Solstically Stoned
Sunswept
Oh, how I want to be kept
Gleaming in that glow
But low these years
Bringing me to shadows
Stuck with the luck
of skin cancer muck
Mourning the former me
Frolicking
Forevermore
away from your rays
Solstically
stoned
Snared in preparedness
Seized by the heat
Healthfully
retreating
To be happy you must be your own sunshine. ~The Maxims of Marmaduke by Charles Edward Jerningham
Everything hinges on antidotes when it comes to aging. How we meet certain tidings. As we’re doled clinical updates, can we accept bad news? Do we greet or continue to grapple with it? My weight gain agitation aside for the moment, without question my biggest hurdle began when smack in the midst of a daily sun-soaked steamy weather surfer’s high, melanoma knocked loudly upon my epidermal door in 2020. Sure, I willingly admit that the universe granted me fifty birthday celebrations to that date before dumping on me. I’d heartbrokenly had my thoughts tussled about for decades noticing, seeing, and eventually attending to loved ones diagnosed with cancer. I knew it wasn’t a fool so easily dismissed. Four perennial sunny spells hence, wellness intelligence data ever unfolding, some intense zig-zaggery proliferates my brain during this annual American seasoning.
Summer officially announced itself for our Northern Hemisphere yesterday. A waft of my favorites landing on each breath of hot air: swimming, boating, shorts-n-tank top combos, or wondrously flouncy light-to-the-touch dresses. All sorts of vacationesque moods that lift my spirits regardless of employment looming. Ringing in that array of sunburns, tan lines, and the related cha-ching of people dutifully coating themselves, their kids, or significant/others. Hopefully with an environmentally-friendly sunscreen, goes my planetary plug. My learning curve about what I rub onto me, not only the eats I put into my system, has escalated with my acquired hobby of shade hopping. Also, the application of sun protection lotions has become a multi-hour per day routine. Within the enlivening readiness that is this radiant drift, I wish to be wholly cheerful and often remain rigidly steering stoically conflicted.
Sweet thing, I watch you
Burn so fast it scares me ~When the Sun Hits by Slowdive
I’ve been sensing that my attitude is a wee like a rock in a hard place lately. Which made me think of the British monoliths that I was able to visit once many suns ago, albeit missing their classic gathering. ‘This’ vessel is our gift. Our bodies, our Earthen life. There’s no good excuse for failing to cherish it. Yet, what we do with our times of giant UGHing makes scorching or settling happenstance. That very toughest of spots that it seems won’t release you no matter how much you invent a round of goddess rituals, pray to any creator, or consider giving in to doom. Because I admire y’all who caper minus the type of chain reaction that cramps my temperature, I’m aware this is merely my envious precinct. I’m still working on Falling in Like With My Whiteness. Of course, none of us raves to be stressed about the pressures of ‘fires’. We’d rather be the flames than feel them.
I realize that most everyone receives a lot of stiffening that they don’t prefer. Herein, I’ll amusingly extend you my small satire that might take over my outdoors versus indoors nuanced nuisance soon. After six months of seriously chiseling fresh job leads, I’ve got a tentative offer whose description appears to be focused on interiors. Of all the the items piling up with anticipation, access to a pool rests up on my list. Instead of romping in nature maybe with the USDA’s Forest Service and declined in multiples by another coveted NOAA institution, I’m awaiting my clearance chances elsewhere. On beyond sunbeams, I can cling to equal needs that rival my sun-drenched zeal, such as sex or sailing, and any proximity to water. I believe that superpowers ally in our solid choices. Especially those that initially present as unknowns. Turning our weaknesses into strengths sometimes could be as simple as an unshakeably firm pedigree.
Being the boulder compared to emoting the load is mindful medicine.
