** seeds: plantings for May **

OMG GUYS IT'S MAY! For someone who thought she'd never make it out of the Midwest's polar vortex alive, I'm actually a little shocked that it's suddenly not only not below freezing, but actually nice! Spring here in Cincinnati is surprisingly a lot like what I, a native Oregonian, think of as summer. Between 60 and 80 degrees with a couple of days of rain per week, it's sort of perfect for me. I cringe almost as much at the idea of Midwest summers as I do at the Midwest winters.

Here's a brief look at the seeds I'm planting for May!

• I got some lovely sock yarn in the mail yesterday from Knit Picks, and I'm super excited about it. I plan on making the Spring Pools pattern from Ravelry. I don't often use patterns for socks, but I'd like to try as there are so many out there. Technically, I started these socks yesterday. I made the toe twice -- and I made it wrong twice each time. It just goes to show that no matter how many socks you think you've mastered...you haven't.

Knit Picks "Stroll" in Sapphire Heather 

• The littlest bit of yoga. It's often suggested as an "easy" exercise for people with chronic illnesses, but the fact of the matter is that it is not that easy. It is, in fact, very easy to injure yourself trying to do yoga without much guidance, and if you've got easy muscle flare-ups in your shoulders like I do, Sun Salutations are your worst enemy. I've been practicing since I was 13 or 14 but have been struggling in modifying my practice to my body's new ramifications.  I recently checked out Yoga for Back Pain from my library, as it came highly recommended. He suggests that you find the source of your pain (in my case, I chose musculoskeletal) and practice a few poses several times a day. It seems a little daunting, but since he also recommends that you only hold each pose for 15 seconds to start, it actually has not been too hard (yet) to fit in to my day. I found his descriptions of poses to be a little confusing, and despite supposedly being for people with chronic and/or acute pain, didn't offer too many modifications. I found that yogajournal.com has an excellent database of poses that include full descriptions, tips, variations and modifications.  I'm doing: Legs-up-the-Wall pose for 5 minutes,  followed by 15 seconds (on each side) of the following very modified postures:  Head-to-Knee-Forward-Bend (I use a strap), Seated Forward Bend (strap here too), Marichyasana I, Intense Side Stretch Pose (with hands interlocked behind my back), and a Halfway Reclining Hero Pose followed by a Child's Pose. 

• Expedititions (or Expotitions, a la Winnie-the-Pooh) . Now that the weather is appropriate, and Jose is done with school for two months, we've decided to see a little bit more the city we've been (caged like angry beasts) living in.  Every Saturday, we'd like to go out and do something. We found a park nearby that requires very little effort to get to, for days when I'm not up to much. Otherwise, we've got the Ohio River Walk downtown, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Botanical Gardens, the Zoo, plus any number of things across the river in Kentucky. If we're feeling really nuts, we might drive to Louisville or Yellow Springs.

A purple pedestrian bridge across the Ohio! 

• Similarly, we've started going for walks on Sundays in the nearby Burnet Woods. It's lovely, woodsy, and so many cardinals come out to play! It is an opportunity for me to walk a little more than my 10-12 minute daily walks. Plus -- one of the trails lets out at a bagel shop. Shockingly, we always seem to end up on that one...

Woods!

• Brainwise, I'm going to keep working on learning Sanskrit, but I'm also going to be practicing translating some poems from Spanish (I've got my heart set on re-working some of Ana Merino's work). Plus, some time in March, I attended a talk by poet CK Williams who talked about how memorizing poems can help you write poems. I do leave the writing of poetry mostly to Jose, but it did trigger a memory of how I used to memorize poems as a kid. For no apparent reason...I just liked them! So I thought it would be fun to go back and re-memorize some of those. It'll make my brain happy and strong, and I'll get to feel like a kid again. Win/win.

• My walks will change from 10 minute daily walks to -gasp- 12 minute daily walks. One of the hardest things I've learned from Fibromyalgia is that my body takes a long, long time to get used to something. So I'll only be increasing minutes in very small increments.

• I've always been interested in the Fly Lady, but find her programs too difficult to follow. They expect too much out of a chronically ill person (wearing shoes? I'm not taking shoes off every time I need to rest. Sorry.), and move too fast for me (see above, with walking). I'm not always flexible, and prefer to do things As They Are Supposed to Be Done which kind of gets me in a bind. However, figuring out that I can adapt a walking program has me realizing that I can adapt the Fly Lady's program. I already make the bed daily, so that one is an easy win. This month I'm going to practice keeping the sink clean. Erk. And I'm going to do it barefoot. So there.

Whew. That seems like both Way Too Much and Not Nearly Enough at the same time. What seeds are you planting?

** seeds of spring: what I'm planting **

The seeds I'm planting this month are a variety of different plants. All of them, I hope will work together to help my health and my general well-being. When it comes to caring for a body, any body -- healthy or chronically ill -- I feel that we do best when we vary our attempts to care for ourselves. The human body is a constantly changing thing, and so consistently needs change and variation. With Fibromyalgia and CFIDS, I find sometimes that what works for me one month, simply doesn't work for me the next. And so I find myself constantly reevaluating, reassessing what my body and my mind need.


Alright, alright. This month's Seeds:

• I started learning Sanskrit. I found this lovely website devoted to teaching the language online for free. I'm interested in learning more about yoga, and poetry and Sanskrit combines both interests in one. Plus, learning languages is good for that brain thang. I enjoy learning languages, so it's a good way to combat some of the fibro fog, without spending hours bitching at the NY Times Friday crossword. 

This is your brain on Sanskrit

• I'm knitting a sock. I really love knitting socks. I just do. I mean, really, what is a better meditation than sitting there, counting stitches, counting rows? Sometimes, when I don't have anything to knit, I visualize knitting and that calms me down. True story. Also, while the research is a little spotty, and I'd like to see some studies where they monitor the brain of a knitter (or other crafter) while knitting (crafting), there is both this study and this study coming out saying that knitting really can calm depression, and help cognitive abilities. 

Strike two against fibro fog. Plus, warm feet next winter.

• Inspired by Michelle at The Fat Nutritionist, I'm trying to chill out. Particularly around food. Food is a touchy topic for me, and this woman makes me feel like it's okay for food to be a touchy topic. In her blog post about Perfectionist Cooking Paralysis, she describes me perfectly: I will eat slop that other people serve up, or at ahem Skyline, but I won't let myself cook anything that doesn't sound or seem gourmet. It takes me hours (really) every day to prepare food, and gosh, you know what? I don't have that energy. So I've been inspired by her system of levels, to try and tone my cooking down a notch. This doesn't mean I won't be getting good food, but also that I won't be making myself sicker by working too hard on a meal that I then can't enjoy because I've worn myself out. Whoops.

It's cultural. And across the street. And gross. And delicious. And cheap. Skyline is all things. **

• I'm going to try to walk more, now that the outside air doesn't paralyze me on contact. I'm not overly fond of walking in my neighborhood, as there are way too many hills. Oh well. I read this entry on how to establish a walking program for fibromyalgia, and decided I should give it a shot. Plus, all the various research out there on how cardiovascular exercise can improve cognitive function, mood, or the research that shows that walking can improve the body's anti-inflammatory response. You can read a less technical summary of studies here. It kinda seems silly not to try it. Until I look at the hills.

"Beautiful rolling hills of Cincinnati" OR "Sure. Go for a walk. MWAHAHAHAHA."

•  I'm hoping that a visit to a chiropractor once a week will help my body function better. I haven't found a lot of studies that are well-controlled on chiropracty and fibromyalgia. But I have seen a chiropractor before for multiple back and hip issues, and have had mostly positive results. I'd like to see if regular visits help keep my shoulder muscles from clenching and turning into a vipers nest. If not, then I'll move on to try something else! 

• I've switched my daily sketches in ink from focusing on inner things to focusing on outer things. In other words, I'm actually trying to sketch things and not worry so much about how awful they look. And then sketching them again and again until I get a better feel for it. Similar to knitting, drawing is shown to be particularly helpful with cognitive function. Often, though, it just makes me cranky because the things that come out of my pen should be more like the things in my mind. Whoops. There's that perfectionism again.

Yes, I have a scanner. No, I did not use it.

What seeds are you planting? Are you lucky enough to actually plant real seeds in a real garden? 

**This is a shame-free zone. Please do not shame me or others for food, exercise and treatment choices. I'm happy to hear your experience with any of these things, and always happy to hear what works for people. I'm happy to hear cautions that are worded respectfully and without aim to hurt.