The View from Here

Diane showing relief as we finished our part of the editing for the CD. Whew!I have spent a good part of May in Lincoln, Nebraska, with my best friend, rehearsing and then recording our first Amicitia Duo CD, Play Pretty, that will be released in the fall by Potenza Music, with all of the music having been written for our Duo except for one piece. It has been a fun, inspirational, and musically satisfying journey as we worked hard to make this goal happen. while I loved every moment of my time spent in Lincoln, I was also homesick for my little family. How wonderful, though, to have two places where you so comfortable and at home.

I returned to Birmingham this past Saturday afternoon (with my luggage!), just in time to enjoy a date night before preparing for shoulder surgery bright and early Monday morning. I had an open distal clavicle excision and AC joint decompression. This wasn’t my first rodeo; I had my other shoulder done a few years ago, and am hoping I get the same relief that I did with the last surgery. Dan and I joke that we have put a new wing on our doctors’ homes with all of our surgeries…this was my fifth surgery (two ankles, two shoulders, and a hysterectomy), and several for Dan as well, with more knee surgeries in the near future for him, poor guy. We Gaineys have obviously been hard on our bodies over the years.

My favorite nurse was there and popped in to say hi. She lives in our ‘hood and we often see her walking her dog past our house. Seeing a familiar face helped me to not feel as anxious. Everyone there was so nice, and Dan followed our post-surgery protocol; a chocolate milkshake from Sonic in honor of my mom. Strictly medicinal purposes, of course…Marley and Shiva have taken on nursing duty.

I’ve had to work on sitting still- always tough for me to do, as I’m used to constantly being on the go. Maybe aside from the hopeful pain relief that will come from this surgery, maybe another gift will be this time to go inward, to be able to write some (slowly with my left hand for now), to read without guilt that I should be doing something else, and to just enjoy the loving peace of our home. Not such a bad thing.

No matter how far away I go, no matter what exotic places I experience, or how much fun I have, there is never anything so precious as seeing my smiling husband and sweet dog drive up in front of baggage claim in the Mini to pick me up, beaming, giving me wonderful hugs and kisses of welcome, and then walking into our home for the first time; the wonderful grounding familiarity of it all. It really feels like I’ve been making this journey home for years before I even knew it existed. I am so grateful for my life. Every bit of it.