Sylvia's Journal

The summer officially began yesterday, precisely at 1 minute before 8 PM according to Tessa; she knows about such things. At the moment supreme we were sitting on hard benches waiting for our table at the Fish Shack in Rockport. That included Joe who had returned from a pharmaceutical company retreat in Worcester which had ended with 450 employees drumming to experience alignment with each others’ and the universe’s heartbeat, or something like that.

We let the coming of summer pass unnoticed. We had nothing to toast with. In Rockport’s restaurants you can only order alcohol after you have placed your meal order, and you can only do that when you sit at a table. At any rate, Aimee who is 19 years old, would not have been allowed a drink even though in Holland she is considered old enough to have a glass of beer or wine.

Yesterday was a workday for all of us except Steve and Aimee. While Steve slept to recover from his drive down from London, Aimee explored the neighborhood which included the experience of being envelopped in a fogbank, alternated with bright sun and rain. She also checked out the bike that she will take to Cambridge and which blew a tire, as on cue, on her way into town to the bicycle repair shop. Later in the afternoon I did spot her bike by the icecream store as I drove out of town for an appointment.

That appointment was for my last acupuncture session. The sessions come in fours and we are going to let the chi work its magic for awhile without needles. John, the acupuncturist, is still trying to sort out what is happening in my right foot. It is getting increasingly sensitive to the needles. This time I even asked him to take one needle out because it hurt too much. He considers this a good thing because the abnormal sensitivity of my foot (I still feel like I walk on a wad of cotton balls) is one of the presenting symptoms. He believes that most of the rest of my symptoms were/are related to the misaligned sacrum and the PT’s work will take care of that. I sure hope so.

Sita called from Kentucky where it is raining all the time – they are on the outer fringes of a series of weather calamities hitting parts of the central United States. They are lucky to have a cabin but their travelmates have a tent. There are some tensions and dynamics in the traveling foursome and I have a feeling that the best part of the trip is coming home. This, of course, is no news to me.

With the summer weather arriving the memories and images of last summer are bubbling up from the recesses of my mind. Soon, every day will have a corresponding day and memory from last year, when the universe was both limitless (in its grace) and tiny because of our restricted movements and preoccupations. Part of me is dreading this daily comparison that I expect to start on the 14th. Part of me is celebrating. During my acupuncture session, when I usually fall asleep, I had this expansive feeling of joy, gratefulness and deep gratitude that envelopped me like a blanket and that stayed with me throughout the rest of the day, all the way into summer.