July 4, Lavender Farms, Heatwaves and Midsummer Realizations

July 4, Lavender Farms, and Heatwaves

Mt Rainier with Lavender Farm

I hope you had a good July 4th. We were still in recovery from last week’s illness, so we skipped the July 4 celebrations this year (I’m not a huge fireworks person anyway—what with asthma and PSTD) but I did look up some cool Wonder Woman fighting Nazis artwork that used to be up on my blog for the occasion.

And I finally got to visit the lavender farm (briefly) despite the extreme heat (90 almost every day!) and the colors of the different lavenders were unfolding beautifully in front of a Mt Rainier sunset, so it was really gorgeous. I am very lucky to have this place within walking distance of my house. It smelled as beautiful as it looks, by the way.

Midsummer Realizations

Me and Glenn and lavender and Mt Rainier to the left with sunset

As I was recovering, I was watching a lot of television and ended up watching a lot of the show Lottery Dream Home. It got me thinking about what I would do if I won the lottery, would I want a new dream home? Our home isn’t perfect (hence the ADA bath remodel in the works), but it works pretty well for us. I like our neighbors and our local farm stands and wineries (though I don’t drink much wine) and the house is a little small for entertaining, and I don’t love having an HOA, but basically it fills our needs, and I wouldn’t trade it. It might be nice to have a second home somewhere warmer and sunnier in winter but it’s definitely not a necessity, and I’d probably be more likely to spend money on home improvements (more built-in bookshelves?) or starting a scholarship or charity for writers with disabilities than another home. It also strangely made me feel more okay about my life in general. Of course, more money would be great—or more poetry-world success—but are those things really that important? More health would be really, really helpful, of course. (I’m working on it, with a team of doctors, of course.) But ultimately, I’m pretty…dare I say it…okay with my life right now. Of course, I have anxieties about the normal things—especially about how my parents are aging many miles away—am I doing enough good in the world, etc.—but not feeling as panic-stricken as I did, say a month ago or so. Not sure why the shift, but a week away in a beautiful remote rugged island and then another week in a hospital WILL give you perspective.

So, the next week is my 30th anniversary and Glenn’s birthday, and so we need to think about and give some space to celebration, and hopefully, we’ll be caught up enough from our health crises and trips to be able to do that. (It is supposed to be 93°F with bad air on our anniversary, sadly, so we will have to put off any outdoor fun ’til after that…)