** harvesting: what grew and what didn't **

Approaching the end of the month, I took a look back at the seeds I planted to see what happened.

Duds -- These seeds did not grow.

• So. The chiropractor down the street? Not so much. The building is still there, but it's empty. Whoops. Oh well. The main reason I wanted to give chiropracty a try was because it was close by. So I'm shelving it for now.

• On the sketching front, I'm a little creatively stalled. I've stopped forcing a daily sketch and while that feels right (they were getting sooo uninspired) I feel a little uncomfortable with my general lack of artistry on a regular basis. Oh well. I'll get my groove back, right?

?? -- I'm not sure what's going on here

• I've learned a handful of Sanskrit roots and some really weird sentences. The website I'm using to teach myself uses the Baghavad Gita as its main source. I've learned the words for to suffer and to lose one's consciousness. So that's something, right? It feels kind of stalled because, well, I'm not super into it. I've never tried to learn a language in such a pristine manner, only for text and not for speaking, so it's got me feeling kinda itchy and kinda what's-the-pointy. I'm going to keep going for another month or so and see if I feel better when I'm actually able to read a few sentences. For now, this is all I've got so far, and I feel a little unsure about it:

"Hey, hey, I am not your hero." Hmm.

Blossoms-- Shiny! Pretty!

• This rocked. I love knitting socks. It's nice that the project is small, portable, and actually useful. I think I'll be knitting a pair of socks every month. It feels nice to have something visibly  accomplished.  These ones are a little on the funky side, as I made them to try a couple of different techniques.  One sock has a squared wedge-style toe, and the other has a toe that I'm calling the "sweet tomato toe" as it's based on the sweet tomato heel. The wedge was way easier, but I'm a sucker for super rounded edges. I also, due to my ridiculously small feet was able to knit two socks out of one small skein, but because it was a variegated skein, um, they don't match. Oops. (Also, my photo editor is absolutely not working right now, so I apologize for the expanse of carpet and poor lighting)

Yes, my feet are that small.

Trees -- These are going to take a long time to grow, but the roots are in, and good.

I'm planning on posting more in-depth posts about these "trees" this month, as both nutrition and exercise are very crucial to health with a chronic illness but feel like an impossible maze to navigate.

• I decided to stop being just inspired by Michelle at the Fat Nutritionist, but to actually consult her. Since the chiropractor thing didn't work out, I wanted to pick something else to try and focus on.  I'm now "seeing" her every couple of weeks via Skype, and although we've only met up once so far, it was really quite monumental and life-changing. I've got a huge bag of snacks in the kitchen to prove it.  I felt like I was doing really quite well, being 5 years in recovery from disordered eating, but in just 90 minutes she ripped the bandaid off of a small yet quite serious set of issues that I probably knew I had, but didn't acknowledge. Oh boy. If you'd like someone really down-to-earth and intensely intuitive and smart about food with the added benefit of never having to leave your house, I recommend contacting her. 

• I like walking. I've been walking ten minutes a day...maybe 4-5 days a week? The first week I went out, I only went out MWF, and then it was a bit rough. I countered each ten minute walk with a 15-minute warm bath and 10 minutes of stretching. I'm now able to do a bit more stretching and have ditched the bath unless, you know, I want one. I've considered upping my time to a 12-minute walk, but I think I'll wait a little longer before I do that. The fibro body is fickle, and I want to make damned sure that I'm not going to overwork it and end up back where I started.