Dancing With a Stranger.....

 I just came here to look at the Blog stats/readership.  I don't get a lot of visitors here generally because it's not as active a blog as it once was. But...somebody (or a few somebody's) is reading it, apparently from the beginning.  

Whoever you are, welcome aboard. 

I tend to open up and re-read the posts that get the most views, and DANG.... it was a walk through some hard times.  The heart does its best to heal and cover over the scars, but... they don't go away, really.  It hurts some to read again what it was like in those days.  It occurs to me that I was extremely fearful THEN about what I NOW would just worry about, if you know what I mean LOL.  It is also helpful that the first year since this transplant has been infinitely less medically complicated than the first year after the initial transplant. 

It's more....in the background somehow.  Off the front burner. 

How does that impact day-to-day life?

We have more freedom.  We are more comfortable making plans (although travel insurance is not something I will EVER not pay for).  And there is more joy.

Our neighborhood hosts Porch Fest every year. This year there were 140 bands playing on porches in a a 3x9 block radius, with my house in the middle of the "food district." Streets are closed. Crowds are sizeable. The music goes from Metallica to Traditional Celtic within a few steps.  There is a funnel cake truck less than a block from my house. Bliss.

This year a bluegrass band around the corner included a square dance caller.  

I've done square dancing off and on my entire life. It was a gym class every year in high school. A local friend hosted an annual square dance party.  My dad took my kids square dancing every year on our Christmas visit. But it's been a few years.

I danced in a square with total strangers, on a city street on a perfect sunny day.  Not one of us had much of a clue what we were doing, and nobody cared if we could tell left from right, clockwise from counterclockwise. It was all smiles, laughter, and tolerance. 

I was, incidentally, counted as 5000 steps by my phone LOL.

Accidental joy. Unplanned simple happiness. Unanticipated blessed memories.

Zero headspace occupied by a worry. 

THAT freedom is the day-to-day impact.

DeeDee