It's been so long since my last blog post! As my desire to blog has
slowly returned, I've debated whether I should try to revive my poor,
neglected Baublicious, or whether I should simply start fresh with a
whole new blog. In the end, I decided there have been enough endings
and transitions in my life this year, I'm not ready for another.
That
elimination diet I mentioned in my last post, back in January? The one
that was supposed to last 30 days? Well, I ended up having to stick
with it well into April, continuing to refine and eliminate additional
foods until I could find a stable spot for my body to start healing. The
good news is it has worked. My health has improved significantly in so
many, many ways. Even areas that I simply took for granted as 'the way
things are', like seasonal allergies, haven't been as bad as previous
years.
The only fly in the ointment is I can't stay
on my very restricted diet forever, and I'm still having significant
troubles reintroducing foods. Yep, I'm still in stuck in the
reintroduction phase - it's slow going. I still have bad days, when my
body decides to reject the latest food reintroduction. Thankfully, the
bad days are interspersed amongst the much more frequent good ones. The
bad days help me remember just why I embarked on this journey in the
first place.
The good news is that for the first time
in forever, my mind keeps turning to creative endeavors not because I
feel like I 'have to' or 'ought to' do them, but because I truly want to.
At the same time, I feel like I'm relearning how to be creative.
Rebuilding my creative muscles and stamina. Last month I focused on
daily sketching. I signed up for a 30 day "Find Your Flow" workshop
with Karen Abend, and
committed to drawing for at least a half hour every day through the
month of June. My biggest challenge was giving myself permission to
create wonky, imperfect, and often incomplete sketches, and simply enjoy
the process. So far so good!
This happened to
coincide with an invitation from my mother-in-law to join her on an
Alaskan cruise earlier this month. So I have plenty to blog about! I
just need to retrain myself to put blogging into my routine. For so
long, it's taken all of my focus simply to accomplish the must-dos on my
daily lists. It feels amazing to have energy enough to reach out for
creativity, for friendship, to find my way back to the me that makes me
smile. Makes me feel like dancing!