Positivity is a Dragonfly
It’s been a rough few weeks. Big things, small things, shocking things, simple irritations, life changing events, and on and on. It’s been one of those times when you realize that great big huge thing that nearly slipped your mind was just two weeks ago and it seems like a year now because the hits were jolting and they just kept coming. I’m ready to move on to a different phase. I’ll share just one story about the recent round of pain despair and misery, one that’s mine to tell.
As far as teeth go, I have unfortunate genes. Enormous teeth, tiny mouth. It took a lot to rain all that in. I’m 8 teeth shy of a normal adult, spent 5 middle and high school years with braces, and still, things don’t fit so well. Last week I had a cracked filling and hoped that I wasn’t going to need a cap.
Well, I didn’t. Now I’m 9 teeth shy of a normal adult. The dentist told me he couldn’t save the tooth and he pulled it. Geeze, I wasn’t prepared for that. I had a lot of pain, procedures and trips to the next little town over (where I met the orthodontist who came up from Mobile to treat the country folk) wrapped up in those teeth and I wasn’t planning to give one up. I was more attached to this tooth than the other 8. This one was “supposed to stay.” Loosing a live body part feels a bit like being violated. But, if I could choose which part I had to give up, I really can’t think of anything I’d rather loose.
I bet if I’m ever a candidate for the new tooth growing drug or other processes, my next tooth will grow back just as oversized as the last one.
So, the bright side of that ordeal? Well, Scientists all over the world are working on bringing new medicines and technology to people like me, and to people who need it even more. New living teeth may be available in 6 years. I won’t be in any of the first waves of people treated. In fact, I might never personally benefit. It will be expensive. But, adults growing new teeth? Mr. Clark was correct, any sufficiently advanced technology IS indistinguishable from magic.
And, on a more personal note, though I didn’t want to give up a tooth, I went in before things got worse. The dentist did a great job. There was no infection. The tooth was the last one in back and people won’t know unless they read this post. There were no complications. I have more space in my mouth. I’m going to get over it.
The Red Dragonflies
A New Leaf
This morning wasn’t going well. It was one piddling little thing after another combined with the background stress of recent weeks. I was afraid I wouldn’t get out the door in time for yoga at the library, but I did. I went to yoga, wasn’t late, and it helped me tame that raging headache that was trying to take over. Then, after yoga, Russ called.
Before his diabetes diagnosis, Russ might spend a few lunch hour minutes beating the heat in air-conditioning, shopping or thrifting. After the diagnosis, medical advice was to walk after meals, not at a shopping pace. So, the silver lining is that he has discovered more of the area parks, what ever is close to where he is at meal time. He was just leaving Garrard’s Landing on the Chattahoochee when he called. He knew my yoga class was nearby. He saw all these different colored dragonflies at the upper pond in the environmental campus of the waste water treatment plant. Some of them were red. He had never seen a red dragonfly. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I ever noticed one before either. Russ wanted me to know that I could come and see them too. I did.
Russ’s desire to share a wonder, to want me to be happy, my feeling the same way toward him. That’s the glue. It’s the magic and the silver lining. It keeps us moving, one step at a time into tomorrow and tomorrow.
I hope there’s a dragonfly moment for you today, and someone to share the wonder.
Until next time, have a glorious day and we’ll see you on the trail.
FYI, Garrard’s Landing is actually a park we already knew because it is the only metro area park that confirms launching model rockets from the grass field is allowed.
