Lessons from Lauraland

I am sure I have ranted about this in the past, but people who do not use punctuation DRIVE ME CRAZY. I'm not even asking for semi-colons or commas. Periods would be a great start! I am part of couponing groups on Facebook (that's for another post) and just tried to read a lady's post. I honestly have no clue what she was trying to say. After trying to read through a second time, I just gave up. I get that I may use more complete sentences and less abbreviations than your average person, but simple capitalization and sentences ending punctuation cannot be too much to ask for, right? /rant

I love dandelions. I remember blowing on their seeds and making a wish as a kid. As an adult, they are a touch of sunshine in a ridiculously difficult day. I know they and other "weeds" (as opposed to the flowers we so carefully cultivate) annoy some people and destroy their perfect American Dream lawns, but for me they mean summer. They make me smile. I love seeing our lawn and the park behind our house full of them. The bees are happily buzzing about getting their fill of the early pollen, the birds watching the bees, the squirrels and rabbits running around. Eight months out of twelve, they are a reminder of life and for the other four, I keep one as the wallpaper on my phone. My favorite is one of a slightly closed bloom, sheltered in fallen autumn leaves from the slight covering of snow. If the dandelion can still show its face to the sun, can't i? I also love violets, another "weed." They also remind me of childhood, but specifically of my mom and he

I have a headache. It's a lot better than when I woke up this morning, but it's still there. Lingering in the edges of my mind there is a bit of an ache, a bit of nausea when I close my eyes. Pain is a funny thing. Each time I go to my pain management doctor, they prompt me with descriptive terms for my pain. This headache is slight, but achy and definitely sick. My hip is raw and deep, both words I came up with, not prompted. The description makes sense now that I know I have a tear inside of my hip. It also explains why that pain is constant. I can move when it gets stiff or heat it so I'm a bit more comfortable, but it's always there. My abdomen is sometimes sharp, sometimes achy, sometimes both. It's better than it was before the medication and the trigger point injections, but it's still there. My bladder is more of a burning ache. It can be sharp and sudden. It's always something different. Pain affects more than just the part of the body it is

I take pain medication. I have been taking prescription pain medication for probably two years. For most of that time, I was taking the medication maybe once or twice a week, as needed for pain in my hip. Usually I would take it when I got home from work, but mostly I tried to deal with the pain by changing my activities and spending a lot of time laying on my good friend, the heating pad. I still spend a lot of quality time with my heating pads, three heating pads. At times I use all three to cover all the areas of my body that ache. About 6 months ago, I had a bit of a cold. On Sunday, October 18th, I noticed that my sternum, just the right side, hurt. I thought I had pulled a muscle sneezing or coughing or something. That Monday I still had sinus drainage and my sternum hurt though the pain was starting to expand a little farther under my chest, so I called off work. Tuesday, I got up, got ready, and went to work. By 11, I knew I was in trouble. I was having extreme pain basically e

"There are two kinds of people in the world..." It's a phrase you often hear repeated followed by a silly joke or an offensive division, or perhaps something in between. But, I am beginning to learn there are not two types of people or four or six in the world. There are as many kinds of people in the world as there are people in the world.  That sounds lonely and it can be. But there are things you and I share in common that draw us together. Whether it is the love of a place or television show, or perhaps a craft or professional experience, we are brought into community by the ties between us, the ties that bind us. It is important to remember that even those bound together through their own free will are still distinctive types. That does not go away, but sometimes we forget to treasure the things that make us unique in a world that strives toward a mediocrity of sameness. I am unique. No one is, was, or will ever be just like me in every way. No one else can pl