After dinner tonight my husband reached in the cabinet for some Tylenol. He does that a lot. I asked him if he was ok, he said, “Got a headache. Again. Seems like it’s a non stop thing.” I see my in and say in a matter-of-fact tone, “I used to have headaches all the time. I was popping some kind of pain killer every 4 hours. I haven’t had a headache in…oh, about 3 weeks.”
He looked intrigued and said, “What are you doing different.” Immediately he looked as though he wished he hadn’t asked, because I think he knew the answer, but too late he did ask. So I told him. “Haven’t had any coffee in, oh I don’t know about 2 weeks and haven’t had meat in 3. I really thought I’d miss it more, but it just feels so good to feel this good.”
He nodded thoughtfully and said, “You really think that’s what it is?”
“Yes, I really do,” I told him.
He nodded again, but didn’t say any more. Which means he didn’t dispute what I was saying. Hey that’s almost a resounding approval for him. I didn’t say anything either, just smiled. But the seed has been planted.
Now for Legacy:
From the distance of the next tract Joe watches prospective buyers amble in and out of the recently constructed homes. He smiles to himself at the sound of squealing children. As he pours the foundations for the next line of homes he imagines the people opening closet doors and testing kitchen cupboards. They know nothing of the coyote in the undeveloped hills or the evidence of his existence hidden under the large, shinny, black and white linoleum squares.
***
The young girl’s mother stands in the entryway with her baby brother on her hip. She looks and sounds tired as she admonishes them not to touch anything. The girl’s older brother and sister head down the hall to claim bedrooms, should their parents finally choose a house. Her younger brother races her to view the most important part of the house: the back yard. “It’s huge,” he whispers.
Looking out the large, glass, patio door she sees only the hill with its small pine standing midway across the crest. That will be her place of escape; the ideal spot to think and write down her thoughts. She feels it. Her mother’s smile tells her she feels it too. They are home.
She’s eight and already knows her destiny. Ever since she read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by her favorite Missourian, she knew someday she would be a writer. She will write her own adventure stories.
When the girls in her Brownie Girl Scout Troop got bored on their first camping trip, she suggested they tell stories. They were enthralled with her adventure of being lost in the woods, trying to find their camp before her parents knew she had broken the rules and wandered off by herself. What did it matter that it had actually been her father’s adventure, not hers? Some details of stories were insignificant. She knew the important ones.
***
As the families settle into their new homes the coyote’s curiosity gets the better of him. He steals to the old oak to watch these creatures’ morning ritual. The young walk in pairs and groups. He wonders where it is they go everyday. He wonders especially about the one who walks alone, her face hidden by something she holds.
“Hey, get out of here,” a man yells.
He takes off into the hills.
***
She looks up from her book, startled. Is that man talking to them?
“Not you guys,” the man laughs, “just some old stay dog that hangs out around here. If he comes near you just yell at him; he’s kind of a coward.”
She glances up and sees an animal running into the hills. Is that a dog? It doesn’t look like a dog. She’ll look it up in the encyclopedias her teacher keeps on the shelf when she gets to school. She thinks it might be a wolf.
The pictures in the book tell her it’s a coyote. Coyote’s ears are larger and pointy than wolves and their tails are big and fluffy, like the animal she saw that morning. She tells her teacher of her discovery, but her teacher tells her not to worry, “It was probably just a stray dog.”
Her teacher doesn’t understand; she isn’t worried, she’s fascinated.
Monday – Exercise – 20 minutes; 1.1 mile (I must be getting faster! YAY)
- Breakfast – An orange, hard boiled egg with onions and peppers and 1 cup of oolong tea with honey.
- AM Snack – a handful of sugar snap peas
- Lunch – ½ a Amy’s Vegan Pizza
- PM Snack – a stuffed grape leaf and cup of tea with honey
- Dinner – 2 small breakfast burritos, eggs, tiny bit of cheese, salsa and peppers and onions on whole wheat tortilla
And oh yeah, weight 201.6 I was really hoping to break that 200 pound thing but at least I lost.
Lost .6 pounds this week; 5.1 over all.
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