April Musings

On the Themes of Caring and Freedom: Self-care, Gardening Muscles, & Good Books

In a previous post, A Collection of Creative Pursuits, I described a physical complaint being treated by a massage therapist. I am thrilled to report that after four sessions, my shoulder has much improved. My well-educated and experienced therapist helped me recognize and correct my body’s sloppy alignment. Years of bad posture, emotional tension, dehydration, and misalignment are now being addressed by me every day. Self-care has to be a priority if I want to weather the storms of the last third of my life.

I joked with my therapist that I was starting to sound like my mom: little noises when I get up from sitting, louder grunts when I lift something heavy, and those sighs…I sigh when I collapse into a chair; I sigh when I get up from the chair, I sigh when I forget something, I sigh when I find it. I wish my mom were around for me to say, I get it, Mom.

I’m Free! (Cue The Who’s song)

Another necessary self-care effort was to delete my social media accounts. Though I had attempted to curate my feed by joining interest groups and eliminating people who were too negative, I still encountered the nastiness and arrogance that Facebook seems to induce. I didn’t spend a lot of time on FB and almost none on IG, but when I did, I clearly observed in myself the behaviors of clickbait addiction. Because I didn’t spend much time on FB and didn’t click on much of anything, my feed was filled with ads.

Sadly, I have noticed how much our culture relies on Facebook as its primary communication tool. I am often directed to a Facebook page when I look for information online. Another observation I made: apparently, my “friends” have not noticed my absence! I notified long-time friends that I was leaving and ensured they had my email and phone number. The superficiality of the FB friends concept sealed the deal for me.

I feel a sense of freedom because I am no longer exposed to the random moments of unkindness and the non-stop clickbait ads…but I do miss the animal reels.

Motion is the Lotion

How we move our bodies—or don’t—is key to our well-being as we age. Aches and pains are a natural effect of a withering body, but we can lessen their intensity by devoting more attention to our movement. Katy Bowman, a biomechanist, has written books and developed movement workshops. I bought her book, Dynamic Aging, and skimmed it a few years ago, but now it’s time to read it and start taking the advice she offers. Another aspect I appreciated about my sessions with my massage therapist was our discussions about how my daily activities and stresses impacted my body. We need health practitioners who care enough to listen and educate us.

"Movement, like food, is not optional; ailments you may be experiencing are simply (and complexly) symptoms of movement hunger in response to a movement diet that is dangerously low in terms of quantity and poor in terms of quality—meaning you aren't getting the full spectrum of movement nutrition necessary for a baseline human function." - Katy Bowman, Move Your DNA

Spring Gardening

One of life’s mysteries is how gardening muscles escape use, exercise, and stretching throughout the non-gardening months. This past week, I spent several afternoons planting onion sets, chitted potatoes, native plant seedlings, shoveling compost, and dragging hoses out of the barn. I exercised and stretched before working in the garden, but the next morning, my gardening muscles greeted me with the familiar soreness and twinges of pain. Of course, I sighed as I wobbled around the house for the first hour.

But let me tell you how incredible it was to be outside without a jacket, feel the sun's warmth, dig in the dirt, listen to the birds sing, watch our cat lie in the warmed soil, and imagine the future beauty and harvest from my gardens. The dogs were as delighted as we were, running around, picking up sticks, and begging us to play.

Japanese purple sweet potato growing slips among my newly sown seed trays.

I’ve started seeds in my indoor seed station and am focusing on starting sweet potato slips for planting in June. Gardening is my passion, and we each need one or more. My other passion, knitting, had a few rough weeks: I started a new cowl project and found the yarn difficult to work with, especially with the M1R/M1L stitches. I immediately noticed how my body reacted to my struggles and adjusted my posture and attitude. I usually knit in the evening when I am tired, watching a show (Call the Midwives this week), so mistakes happen. I knitted about 6 inches, trying to ignore the errors, but finally frogged it and will start again this weekend. Curiosity, determination, and a commitment to practice are key elements of developing a creative passion and its skills.

---

April Reads

Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

A friend texted me this last week: Thanks to your recommendation for Black Woods Blue Sky, I am having trouble getting much else done besides reading it!

That’s a hallmark of a good book: it distracts you from the shoulds in your life. The latest book by Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child (a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Fiction and another moving read), continues her magical take on a world where loving and caring are motivations for living freely and wildly. Situated in the wilds of Alaska, the characters care deeply about the place and all who live there. The protagonist Birdy reminds me of the 18-year-old girl I was while living in Anchorage, Alaska. I fell madly in love with the Alaskan landscape and desperately wanted the freedom to escape and experience the state. I stared at the Chugach Mountain range daily, drove along the Seward highway to Homer, and camped and hiked in a few remote places. Reality forced me back to the lower 48, and I spent the next ten years obsessed with moving back.

A single mom, Birdy, yearns for a taste of freedom and jumps into an opportunity to live freely in a remote cabin with Arthur. But Arthur is a complicated being. And thus, this dark but compassionate fairy tale begins. My house would be cleaner, my garden more prepared, and my writing projects further along, but I had to read this book. The ending found me curled up in a chair (practicing poor posture), with a lump in my throat, and tears in my eyes—a story about loving, compassion, wildness, and caring.

Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

I listened to this powerful book while working in the garden years ago. It is not a feel-good book, and there is no happy ending. Several times, I had to stop the audio because the descriptions of the violence and hate that humans are capable of were too much for me to take in. I am rereading the print version as part of the Guerrilla Readers group, and it remains a difficult book to read. But it is essential reading to truly understand how our hierarchical culture is rooted in the dehumanizing of others. Despite being an expertly researched historical book, it has been banned from public school libraries in several states. If we want to live in a caring culture, we must understand how a social stratification system is maintained through manipulation and propaganda. Here is a short interview with the author.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

I read the best-selling books The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan when they were published over twenty-five years ago. I was surprised to discover her latest book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, is a nature journal. What was more unusual was that she drew the beautiful illustrations.

In a six-minute video, Amy describes her motivation to look up; she was deeply troubled by the increasing hate speech and racism in our country. Her response was to dive into a creative project and learn something new: at age 64, she created a bird-feeding paradise in her backyard, signed up for her first drawing class “to wonder in depth, to notice, to question,” bought far too many art supplies, and began a focused study of the birds visiting her backyard. She never intended for her new passion to become a book, but I am so happy it did.

The book is organized as a diary with entries about her observations and illustrations of the 63 birds she learned to identify. Her writing is curious and funny, and she describes the project as “pure fun, spontaneous, a bit of a mess, and come what may.” She describes her honest approach as follows: “I could be openly naive and not self-critical. I could respect science and also allow playful anthropomorphism and a lot of wild guesses.”

One of many illustrations that was amusing.

Her daily observations included “pencil miles,” spending many hours drawing, writing, and researching her many questions about bird behaviors. Her writer’s imagination shines through much of the book. She creates scenes, bird dialogues, and occasional resolutions. It’s delightful to read! I love this book and ponder a similar project about plants. In the March 6 interview at the Aldo Leopold Foundation website, she discusses her backyard project, book development, and creative process.

---

Speaking of birds, our resident Wild Turkey flock of hens was courted by two male birds for several weeks. Watching the toms spread their fans and blow out their feathers while waiting to be noticed was amusing. It reminded me of my early experiences in the American bar scene.

Tom Turkeys working hard to be noticed.

---

Thank you for being here. All of my posts are free, but if you’d like to support my work, you can do so by:

• Liking and restacking this post so others are encouraged to read it.

• Share this post via email or on social media.

• Taking out a paid subscription to this Substack.

  If you find my content educational and/or entertaining, please consider a paid subscription. I would be eternally grateful, as would my coffee and tea habits.

  I love to hear from readers. Tell us where you are finding your daily doses of love and compassion.