another start

With recent health concern a source of distraction I am trying to find a focus, and will try to jump into writing and see where it leads me. I have two blogs now, at WordPress and Gaia Community, and for the time being I’m going to cross-post, until I figure out what I’m doing.

I had to laugh when I read my horoscope this morning, something I rarely do:

You have a lot of fresh thoughts and, fortunately, many of them could make good sense. But your mind is running so fast now that you are on to the next inspiration before you’ve done anything about the previous one. Unfortunately, an important innovation might be forever lost if you don’t take the time to write it down as it’s unfolding. You cannot rely on your memory; carry around a notebook today and jot down your ideas when they happen.

Fresh thoughts have popped into consciousness all last night and this morning, mixed up with all the feelings of apprehension about tomorrow’s ultrasound. Fortunately I have scribbled down these stray thoughts on a pad of sticky notes that I had already thought to start carrying around with me. Not sure if there is an important innovation captured there…

Yesterday when I was showering and having a little trouble keeping the water temperature adjusted, I started remembering when I was quite little and desperately wanted to stop taking what I considered to be childish baths and learn how to take a shower like all the mature and sophisticated people in my little world. For whatever reason my father was assigned to the thankless task of dealing with my chronic dissatisfaction over the circumstances of my life. One part of the shower lesson was how to adjust the temperature and what to do if it got too hot. Jump out of the shower – one did not need to stand there trying to keep adjusting it if the water was too hot to stand! “What should you do if it gets too hot?” The question was repeated often to make sure I had the point down. It was very important to him that I remembered this. I’ve never forgotten…

Dot connecting… The tragic story of my aunt, Olga, my dad’s older sister who met her death by scalding when she pulled a pot of boiling water off the stove, probably shortly before my dad was born and when she was about two years old. My aunt Lil was about seven years old then, and we have her heartbreaking account of the terrible event. In an instant everything changes. Something tells me now that the story of Olga was in the back of Dad’s mind when he was teaching his own little squirt about very hot water.

Never made the connection before yesterday. The thing I like the most about genealogy and family history is discovering why my ancestors behaved the way they did and what motivated their choices. There are a few more notes on my little pad, but this seems long enough for now.

4 thoughts on “another start”

  1. I, too, was burned at a young age by scalding water. I have no scars left for proof, but the relentless fear inhibited my craving to learn to cook until I was old enough to find out where the fear had come from.

    After reading this, I am again reminded how fortunate I am to take part in the poignant art of living.

  2. I can only imagine how terrible that must have been for you. Life is so precious and precarious, isn’t it? All of us probably have what might seem to be irrational fears until we uncover the origin of the fear. I’m glad you found the source and found a way to start cooking!

  3. What a terrible story of Aunt Olga’s scalding and death. By a strange coincidence I was talking to someone on the phone this morning who spoke of being scalded as a small child from a pot of boiling water.

    So you are a showerer? Do you ever still take baths? I am a bath-lover. Have never “matured” into taking showers except when coerced. There is nothing like a soak in a hot tub.

    glad to see that you’re blogging here!

  4. Hi Kathy, sometimes I wonder if Olga might have survived if she had been taken to the hospital and if it hadn’t happened in 1922.

    I haven’t had a bath in many many years! And that was only when there was no other choice. 🙂 I guess we’re polar opposites in that department!

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