I received some help from my chiropractor today.
That statement is a LOT bigger than it looks.
That help meant I was able to spend a couple of hours seated in my studio this afternoon with Alice and The Mad Hatter without being distracted by pain.
We had a tea party.
Well, they had a tea party, anyway.
This was my first time doing a paper-cut piece using silhouette paper: it cuts easily, which is lovely when one has to make a lot of curved cuts with an Xacto knife, but it also curls easily, so I had to be very careful not to bend all the vines and flowers once they were set free.
I think the last (and only other time) I attempted this piece, I was using a very heavy white paper; definitely easier on the silhouette paper.
Anyway, I now have this lovely paper cutting and wish I had...
...mad framing skills.
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I've also recently been getting some help learning how to live more peaceably and fruitfully with my broken body, and one of the helpful things that has floated back to the surface of my mind in this process is a poem I have loved by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Brother Body
(in the sanitarium, in Rilke's final illness)
Brother body is poor...that means we must be rich for him.
He was often the rich one; so may he be forgiven
for the meanness of his wretched moments.
Then, when he acts as though he barely knows us,
may he be gently reminded of all that has been shared.
Of course, we are not one but two solitaries:
our consciousness and he.
But how much we have to thank each other for,
as friends do! And illness reminds us:
friendship demands a lot.
Uncollected Poems
What a blessed way he had of living with his failing body!
Today, I spent a few minutes during my walk thinking about just some of the wonderful things my body has afforded my life - from jumping rope to bearing children - and I thanked it.
Gratitude is a game changer.