Life is a balancing act

This is another spread from the altered book. At times I've felt more like this than others. Right now, we seem to be in one of those periods where life is in balance, even if it is precarious. So I'm enjoying it while it lasts. My natural tendency is to worry about when is it going to get to where I can't seem to keep everything under control, as there are certain circumstances in our lives that could change that I won't go into. I know that all it takes is one delicate push and there you are again trying to keep everything from falling over or it feels like it anyway. But what I'm making myself do is to not allow the worry over the future, especially with the economy like it is, to rob me of the joy of the here and now. There are concerns I do have always in the back of my mind but I'm trying to not let them consume me. I realize that we are not all in this place at the same time, so what we can do is lend a shoulder, a hand, or an encouraging word to the ones who are at the times where life's events have them in a struggle or even where everything has fallen in around them. I'm not as good at that as I should be. Well, my little bit of philosophizing for today.

It is a beautiful fall day here. I've some outside work to do at Mom's today so it should be good weather for that. "We're" trying to get her flower beds back in order. By we, I mean me with the Mom supervising, lol! I know it hurts her to not be able to do the work herself and I'm not saying that facetiously. She had discovered since her retirement(she's now 68) that she loved working outside and the last couple of years before her stroke, which was last November, had worked hours and hours clearing the wooded area around her house, making new beds for native plantings, and getting it to where she could enjoy the view of the creek below her home. The good thing about her doing all that physical labor is that she had built up a lot of strength and had lost a good bit of weight. It seemed ironic that just when she had gotten herself in shape, she had a stroke, but the fact she was stronger probably was a great help in her struggles to get around afterwards.

Unfortunately she's still not completely regained use of her right side. Her right arm is worse than the leg, but she doesn't have complete control of either. She is able to live alone, though, mostly independently. There is a wonderful young woman who comes to help Mom a couple of days a week and then my brother, Stan, and myself are over there a couple of times a week, at least, to help her with tasks she can't do alone or that are difficult for her. My other brother lives off and is actually working out of state right now, but he comes on the weekend when he can. Since it was her right side that means she can't drive. I still hope that there will be some more improvement and think there is still a little happening. Mom won't keep up her exercises, though, as she's mostly resigned to things not getting any better, so whatever improvement happens is going to just be God-given, I guess.

I started out thinking I didn't have much to say, but ended up saying a lot! Hope you all enjoy a lovely week and some great fall weather. Personally, I hope we have rain, as it is extremely dry and dusty here and I love rain anyway.