Growing Separately

And so the rain pours down. I've been listening to it for several hours now. It is amazingly comforting. It makes me want to stay inside and read again all day long - but that is not to be. Yoga classes at the Y this morning and writing class tonight at Lander. Besides, I studied and read all day yesterday and I need a break. ------ I'm reviewing my journal writing the year before Bob died. It is full of surprises. First, how much caretaking I was doing. Second, how often I was away teaching yoga classes and visiting the Pond for many different reasons. Weekly I left Bob to his own devices for a night or sometimes two. How did we manage to do that comfortably? That's simply the way we lived our marriage - each doing a lot of our own thing separately from the other. I believe that is a major strength of a happy marriage. Allowing and supporting. More than that, encouraging each to "be all you can be." One of my most important treasures is an acrylic painting of clasped hands Bob did toward the end of his life. It was just a few months before he went on oxygen that he drove alone to Greenville once a week for lessons and painted the last of only a very few he ever did. He kept only one other. So here I am again trying something new - writing. Not just for my pleasure, but hopefully for publication. It's hard work - much harder than I anticipated. But I'm not giving up. Most things I treasure came from hard work. And at least for now, it's my passion.