DRAMATIC PAUSE

Hello, hello!

Happy April to you! I’m here. I’m alive! And I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but March really came for me this year, and I’m feeling especially grateful to be starting a new month healthy and restored.

I celebrated my 43rd birthday at the beginning of March with a quiet day to myself (birthday morning sunrise below). I went to a Korean spa and left behind old stresses, muscle aches, and a lot of dead skin (IYKYK). I spent time reviving my paint brushes and even managed to finish a large new piece (I’ll share that soon). I worked on some really fun tattoo projects in the studio. I walked the dogs in the woods.

Oh, and I also had an emergency cholecystectomy. Yep, my gallbladder had to go. Ouch!

I’m now 11 days post-op and still very much processing the experience. There’s a lot of gratitude: I feel incredibly lucky to be so loved and cared for by my friends and family. There’s also grief: part of my body is gone, and so is some of my food freedom. I’m learning my limits, practicing patience, slowing down, and letting go.

Now, though, I’m looking ahead to April. I’m ready to get my hands and knees dirty in the garden, to paint more, and to open every window in the house so it can take a deep breath of the spring that’s fully upon us.

I hope you have a splendid April. I hope you find delight in the bowing, buttery-yellow frills of a daffodil. I hope you eat a donut or maybe a tater-tot in honor of my dearly departed gallbladder.