have to mow the lawn until spring.

That’s about when tourist season started, though I didn’t really know it at the time. The artwalks got busier and busier. The open mic night I went to had better and better attendance. Tourist season. It go into high gear in February and March. It fell off drastically in April, and by May, it was just the locals again. And then, with the summer soltice (or shortly before) the rainy season rolled in, and it rained literally every day for two months. Not all day every day. But every day for awhile. You could drive to the grocery store, 2.5 miles to my house and drive through 3 downpours. The lawn, well….it took off on it’s own. It was almost knee high every week, and it was only through my amazing man Dan’s grace that I didn’t have to fight with it.

Now that I’ve been here a full year, I found that monsoon season blew away with Hurricane Irma. We didn’t have rain for two weeks after that storm. Now, we still have it occasionally, but it’s like today. It was beautiful this morning. We went for a nice walk around Dan’s community in the warm dry fall sun. 85° to 90°, but dry and easy to be in. Tonight, while we at the dinner he’d grilled under a clear sky, it poured rain for about 15 minutes.

So yeah, in Florida there are two seasons. I lived the rest of my life in places that had 4 distinct seasons. Mostly in New England, some in Iowa.

In New England, there’s no mistaking spring. The snow melts off the streets, and from around the mailboxes, and daffodils start blooming, and the sense of relief among the populace is palpable. People smile and wave. The mad dash to the car from the grocery store door slows down to a lilting gait, taking in the joy of smelling spring in the air, and not wearing 5 layers of clothes.

Then summer shows up, and it gets hot, hot like in the 80’s. Sometimes 90. The nights are always much cooler. Florida nights in the summer occasionally dip into the 70’s but it’s normal not to see below 80° for weeks. In Connecticut, we were there in August and the temps were always in the 60’s. Which was fairly normal, as I recall from my 40 years there. I remember so many long days and warm nights spent on the water up there. I loved the summer up there.

Then autumn hits, and that season is incomparable in New England. Color explodes, the harvest is in, apples are ripe and ready for the picking. The only problem ever with autumn up there was that it meant winter was not too far behind. To say I didn’t like winter was an understatement.

Cold. The first thing was the cold. It was wearing 5 layers of thick clothes and being cold. It was climbing in between sheets with fleece pajamas and shivering. The 2^nd thing was the dark. It is dark at 4:30 and the sun didn’t come up til 7. Short short days. Just depressing.

And then of course, that 4 letter curse word of northern climes, S N O W. Ugh is all I can say. Snow blowing, shoveling, driving in it, being stuck in the house because the roads were bad. Hours of school and business cancellations on the TV.

There are trade-offs, I know. I know people who wouldn’t give up 4 seasons for anything. I know people who loves snowstorms and use them as an excuse to build a big fire, make a pot of soup and climb under a blanket with a good book. While I can appreciate that point of view, that is not me.

I am perfectly happy to live in a two season locale. Where the beach is an option every day, or at least a few days a week. Where, when you can’t sleep, it’s not crazy to go soak in a hot tub in the middle of the night. Where you learn to do your outside chores early in the day for a couple months a year. And then enjoy months and months where you can sit out on your deck and stargaze on a perfect summer-like night. I remember last year on New Year’s Day, being at my sisters and walking around in my bathing suit all day. I stopped, momentarily, to say to my sister, “This is crazy! It’s New Year’s Day and I’m in my bathing suit.”

Love it.

Seasons record our lives, and our moods, and are the background for so much that we do. We all have things we remember about seasons, memories we made in seasons of the year, and in the seasons of our lives. The circle of life, as seen in the seasons of each year. Concentric circles, giving depth and scope to our lives.

Love and light.

I’ve learned a lot about rheumatoid arthritis over the last few weeks, and have tried a few remedies for the joint pain. What I’ve found works best are CBD’s (or cannabinoids) and going gluten free. The first, CBD’s, was easy to do. I’ve smoked a joint or two in my life (which is really a quote from Dan). Last fall when I had a horrible stomach issue, the origin of which couldn’t be found, (and I have just found out it is inflammation related to RA) I was given a couple joints and when I smoked them it really alleviated the pain. The CBD’s are from the hemp plant (which is different from the marijuana plant) and are what contains all the pain killing properties, with none of the THC cannabinoid that gets you high. It works. I started with two drops under my tongue 4 times a day, and increased it to 5 drops 3 or 4 times a day, and it really does help with the joint pain. There are lots of things to consider when buying it, but really for chronic pain it works.  The only side effect I might have is that it makes me more sleepy.  Which may or may not be the CBD’s.  It could just be that I’m tired, lol.

The gluten-free thing….well, let’s just say I was not happy to hear that I should at least try it. I love my bread, especially when you’re out to eat and they give you warm ciabatta bread with dipping oil. When I had the stomach bug, I went gluten free for a short time because it seemed to help. Then, I found that Snyder’s gluten-free pretzels were awesome. I don’t particularly like pretzels but I LOVE these. Also found Mary’s crackers, which are by far my favorite cracker. These two discoveries made me hopeful that I could find other gluten-free products.

I have kind of tested it, not eating gluten for a day or two, then eating it, and seeing how my body reacts, and as far as I can tell, the gluten-free diet really seems to help. Today, Dan wanted me to make my baked chipotle mac and cheese, so we went to the store and got some gluten-free pasta. I made two types of mac and cheese, one regular for him, one gluten-free for me. We both tasted both and while the regular pasta was better, the gluten-free pasta was good. Good enough that I don’t mind eating it instead of the real thing. I also found decent english muffins, and some wraps I have yet to try. Oh and some nice dinner rolls. I’m not intending to go 100% gluten-free, but if I can get it to about 80% I know that will help.

It still cracks me up though, that the pack of wild-caught salmon we bought at Sam’s Club a couple weeks ago is labeled “gluten-free”. LOL! Really? Wild-caught fish is gluten-free? Shocking. I’ve noticed that on a lot of food now, like yogurt that’s gluten-free. Uh, duh. No, really? Yogurt is gluten-free?

We’ve been going to the beach about once a week, and the water is still over 80, so good to get in it and tread water for a half hour or so. We also manage to go in the hot tub and the pool daily when we are at Dan’s. That seems to help a lot.

I’ve put the trip to Italy on hold, until I can get the RA under control, because I know it will involve a lot of walking and I want to make sure I am able to do it. But Italy or no, life is good.

Love and light all.

I wanted to write about entitlement today, because I have noticed that one of my friends feels very entitled to a better life than she has, but does nothing to work in that regard. Always looking for a pie in the sky. And looking for sympathy, for people to feel sorry for her, literally. I told her last night I was diagnosed with RA, and her response was not one question, or even “wow, sorry to hear that.” but to give me a a litany of all the ills she has, and how much worse off she is.

But I can’t write more than that today, because I’m sitting outside on my deck, and my irritation with that friend just lacks any passion. I have the bright Florida sunshine, a dry 85° temp, a breeze blowing through the palm and banyon trees in my back yard. I feel sorry for that friend that she can’t find her own way out of her situation. But then I let it go. Because life is so beautiful here.

I have a lovely group of friends here now. Yesterday my sculptress friend sent me a text that she’s putting some pendants that we collaborated on in a Christmas show at a premier gallery in St. Pete. I decided I’d better get them done and only have one left to do. She sculpted the pendants, and gave them to me to embellish with wire and/or beads. This is the latest one.

I have friends, and I have a great relationship with a really wonderful man. So, as for my friend’s sad state, well….I guess I don’t want to steal her pain any longer, because I have been since I got here. It’s a long story, we have been friends for a long time, but to write about it more would be giving validity to negativity, mine and hers. So you have to trust me on this. Or not, lol.

On the exact opposite side, 180° from that friend, is my sister and brother-in-law, who just got back to FL for the winter yesterday. So good to have her back. We are close, as sisters, as friends. And she and her hubby love Dan. They are people who I think are entitled to whatever I can do for them, because they have helped me out far above and beyond the call, and never requested anything for it. We had lunch with them as they passed through town yesterday. I’ll probably go over to their house next weekend, while Dan is out of town for a few days.

Trying not to steal pain, nor dole it out. Just living my life as best I can. I’m 66, I figure from here on out, I just just go for pleasure, joy, and happiness, and leave the negative stuff beside the road.

Love and light.

I was reminded of this the last couple of days, watching the senseless behavior of some people.   I get Einstein’s face in this picture. Some things are just inexplicable. 

Other than this slight distraction, we are enjoying ourselves down on the island at my sisters.  Weather is beautiful, life is good. 

Love and light, all. 

I woke up with these crazy hornet stings itching like crazy. Which seemed to be as good an excuse as any to go to the beach and soak in the warm Gulf water. While we were there,  Dan created the sand-sculpture-self-portrait above. I think it bears a remarkable likeness to him!  

And our mission was accomplished. The stings stopped their relentless itching and now we’re getting ready to go out and listen to some of our friends play music.  

It’s a rough life but someone has to live it. 😊

Love and light to all.