Sweetness

 Yesterday was a sweet day: beautiful weather for walking around this little inlet lake neighborhood and then sitting outside to read. I also painted a lot of the icon and fixed the problems from my out of proportion drawing. The water continues to fascinate me, the current flowing east in the morning and washing away the green scum while flowing west in the evening and bringing it all back over night.

Late yesterday afternoon the grey or blue heron flew to this side of the lake and spent 3 hours standing, waiting for a meal, not far from where this cottage is. It took over the cove where a flock of ducks like to settle in, which disturbed them greatly. They’d drift by, not too close so as to not become dinner (probably too big for the heron anyway), and then float away, only to return an hour later and repeat. After finding no food, the heron flew away as darkness settled in. 

I ate well, I thought, salads and fresh veggies, shrimp and rice, and went to bed before 11pm, having had a relaxing evening working on the jigsaw puzzle. But! Oh this puzzle of a Monet painting of water lilies, with large sections that look exactly the same, I have worked on the puzzle for 6 days and have barely made a dent in the 500 pieces that need to be put together. It’s a tough one. However, working on it is still relaxing. 

Sleeping last night was delightful, a lovely breeze blowing in the window. Then I awakened at 4:30 am with a massive headache. I get these sometimes, but it’s been a long time since I had one this bad. They are always over my left eye. I believe they are referral pain from my neck: tight muscles, vertebra out of alignment, gallbladder meridian related (Acupuncture, Chinese medicine).

I took some Advil, then had to get up to use ice/heat/ice but nothing helped. I tried the ice/heat/ice again. I took a steaming hot bath. I wondered why I had this headache when I am in a such a relaxed state, and why it was not responding. Finally after the hot bath and a cup of coffee, around 6:30 am, I started to feel relief. 

Sunrise on the lake.

That the headache did not readily respond to muscle relaxing efforts has me wondering what else might have caused it. I’m beginning to wonder if I should eliminate sugar or reduce it even more in my diet. Yesterday I had 5 pieces of chocolate, a small glass of white wine with dinner, and two small cookies after dinner. That does not seem like a lot of sugar, but maybe it was too much for me. Or maybe it had nothing to do with what I ate. I tend to have a few chocolates, a glass of wine with dinner, and some cookies with tea  many nights without waking up with a headache. So maybe it just took a long while for muscles to relax? Maybe a little caffeine helped? 

I also did some yoga yesterday afternoon, and doing downward facing dog can often lead to headaches from muscle strain or neck strain or some misalignment. Weird to me that yoga, which is supposed to bring alignment has the opposite effect on me. So maybe it was the yoga. I probably need to see a physical therapist and find out why these muscles are so reactive. I already see a chiropractor and pre-COVID I saw a massage therapist. I should probably make an appointment with my Acupuncturist. And, this morning I did a little reading and work with qigong, working on the gallbladder and liver meridians. I’ll see if that helps. 

Ultimately I do not know what caused this headache, I’m just glad it’s gone. 

Yesterday I I did a lot of work on the icon. It now looks like this:

Because I have not painted the eyeballs I think of this as the scary Jesus. I need to work on the skin tone of the neck today, add the highlights to the robes, paint the eyes and the Gospel book. 

Hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight. I want to make the most of this sweet sabbatical time.