Kate’s surgery happens on October 19th and the surgeon requires that she stop taking her nsaid.\u00a0 That means she has less pain control on board so her pain level has begun to ramp up.\u00a0 This is only the first day without it.\u00a0 Ouch.\u00a0 We’ve also begun to reconnoiter what changes we’ll have to make in the house for her recovery period.\u00a0 Move a comfy chair in front of the TV in place of the couch.\u00a0 Things like that.![\"thedress625\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/thedress625-300x260.jpg\" "\\"thedress625\\"")
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Kate’s sewing a lot.\u00a0 She’s finished a butterfly costume complete with antennas and wings as well as a purple jumper for granddaughter Ruth.\u00a0 She wants to get all this stuff done before she’s post-op.<\/p>\n
If you have an anxious bone in your body, well, better, if you have an anxiety prone amygdala, then reading this article might interest you:\u00a0 The Anxious Mind<\/a>.\u00a0 It recounts the work of Jerome Kagan who established the genetic imprint on reactivity.\u00a0 His work undergirded the notion of a fixed temperament.<\/p>\n As a high reactive myself, I found the notion of a genetic imprint for anxiety strangely liberating.\u00a0 It made me feel that my state was not a character flaw, but part of the package.\u00a0 The article makes all the nuancing you might want related to nurture, triggers and coping skills, but the clear fact remains that people like me are the way we are because we have a hypervigilant amygdala.<\/p>\n When I finish sermons a week ahead of time,\u00a0 investigate the costs of medicare drug and health care plans now, a year or two early, and plan my tours at least a week in advance, I display a learned strategy for managing my anxiety.\u00a0 That’s why I’m not good in a crisis or under a crushing deadline.\u00a0 I need time to prepare, to think things through.\u00a0 I bring sufficient pressure to bear on myself.\u00a0 I don’t need external stimuli.<\/p>\n After I got done reading this article and realizing that I was on one end of the bell curve–again, I began to wonder–again–what it must be like to have a normal, stable reaction to the work, a calm feeling in the pit of your stomach instead of a roiling mess.<\/p>\n It also became clear to me that I had a trigger that moved my anxiety from genetic inheritance to personality dilemma.\u00a0 When my mother died, I was 17 years old.\u00a0 My brain had not finished maturing.\u00a0 It took years for me to integrate the confusion and insecurity that her sudden death created.<\/p>\n Even though previous analysis has surfaced some of this before, this particular slant, a genetic proclivity, is new to me.\u00a0 It helps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fall\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Blood Moon Finally, a city criteria list worth paying attention to:\u00a0 The Daily Beast has ranked America’s Smartest Cities.\u00a0 The Twin Cities come in 4th after, in order, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco and Boston.\u00a0 Denver is 5th.\u00a0 Las Vegas and Fresno, California bring up the rear at 54th and 55th.\u00a0 It’s an interesting read. … Continue reading Understanding the Anxious Mind<\/span>