IWD/HBD

I am using today to mark a turning point for myself, an official step onto the path of returning to the unmitigated joy of a full life by beginning to interact again. Not because it’s International Women’s Day (though HOORAY for females and those who love them, natch) but because I was born just before six in the morning 37 years ago. So I guess I’m saying, happy REbirth day to me, with cheese on top.

I’ve been using Zelda to explain my process of recovery. (Yes, The Legend of.) It’s a real rehabilitation, like post surgery, so every level has increasing challenges in addition to being progress toward my ultimate goal. I’m literally relearning many basic functions from the ground up. I haven’t freed the princess yet, but I anticipate that will come sometime later this year. At which point, I will use every available platform to proclaim my newly limitless existence. Until then, things are very very good (especially as I am slowly reintroduced to experiences like going out to dinner for the first time in so so so long, and playing with a dog, and my first time since 2016 out of the house to meet up with a friend—and simply sitting in a chair with my eyes closed feeling the increasingly frequent and always precious absence of symptoms) but things are also very very heavy work that requires plenty of rest and gentle pacing. You know the one about the turtle and the hare.

Turtle out.