I had some fairly major surgery on February 2nd. While the first week afterwards was more than a little scary and frustrating, it’s been amazing how much better I feel. I need less sleep, I don’t feel tired all the time. One of my favorite diversions is walking. Not necessarily for exercise, but as more of a meditative activity. Before the surgery, I was still walking but not more than half a mile a day. Now, I’m walking two miles more on a regular basis. And even though I get tired after walking a particularly long ways (more than five miles on one day – though not all during the same outing), it’s a different kind of tired. Before, I would feel a kind of bone tired, numbing exhaustion. Now, it’s the normal muscle fatigue. The difference may sound academic, but doesn’t feel that way to me.

A benefit more relevant to this blog is that I am able to read and write again. While ill and early in my recovery, it was impossible to concentrate long enough to read more than a few pages at time. Similarly, I was almost completely unable to write poetry or fiction. Now, the both these favored activities are slowly returning to me.