No headache is no headacheMy last post suggested some tyranny of the constant threat of headaches - it isn't really true. That's just drama and poetry.
Only when I'm having a headache do I feel overwhelmed by the multiplicity and mystery of causes and symptoms. When I have no headache, I don't worry about them at all. I am not shackled by some worry or threat. There is a clear separation between times of headaches and times of peace. A High School HeadacheI can't remember when I started having headaches, but by the time I was in high school, they were a regular part of my life.
I remember that I took a lot of Advil in high school and probably in middle school too. Because of the way they rattle in the bottle and have a sweet coating, I use to referred to them as candy. Now I am far more cautious - stomach bleeding is something I actually worry about. So, even though I don't know when the headaches started, the headache story I tell here was far from being the first headache - this was just of particular note. Something to blog about...I started this "Pathways" blog for complicated reasons, but I've just realized that perhaps I have something real to write about after all... Last night I got lost down the wormhole of internet research - when a simple search leads you to something else and something else and something else. I started with questions about a vitamin and ended up reading about Cluster Headaches (CH).
Wine Town and Gelato Festival- a souvenir -As "Wine Town" festival participants, Brian and I each got a nice wine glass to carry around Florence with us. (We also each got a pouch on a necklace so we would have a place to store our glasses between tasting venues. I'm not kidding - we had wine glass jewelry.) We brought these glasses back home with us, and in the past year, they have been our favorite wine glasses. I write this post now, because one of them was broken tonight. Like so many of our days in Florence, we stayed in the apartment through lunch, and then ventured out for the evening. Both the Wine Town festival and Gelato Festival began the day before, and we already had our tickets (and wine glasses). We went through Piazza Santa Maria Novella and Piazza Republica, which were common parts of our walk, and we sampled a few varieties of gelato. Our main goal, though, was to see as many of the performances associated with the wine festival as we could. Tastings of wine were not cheap, and so we had no more than our initial tickets provided - maybe 7 over two days. Performances and Wine at Palazzo VecchioIn a room of Palazzo Vecchio, in which we had never been, we saw a couple of unusual dance performances. I find it difficult to describe the first - I hope the pictures help. The central male dancer was strapped into a very large hemisphere of steel. Instead of having his feet on the ground, his lower half was converted to round ball; as he leaned and twisted, he could roll the ball around in a dance.
Why do I do it?I am happy to report that I have resumed my practice of walking in the mornings.
I've been walking in the mornings for enough weeks now, that it has started to feel habitual again. I get up and head out the door as quickly as I can; I don't eat or drink anything; I don't raise the shades; I don't let the cat out of his room. Often my eyes are still a little blurry and dry, and my legs and back are stiff and clumsy. But I walk. Often I fold my arms because letting them hang and swing feels like too much movement so soon after sleep. What is it that I'm doing on these walks? Clearly it isn't about exercise. I don't take big steps, or pump my arms, or try to raise my heart rate. I see a lot of other people out between the hours of six and seven a.m. and most of them appear to be exercising. The effort of their motion is evident, even if they are in a group chatting as they walk or jog. I feel accepted by them, and we always say "Good Morning" or nod, but I know they are doing something different from me - at least in part. |
AuthorInterdisciplinary Artist: Archives
March 2015
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