Candy is resting, and healing

… Take a picture of 9 fruit, or how to forget your wedding anniversary

An update for those holding room in their heart for our pup. The surgeon was surprised at how well she did, and he was able to do a less invasive surgery because he believes that this one will serve her better, and he knew that I didn’t have insurance. So it was a success and much less costly than I’d planned for, both which made me cry when I picked her up.

If you would like to skip to today’s prompt, please feel free it’s under the 🍒🍓🍇 while today’s daily processing is under the 🐾🐾🐾

🐾🐾🐾

Yesterday my boss worked for me so I could take the day off the bookshop for my pup’s knee surgery. I was a big ball of emotions yesterday. It’s scary to have someone you love in surgery. This knee surgery was a preventative measure. Our pup is only four years old and came with luxating patellas. Which means her knee caps don’t stay in place. Because of that we weren’t able to get insurance when she was small.

I’ve spent the last six months saving monies so she can have the surgery, in the hopes that her range of motion will be 90% for the rest of her life instead of continuing to decline.

Just before I picked her up, after the surgeon called to tell me she was out of surgery and the prognosis was good…I went to get tea at Tim Horton’s across the street.

I let myself be present in the moment. I was at the edge of tears with relief.

There was a small child with his grandparents, sitting in a booth, about five or six years old, and he was telling the story of all the different places he’d sat with his grandparents over the years. His grandpa seemed surprised that this small human would remember each and every time they’d come together. But it was evident to me how lucky that little boy felt to have time alone with his grandparents. How safe and valued he felt.

I tried not to involve myself. Sometimes I pretend I’m a member of the crew of Star Trek trying to observe the prime directive (I do not usually succeed, especially if someone needs help), but being an observer is part of how I learned to human.

I noticed as the boy perked up, the door of the Tim Horton’s opened, and in came his teacher.

She could have just waved hi, and gotten her coffee. But she went right up to the little boy who was looking at her like she was a rock star. I heard her tell him that she’d told his Dad about how thoughtful and kind he’d been. I noticed that little boy sit a little taller, smile a little wider, and the grandparents laughing warmly with such love.

The staff member announced my tea was ready and not a moment too soon because I’d started to cry. The weight of the day, of the surgery, my big last week, it all tumbled my walls keeping things together.

I walked outside, tea in hand, so grateful to know that that teacher, those grandparents…that they are helping to raise a kind human, and setting the foundations for him being thoughtful in the world.

My heart aches for all the children who don’t have that, and my brain started to think about how maybe I could go back to teaching…

But then I remembered that I did that. I taught. I’ve given my heart to community after community. I have to honour the capacity that I have now, and I know that what I’m about to do, will hopefully help people too.

And then I picked up my pup, and the kindness of the folks at the veterinary surgeons made me cry some more.

I drove Candy home and snuggled with her all night. We watched to many episodes of bad tv, and I stayed half awake so she could stay in my bed, knowing that she’d be convalescing in her cozy little house today while I work. She drank water this morning, and licked my face and seemed happy to be awake. She hopped around a little before I snuggled her and put her in her safe and cozy house with the dress I wore yesterday, and I sang her her lullaby, gave her her meds and trundled off to work at the bookstore.

(The song I made up for her when she was small and missing her sister, I have sang it to her every night for four years)

The vets called and seemed reassured that she was already able to hop along.

🍓🍒🍇

Take a picture of 9 fruit

I have to be honest. I have not had time to buy fruit, or even see fruit this past week. Thankfully…I LOVF FRUIT. And my phone is full of pictures of fruit. In fact I used to work in fruit. I was a produce clerk not once but twice at tiny fruit shops. At South China Seas, a magical shop in the Granville Island market building, where I tried fresh water chestnuts for the first time in my early 20s (they are crunchy and have a green apple flavour and are delicious!) and The Byward Fruit Market in the Byward Market in Ottawa. Also a magical shop where I learned to love apples. All of them. I remember buying my first LaRousse Fruit Encyclopedia and falling down the rabbit hole of all the fruits that ever were. My Dad taught me an early love of fruit. We picked wild blueberries, Saskatoon berries, wild strawberries (like tiny droplets of sweet sunshine) and crab apples. But he also pointed out the fruits that were never supposed to make it up north: kumquats, apple-pears, and mangosteen. He told me that fruit were best eaten where they were found. (Once I had a half guava outside at a market near Honolulu and it’s still one of my favourite life moments).

So here I tell you, that yesterday, was also the fourth anniversary of my Las Vegas wedding to my spouse. My second wedding. The quick drive-thru wedding we had to get my partner out of the states after 2 1/2 years of separation by borders, and a global pandemic.

So it was also our day of reunification.

but I think…the fact that we are so comfortable and don’t have to worry about being apart again, that’s a beautiful thing in itself.

So last night as my pup slept snuggled up to me, my partner and I went through the pictures of those three days we spent in Vegas and outside.

One of my favourite signs from that trip. A reminder of the time, at an alien themed gas station in Area 51.

(What a difference from now…)

and a pictures from just before we got married and just after.

I’m happy report that we are still very much in love. That I feel so wondrously loved. And that I love my partner more and more every day…and that we still have adventures. (We usually celebrate May 15th. 8 years ago. The day we met. Because that is where our story began.)

Ah yes. Fruit. 9 of them.

A giant blueberry, a crab apple, a giant kumquat, a ginormous strawberry, a huge raspberry, a berry I didn’t recognize that I sent to my mother to ID but no longer remember the name, a sumo orange (so delicious!), a dragonfruit (more beautiful than delicious, pitahayas are their more delicious cousin) and lychee.

If you have questions about fruit, or you want to tell me a fruit related story…or share pictures of your own…I’d love that.

Heart,

Wake