i also blog here > chicanes.wordpress.com < about accessories and accessibility. generally about living with a disability (or two or three...).

i saw a lot of wonderful things and wondered about many other things in february. one thing that i wondered about was my definition quest. do i need it anymore? it occurred to me that the quest has been a set of mindfulness training wheels. the words that i've chosen have helped me be more mindful of my surroundings, and i find that i need to focus on the words less. looking carefully at the world with a positive, or at least neutral, view has become just the way i live my life. as i look back, the words i chose in the fall really helped me out of a very difficult phase of my recovery.

i've been busy looking at things other than my computer (like a baby playing bongos).

my word for february is wonder. i just decided today.

today i spent time looking at old friends in new ways. this afternoon i had lunch with a friend from elementary school, and a friend i made after i moved away from the town where i went to elementary school. both are excellent people, and i enjoyed the collision of two worlds. i loved seeing them together. i got to laugh a lot.

man, i've looked at some amazing things in the last week or so. i've seen van gogh paintings, an original audubon folio, and books written in the 1200s. i've spent a good amount of time looking at a 99 year-old woman who isn't hooked up to any machines and keeps up a stream of sassy comments during the jeopardy/wheel hour. i've looked at a lot of folks from my passed happily moved into my present. today i looked at a cactus taco and a golden bandshell.

a quote for my trip -
"Its not what you look at that matters, its what you see." - Henry David Thoreau

so the, what do i see?

i've been looking at a whole lot lately. my mom and i took a trip to a museum and looked at some very interesting art. then we looked at some very beautiful and tasty food in the cafe at the museum. i looked at my friend emily when she came to help me celebrate a momentous birthday. starting today, i'm going to be looking at a whole different world. as emily would say, i'm ready.

i sat with my dad and looked at the oregon state women's basketball team. i was able to follow the game, and enjoyed myself. that mych visual stimulation can be tiring, but it's getting easier and much more fun.

on january 7th i walked on a 1/4 mile path, with the steepest slope i've yet walked up (and down) with since my stroke, to look at a "glacial erratic" in a field on the edge of mcminnville. the rock is the largest glacial erratic rock in the willamette valley, and was left there by the missoula floods fifteen to twenty thousand years ago.

it was a sunny day in corvallis, and thankfully not as cold as sunny days have been lately. the sunset tonight was beautiful. from my porch, i can look west and see marys peak. the clouds around the peak were pink, purple and orange. it felt good to be outside looking at the sky. i need to do more of that.

today i took a look at my bedroom and decided that i wanted my bed in a different place. so i moved it. rearranged my room. vacuumed. i like the way my room looks now.