All this and asparagus too

Each day a new surprise awaits me. A new bud, a new flower, a branch which seemingly leafed out over night, and an edible plant I didn't expect. Lately I feel like I'm getting messages about where my energy should be focused. I got my mail the other day and opened up the American Gardener Magazine. The story that I turned to, by chance, was a feature about how gardening is good for your health. It even included ways to protect yourself from strain and modifications for gardeners with physical challenges. Don't you just love that word. Challenges. To put it rather crudely, one person's challenge is another person's shit but it's shit all the same. I digress. Gardening is good for your health seemed to be a message planted there for me to stop focusing on a puzzle I'll never figure out, and move to something positive. The other thing in my mailbox which held some kind of message for me was an invitation to an event co-sponsored by the NC symphony and the Rex Cancer Center. What caught my eye was the title: The Healing Power of Music. The event will take place in a local concert hall beginning with breakfast, a lecture by a cancer survivor who uses music to help others, and will be followed by a rehearsal of the NC Symphony. I really should go. I haven't been to the symphony in ages. Occasionaly a friend invites me to go hear music with her and I beg off, worried I'll be uncomfortable and won't feel like I can leave. Stupid of me. I think of what some people do in horrendous pain and wimp becomes my middle name. I didn't even go hear my friend play violin in a Christmas music program. I tentatively plan big trips in my head, seriously consider them, and then don't even go out to hear music or see a play. I really should go to the morning event because I do so much better in the morning. Even if I don't make it to that event, I think music could help me right about now. I am listening to music more at home which is a good sign. The other thing I should do soon is go to the art museum for the inside and outside walk and view. The NC museum has an outdoor artwalk now which includes miles of trails with wildflower, meadow sections, a pond, attractive plantings and outdoor sculpture. It really doesn't need the man made art but it's interesting to see the light play on some of the large sculptures. I guess it was last year that Bill and I went on that walk and briefly into the museum. Another friend and I went to the museum about a year ago but it's so close and the outdoor walk is so pleasant, I ought to do that on a regular basis. I need to change my environment more. Change it by leaving one environment and visiting another. As lucky as I am to work from home, particularly now, I feel like the main places I go are doctor's appointments and that's not necessary. Sure, I need to go to the string of specialists I see to get better in terms of some of them and to have the melanoma follow up from some but I could do more pleasant outings too. It's not that I never do anything but sometimes it does feel like I go with the minimum instead of the maximum. The only thing I've really pushed is my regular walks and sometimes I push that too hard and end up being set back. That's the good thing about museum walks, they are slow, leisurely, viewing experiences. When I walked outside yesterday all I could think of was all this and asparagus too, thus the title of this entry. My asparagus bed is over 15 years old and I think 10 years is the average for asparagus. There isn't a lot yet but some early stalks shot up and now I know to watch for them to cut when they are new and tender. Another of the goals formulating in my head is to develop enough patience to capture a photograph of one of the cardinals perching on the head of my St. Francis statue. I like the statue because it makes me think of my parents since he was delivered to sit in their garden when I was a child. The birds frequenly sit on his head but I haven't gotten that shot yet.