Dear Emily:

My neighbors are out walking and its 10 o’clock at night. I just saw them stroll by hand in hand under the street light. They moved here from the coast just before winter set in. I know this because they stopped and talked to me when I was out walking the other day. I don’t know how old they are but they have to be in their late seventies or early eighties for sure. I hope to have that kind of energy pushing me out the door when I get to be that age.

Right now with this sore hip I feel more like an old mare who’s been put out to pasture. “Bursitis”, the doc said when I went to see her on Friday, “inflammation of the joint, that’s why the hip is on fire and it feels like you’re sitting on a bed of nails.”

She sent me to the x-ray department to get a picture for her album. I thought of requesting a copy so I could post it with my writing but I let the thought go. Some people think I already put enough stuff “out there”. Imagine their shock if I exposed myself right down to the bare bones!

I was up at 5 this morning to drive Andree to the airport. She went to Calgary to help her daughter move into another home. I don’t know how long she will be away. I told her to stay as long as she needed to. It was one of those not so pleasant moves that happened rather suddenly but perhaps not soon enough. One of the most difficult things to see is when our children suffer in a relationship gone sour. Although I’m all for working things out, I also recognize that sometimes there is no working out to be done and the kindest thing to do is to let go and move on.

I’m a little nervous about the week ahead of me. It’s week two of the practicum and I am the counselor. This means I will be seeing two clients a day for the next five days. While I’m in session, the instructor will periodically pop in behind the cubicle wall and listen to what is going on. She will be listening to see how well I do using an Integrated Approach of the theories I’ve been studying.

I have to relax and to trust everything will go well. The only way I can do that is to not focus on trying to incorporate everything I’ve learned and to just be myself and follow what my heart tells me is right to do. Speaking of “how I do”, my mark for my last course is in. I got an “A”.

I know I’m jumping around from one thing to another but there is much I have to say and I can’t sign off without saying this as well. I went to a friend’s wake tonight. Tomorrow morning I will be going to her funeral. She died on Wednesday of last week at the age of 91.

You knew her. Her name was Beatrice Bruneau and, unknown to her; she was one of my greatest teachers when it came to living life authentically and in a positive way. No matter what happened in her life, she always found something good to focus on and celebrate about each day. She was quite a trooper and she was one of those that lived life as we all should. She lived life full and died empty.

Writefully Yours
Annette