Dear Reader:

Fantastic news from my nurse Bobbie…she told me if I can put up with WV (Wound “Vac” machine) through the Thanksgiving holidays…then it appears  like my “divorce” from him will be declared “final” and I can ship him back from where he came… (“Hot Atlanta” I believe.) Then I will be a free woman…not bonded to a machine wherever I go.

Oh wow…will I ever have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving…an extra taste at the table…the taste of freedom!

The week after Thanksgiving I get my “cover” for the wound…a synthetic type of “bridge” that will support my real skin growing to form a natural cover through it; the collagen will just become part of the real skin. Happiness is…

Tommy got the garden blower (when we got home yesterday from my appointment) and blew off all the leaves that have accumulated on the deck over the past several weeks so the Ya’s will have their “hang-out” place today to catch up on. Thanks Tommy for the ride, company, and help around the house.

*And I discovered a wonderful surprise...none other than Lassie and Doodle had put an umbrella and extra pillows on the lounge chairs. Apparently one day after they took me back home after an appointment (in the early weeks of treatments) they set up everything.

I never made it out to the deck…just stayed in my recliner with my foot up since the weather stayed gloomy and rainy….but thank you girls…I know the Ya’s will love the umbrella cover…especially with the forecast for sunny weather! What a lovely gesture…you two are something else!

While on the back deck I was almost afraid to look at the garden (since it has been weeks since I ventured out)…but there it was ….flowers still blooming, three of the grandchildren’s Japanese maples turning beautiful colors, and even my morning glories still blooming in (close to ) freezing temperatures at night.

For some reason both of my granddaughters, Eva Cate and Eloise’s Japanese Maples dropped their leaves early this year before turning color. The three grandsons, Rutledge, Jake, and Lachlan’s trees did turn color. I don’t know the rhyme or reason behind why some did and some didn’t hold onto their leaves…but it did teach me a lesson I needed to hear about letting go

“I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go.”
― Jeffrey McDaniel

All five Japanese Maples know intuitively when to let go and when to hold onto their leaves and for how long. But we humans fight change so much we make ourselves miserable over this same indecision throughout our lives. Here I thought my garden must be in complete disarray from my seeming “abandonment”….when to my surprise they have  done remarkably well without me. It was my time to let go to tend to my own needs and let my plants tend to theirs…

Rutledge’s leaves are almost done but because this is the only pure scarlet maple…the red leaves are still making a statement on their way out of letting go.

Jake and Lachlan’s Japanese Maples are the only two left who are fully “clothed’ with their ever-changing attire ..perhaps it is location, location, location?

So until tomorrow…It has taken me a life time to understand the concept of change…because perhaps there is a reason for the word “good” in ‘good-bye’…I pride myself on being a good ‘hanger-on’er’ and I still believe in perseverance…only now I understand that there is a thin thread between perseverance and the opposite which we too often mistake as a weakness.

The only thing ‘weak’ about letting go of a link of chain is not turning around and starting a new link with it…a new path through life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• Yesterday when I was talking about taking small steps I meant to add this precious, short little video Dee Lesko, a loyal blog reader, sent me because it is all about taking “baby steps” to get through each adult day. You might have seen it on Facebook by now but it is certainly worth the laugh to see it again or enjoy it for the first time. Adorable!