“Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.”
– Paul Klee
This vine grows wild in the nearby landscape and has exploded into bloom from the recent rains. I often arrange the cobalt-blue flowers in nosegays, which perch on shelves or near the kitchen sink and give me little smiles throughout the day. Planning to add the petite blue morning glory’s likeness to the butterfly study, I admired the sinuous lines and decided that it deserved its own study!
Watercolor
There are times, when my eye-hand-brain connection is so in sync, that using a pencil before painting would seem redundant. There are other times when that faint map of pencil simplifies the process and strengthens the end result. After studying the lines of the trailing vine, I began to paint without the aid of a pencil.
‘We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.’- Maya Angelou
The watercolor (above) patiently waited for three weeks while I waded through dengue-clouded sleep and dog-paddled back to the land of the living. Like trying to remember a dream, I now recall details of the illness that return in little snippets, “Oh, the exceptional pull of gravity on my hands and arms felt as if heavy chains kept them cemented to the mattress.” I remember seeing my puffy face in the mirror and wondering, “Who are you?” After the fever left, I walked with a touch of vertigo and often listed to the left like an injured fish swimming in circles. I walked little, as my blood pressure fell if I stood too long, so returning to the bed with easy sleep was a gift.
The butterflies and flowers from a year ago
At times I forced myself to sit up, take my temperature, pulse, drink more liquids, and then I collapsed back into the world of dreams. Oh, the places I went in that dream-packed sleep, and though my dreams I could fly! I could roam the world and other worlds and spend time with a new cast of people! On awakening, the vivid recall kept me entertained, and I rolled back after a brief commercial break and returned a the marathon of dreams.
I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. ~Chuang Tzu
Two days ago I peered at the watercolor in limbo and pondered the wildflowers in bloom outside. They were at their peak a month ago, and they were now going to seed and would soon be gone for another year. I could rely on reference photos, but there’s nothing (for me) better than working from life. I retrieved some flowers, revived the dried watercolor palette and began painting. Continue reading →
The global snapshot of biodiversity is a specific window of time when we especially encourage people to get outside and share photos of their encounters with plants, animals, and fungi. This year, the global snapshot is happening over 11 days, from May 15 to 25, 2015. The goal is to document biodiversity all over the world during this time period.”(from: Great Nature Project FAQ)
Name that bird!
All-you-can-eat shrimp buffet for egrets, herons and ibis!
It’s late at night, and I’m feeling better but am itching, a side effect from dengue fever. Slowly regaining my strength, I look forward to photographing the flora and fauna at Casa Loca and contributing to the Great Nature Project. This is a great opportunity to involve the younger generation and get them interested in their natural world. The deadline is Monday; for more information, start here:
“Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.”
Mark Twain
(I needed a chuckle and hope that the above quote gave you one as well!)
(Jama Ecuador) Half of the month of May has passed, and I am just emerging from this mosquito-induced fog. My friend Cesar complained of a tightness in his neck today, and later he mentioned an ache in his foot. I remembered well the first arthritic aches, the ones that began a few days after I finished the mosaic mirror for the ladies’ room at Palo Santo.
The mirror photographed best in the gardens!
Luchi’s mother (Nieve) helped with the task, and she later said, “When you asked if you could paint something, I thought you were just going to paint the mirror a different color!” Nieve helped paint many layers of precise color that created the mosaic effect. Continue reading →
(Jama, Ecuador)—“Dengue or Chikunguya?” — In the evolution of getting well from this mosquito-inflicted illness, I’ve visited the local clinic four times in the past two weeks. Although I have used the ER room before, it has been a different experience this time. First, the clinic was filled with people tormented with physical pain, and second was the extreme empathy the sick ones received from their loved ones as they waited to see the doctor.
This past weekend after a three-day respite, I faced new symptoms. There was a low fever, and muscle pain replaced the bone and joint pain. Weakness returned, my blood pressure was low, and a painful rash dotted my chest. On Sunday night I found no relief from the discomfort, and as I awakened for surely the 100th time, I sat on the edge of the bed and peered out into the darkness. I thought of the people in the world who are fighting daily pain, and that my pain would soon be gone. I thought of Rob Thomas’s song, Her Diamonds, which describes his love and empathy for his wife and her battle with autoimmune pain. I planned to return to the clinic for another round of blood tests, but I did not realize I’d be witnessing many illustrations of “Her Diamonds.” Continue reading →
(Jama Ecuador) – I remain humbled by a tiny insect. How many of you have ever been resting comfortably until the hummming sound of a nearby mosquito suddenly went silent? We wonder where it landed, and if it’s about to take a blood sample! If there’s a mosquito-borne epidemic in your area, you’ll dart for the repellent! Oh, I marvel at the power of a tiny mosquito!
As I entered the clinic yesterday, another friend was leaving.
“Dengue,” Patricia smiled.
Patricia works at the corner grocery store, and I wondered if her coworkers were sweating out the same illness. There seem to be just as many people sick with dengue as they are with Chikungunya.
Most any person in town seems to enjoy saying this new word, Chikungunya. (Repeat After Me: “Chee-Koon-Goon-Yah.”)
As for my recent illness, it’s not dengue, but it might be Chikungunya, though the doctor seemed surprised that I am now free of all symptoms.
“What medications are you taking?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I smiled.
She looked at me as if I’d just told her that I’d cut off my fingers to stop the pain. Continue reading →
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. – William A. Ward
(Ecuador) – Located on the outskirts of Jama, the petite community of ‘Verdum’ is barely noted by those who race to the beach near La Division or to return. The owners of the shrimp farms and their workers ebb and flow throughout the day, but Verdum is a sleepy little hiccup along the route.
I often stop at the little tienda when I walk to town, and if I am going home, that’s my ‘last stop’ to buy something cold to drink or pick up a few odds and ends for the kitchen. Partly hidden beneath an almendra tree, the inconspicuous wooden structure suggests a life of eclectic construction. Half of the tin-roofed building sits in the open, where a walk-up window receives all-day use; the other nestles beneath the almendra tree, where locals sometimes swap stories while sharing bottles of cold cerveza at the end of the day.
(Grandson Justin is hiding!)
What I like most are the salt-of-the-earth people who live here. If Zoila is shelling peas or beans, I smile and pull up a chair and happily reach for a handful of legumes as we discuss the weather or the dust or the mud or what color paint I am wearing. Cars and trucks zoom past, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake; the drivers rarely stop to buy anything from the tienda.
Shelling “Lima” beans here is like being back in a syrupy slow-paced Mississippi of my childhood!
Zoila and her husband Marco have lived in Verdum about 40 years. I asked her how they met, and she said (with a coyish smile) that he worked for her father on his farm in the mountains! Marco now drives a mototaxi and delivers people and cargo throughout the day. He often parks beneath the almendra and waits until someone calls for a driver.
After receiving a call, Marco dashed away faster than I could retrieve my camera!
One day I presented an idea of painting the facade of their little tienda. Continue reading →
The houses in this image share the same power ‘grid.’ Can you spot Casa Loca?
(Jama/Manabi/ Ecuador) We lost power last night, first here in this 7-house circuit and later during the night, the entire area went black. I’m placing my bets that power will be restored to all areas except this one. We seem to be the power company’s step children!
I am elated to announce that today I feel 100 percent well – yee-HA!
Until today, one would have thought I had anorexia, as all possible food options turned my stomach. At one this morning, when I found myself dicing a ripe plantain and simmering it in a bit of water with lemon and cinnamon, I thought, “You’re on your way back to wellness!”
I sat on the deck and peered out into the cloud-filtered moonscape and enjoyed my warm, comforting snack. The simmered plantains are a bit like having fruit cobbler filling without the pastry!
Can you tell that I’m better? I am still weak but can now stand for more than five minutes without feeing faint. I can go up and down the stairs without having to stop and sit. The worst part of the sickness was the extreme fatigue, as if strong G forces had me strapped in a prone position that seemed impossible to break. Just lifting my hands took extreme effort. A bonus was that the sleep was deep, intense and easy. I rolled out of a dream-filled sleep just long enough to take my temperature , check my pulse, drink my water and roll right back into more vivid dreams.
On Saturday I was aware of dangerous high waves that would be assaulting the Pacific Coast, and at times I heard the waves ripping upriver. The deep sleep often trumped my will to look out the window, but several times I pulled free of the fog, retrieved my camera and caught a few unique moments. (Photos won’t upload here.) Before fainting, I dashed back to bed and into instant slumber. The sleep was a gift, thank you dear dengue.
If this was dengue, it was the fastest surgical strike I’ve ever known. As if driving along on cruise control and suddenly you have a blowout. Wham! After the fever peaked at 39.5, each day it was down one degree. As the fever lowered, my symptoms also lessened. I kept waiting for that other shoe to drop, but it never did, grrrrrrracias a-Dios. The weakness had the most endurance of all symptoms, but that’s probably Nature making sure that one doesn’t try to spring back too fast. It’s hard to believe that this time last week I felt 100-percent well with no clue of the approaching train wreck!
I will be going by the clinic sometime today to get my platelets checked and to report my dengue — or whatever it was — and look forward to taking it easy and getting a little stronger each day. “Poco a poco.”
Last night I found myself irritated by the sounds of the pumps and aerators on the shrimp farms. I couldn’t sleep, which is why I cooked the plantains. I chuckled and knew that I was getting better!!
“Yow!”
I think that sometimes we need to experience illness so that we can appreciate wellness.
Thank you all for your beautiful outpouring of love!
Love,
Lees/Z
Grrr! This has taken hours to post! I select ‘Publish’ and it rolls around and goes to a blank page.. if I hit the back button, it’s also a blank page. Here’s the fifth or maybe sixth attempt:(Hee-hee, because the ‘update post’ often loses my work, and the publish keeps going AWOL, I outsmarted it and scheduled it to be published six minutes from now!)
Just a quick postscript before I nod off to sleep (again!) –
It would be very insensitive of me to go to sleep without giving an update, as I don’t want anyone to lose sleep while worrying about me!
The day has gone well, and my temperature is lower, today staying around 38 instead of yesterday’s 39. The aching joints are not so bad now, and my grip is stronger than those first days when I could barely shake the thermometer or hold a drinking glass.
My gift for the day was a young egret fledgling – or perhaps an immature blue heron – that was inspecting the Casa Loca gardens at ground level. Not wearing my contact lenses, I could only detect its fuzzy juvenile appearance as it quickly darted for cover. Since my stamina is still horrid, I did not allow it to lead me astray. Perhaps tomorrow if I’m stronger I’ll do my own garden inspection and see if there’s a new squatter in the neighborhood!
Good night, everyone, and thank you so much for the outpouring of love! I should sleep all night with zero problems, and hope to awaken feeling much much stronger!
Siempre,
Z
My dear friends; as I stated, I am usually unable to reply to comments but can email. Many friends have emailed, and I promised, most all want to do the same thing – come get me. I mentioned in the post that I had emailed Xavier and told him to stay away, but I didn’t add that I told him to keep it quiet or half of Jama would be coming to my rescue. Sometimes the quiet and serenity of one’s own home and bed is the best medicine. There are others on standby, and they know if I start feeling more serious complications, I will let them know. As the saying goes, I might be crazy but I’m not stupid!
I am very comfortable and am feeling pretty good considering that I have dengue. This case is much easier than the first. My temp is much lower, my pulse, which was up a bit one day, is now back to its 50 or so beats per minute.
Believe me, from year to year I keep up with dengue stats and the warnings. I wrote this so that others could understand what it’s like to have dengue. Don’t make me regret that I wrote this post! I am touched by your comments… I’d best publish this before the marines show up on my doorstep!
On the first night, I rolled over in my sleep and was aware of a stiffness in a few of my fingers. “Potatoes. I haven’t been eating lots of potatoes. Why are my joints hurting?”
Years ago I figured out a trigger for arthritis-like pain in my hands; some people are sensitive to foods in the nightshade family, and eliminating potatoes from my diet eliminated the painful joints.
I flexed my fingers; one was especially sensitive, like an embedded and festering thorn had lodged beneath the skin. Could the many hours of holding an extra-large paint brush had caused this pain?
Never having problems going to sleep, I rolled over and quickly resumed my dreams.
My hands still hurt in the morning, and when I took my first step, my ankle protested, “Yow!” The other mocked the first. Uh-oh. I suspected that this bout with joint pain would not be as simple as eliminating potatoes from my diet. As I mentioned in the last post, I had spent time with a friend last week who came down with dengue. Most likely the dreaded dengue virus had climbed aboard via a teeny-weeny mosquito, and if so, it would probably torment me for several weeks before giving up. Continue reading →
