In a life not dominated by the desire to change the world so that it would be a better place to live, moving would be a great excuse for taking a month away news and politics and trying to spread the word.

But my life is dominated by that mission.  

So I flipped a coin to see whether I should try to wrap some new words around an idea or two or post something old.  When one gets to be as old as I am, it gets more difficult to “write something new” since one may find that almost everything has already been addressed in the past couple of decades…or the 292 diaries posted here…or the 260 poems written.  As much as I would like for people to read my old diaries, in the spirit of learning about lives they cannot conceive, I know that the past gets forgotten very easily and reading someone’s old diaries is an unlikely occurrence.

Unfortunately for me, since it meant no nap this afternoon, on the last day before the moving begins, “something new” won.

When stress approaches, I used to get rather severe migraines.  Since I was often stressed, this was definitely not pleasant.

The migraines retreated after I transitioned.  But I still get headaches, though not as severe nor with the attendant visual disturbances the migraines came with.  The headaches I get nowadays are mostly of the sinus variety and are connected with allergies, it appears.

But sometimes I do still get stressed.

My strategy now is to try relaxing with my art program, rather than curl up in a dark place with a hot compress.  Mostly it works.

I decided to share what I created the past couple of days just in case someone else might find them useful in relieving some stress.

There are fourteen graphics inside.  Be forewarned.

Clicking on the graphics will open larger versions in a new tab.

Small weights, individually not much, bound to my joints, dragging me down, generating immobility, accumulating.

Sometimes I want to turn away.  Sometimes it is not that I desire to do so, but that I feel that I must, if only for my own sanity.  But there are times when even so, I must push onward, searching for glimmers of progress, of hope, of the remnants of dreams.

Last spring I volunteered to teach one section of students how to use the computer with college-level proficiency.  These students were brought here under the auspices of the Educational Opportunity Fund.

Sometimes I should try to remember that no good deed goes unpunished.