Thirsty

I placed the little paper cup

Beneath the spout and chunks of frozen water tumbled out

Then moved my cup next door and water poured from the adjacent tap

I slurped the cool mixture

The ice bobbing against my lips

And swallowed the slick liquid

Marveling at how easily I accessed what my body needed

My mind jumped to Saturday

We lost the trail in the forest

After coming down the mountain

We were out of water

But I needed water more than I remember ever needing it before

It didn’t seem to matter that I’d eaten plenty

All that mattered was that food isn’t water

I trudged along behind my friend, getting more behind with every halting, uncoordinated step

My legs were concrete blocks

My arms were having trouble utilizing poles that previously were so helpful

We fumbled through the felled trees which made a random, crisscross pattern my fatigued, foggy mind could not decipher

I gingerly stepped here and there hoping rotting logs would hold my weight

Desiccated, prickly branches clawed at my bare legs leaving their grasp behind in bloody, jagged fingerprints

I wondered what it might be like to fall face first, just like those trees, into the tangled mash

I’m sure it would be warm and suck me in

And did my hiking partner have cell service

Could he summon help in this wooded, desolate place

When he looked behind to find his, now, feeble friend delirious and languishing

On the forest floor

Eyes sunken, parched tongue lolling from my mouth, drool absent

I awoke from my most pleasant dream of lying down to his most welcome words, “I’ve found the trail!”

A “Hallelujah” sputtered up and with it came a surge of energy

Once on the trail, I stopped to turn the empty water bladder out above my head and lamely tried to catch the last few drips

They missed my mouth and trickled giggling down my neck instead

Suffice to say I did survive my trial by way of want for water

Made it to the car to share a coke

And nothing’s ever tasted better

Edited in Prisma app with Dallas

The feature pic entitled “Quenched” was created by me by combining photos from Pixabay, edited using Pixlr.  The footer pic is from Pixabay, edited using Prisma. Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Listen to many of my post on Spotify. Follow me on Instagram. Take a peek at my Redbubble store Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com. See samples of my products below each post. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time!

The Snowshoe Fiasco

Note from the Author: All of the pictures in my post today, with the exception of the Pixabay snowshoe picture, are of the hike I was on courtesy of George Mach, an exceptional photographer and friend.

I went hiking in the mountains on Saturday. My friend invited me to hike Spreading Ridge on the Icefields Parkway, the majestic, mountainous road linking Lake Louise and Jasper. There would be seven of us. I was told to bring cleats and snowshoes, as there would still be snow. Temperatures would range from +5 °C at the bottom to -5 °C at the top. It was a two hour drive from Calgary and as we travelled North, the landscape looked gradually more wintery. I’ve never been a huge fan of winter, but in the last number of years, I’ve tried to embrace it more, as it’s an inescapable reality in Canada.

A Prayer for Ukraine

I woke and took up your word

And read about the gift you gave

Whipped Up

I’m not the center

The world doesn’t stop for me

Mountains are for Climbing

Many of you know, if you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, that I struggle with an eating disorder. You can read more about that here. Lately, with the ongoing threat of Covid and the increased patient load at my workplace (you can read about what I do here), I’ve been succumbing to the urge to rapidly consume the contents of my cupboards, healthy or otherwise. I recently took the important step of booking an appointment to see a professional about my problem. I’ve always been a self-helper. Whenever my behaviours resulted in too many unpleasant outcomes, I would read widely on my issues and adopt new coping strategies. Often, this would produce small, lasting changes, but I’m finally ready to admit that I’ve done what I can and I need another’s perspective and guidance.

I Feel Like Eating

When I’m tired, I reach for sugar to supply the zip I need

When I’m bored, a plate of nachos will suffice, a little spice

Will pick me up

When I’m depressed, you might have guessed, chocolate is the thing that frees the happys in my brain

When I’m sick with regret, well, I might as well eat the rest of it, the chocolate cake, I mean

When I’m kickin’ back, a bag or two of chips will do the trick to keep me casual and cool

And when I’m in a party mood, I need a table full of food, other partygoers optional

There’s a food for every feeling, there’s a meaning for every morsel

There’s a taste for every tension and a gulp for every grief

Since I always have my appetite to make everything in my world alright

Who needs a shrink or friends and family?

Just sit me by the fridge and I will eat my way through life

And I’ll be fat

And happy

Maybe…

Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Feature double exposure pic by me using images from Pixabay and Pixlr photo editor. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to follow me or sign up to receive my posts via email. Pics are from Pixabay unless otherwise noted. Take a peek at my Redbubble store. Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time!

The Antidote

When words don’t come

When the good ole’ brain is blank

As unsullied as fresh snow

As empty as a new, white sheet of paper

The pen may be poised

The computer up and whirring

The fingers curled o’er the keyboard

But there’s no flow, no ideas forming

No signals sent, no nerves jangling

No digits doing their duty

No thoughts to express

Just staring

And stress

And stillness

And shrugging

Ugh

I got nothin’

I got nothin’

I got nothin’

What do we do

When we want to write

And have nothing to say

We try to fix it

To force it

We prod with word prompts

We summon streams of consciousness

We type gibberish hoping

The clacking of keys will release the Kraken

Burst the dam

And flood the world with our untold genius

We fuss, we fume

We ruminate

Why is this happening to me

We cry

We whine

We binge

We may come unhinged

All because

We do not listen

To what our bodies, minds, and souls

Are trying to say

Stop

Rest

Read a book

Take a walk

Go on an adventure

Have a talk with a friend

Recharge

Live

Then

Come back

And write

Posts come out when I feel like it. 😀 Scroll down to the bottom of the page to receive notifications of my posts via email. Take a peek at my Redbubble store. Pollyeloquent.redbubble.com. Thank you for giving me some of your precious time! Choose joy!

• 

• 

• 

Impervious: Pondering the Pandemic

Let fear dictate your path and there won’t be a path to dictate.

In 2019, we visited our neighboring province at the end of October. “Why on earth would you do that?” some may ask, as Saskatchewan is not known for being a vacation destination due to its austere scenery. We happened to be on our way back from Manitoba, where we attended a seminar for my husband’s work as a pastor. We decided to take a day and explore Regina. Even though it wasn’t very wintery where I live in Alberta, I decided to throw in my winter wear as a precaution. Canadians know that winter often shows up unannounced, without regard for your preparedness, especially when you’re still sporting shorts and flip flops. On that note, last winter I did something I haven’t done in 20 years. I bought a new winter coat and not just any winter coat, but the mother of all winter coats. It’s a burgundy puffer jacket with a faux-fur trimmed hood that effectively turns me into the lion king. My daughter has informed me that it makes my head look like a shriveled pea, not a very attractive thought, but, let me tell you, I put that baby on and go outside and, despite the cold, I still feel nearly, and delightfully, feverish.

Move it and Lose it: A Former Fatty on Going Lean

The word fat has been in my vocabulary since I was a child. I’m sure there was a time when I was small in size, but I don’t remember it. I was never a wisp of a girl, it’s not how I’m built. When I see pictures of myself in preadolescence, the first word that comes to mind is stocky. I’m reminded of an impish boy pointing at me on the playground, his eyes flashing, as he sang, off key, the popular, Ball Park Frank’s jingle, “They plump when you cook ’em”. He wasn’t inaccurate. Plump. That’s me, for most of my life anyway.

Lessons from the Valley and the Mountaintop

Take control of me, Jesus. The current management is woefully incompetent.

Almost 6 years ago, I went back to school to change my career. To say I went back to school is incorrect, because I’ve been in school now for 52 years. The school of life is always in session. Life lessons are a moment by moment occurrence. If we’re aware, we’ll acknowledge the lesson, learn from it, and be changed for the better. If we go through life on autopilot, never recognizing what life is trying to teach us, we may someday regret our inattentiveness. Just as in school, there are some lessons we want to learn. We lap them up, like a parched dog slurping noisily at a water dish. We apply ourselves with every ounce of our time, concentration, and giftedness. Other lessons, we must push ourselves to learn. I have a friend who received a grade of 62% in one of his high school courses. Worried that this low mark would affect his chances of getting into university, he went to the trouble of taking the course again only to end up with 63%. I do find this humorous, but also baffling, because I get it. It’s true, some things we can only learn the hard way.