"There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall." - Colette

And into the void I crawled where I was,
Soft and comfortable, yet missing warmth
so I reach slowly to touch the edge

Work has been absorbing my time and energy for the past few months.

This is a little experiment tonight as I am trying out the speech recognition program from Windows 7.  So I am writing this by dictating rather than by the using the keyboard.  It is interesting as the computer heard me say keyport instead of keyboard. 

It seems to be trying to teach me to pronounce things more clearly.  It is fascinating to see the words appear as I talk and is saving my fingers a little work.  And the computer thought I was trying to save my fingers a little quirk.  Some of it has been quite amusing.  Something that I said to it translated as councilman lime, and I totally forgot what I had actually said.

And so, now, a little story of my trip to Whole Foods.  I was ambling along with my cane, and stopped to get something out of the freezer case.  I could hear a woman talking, and realized she was talking to me even though my back was to her.  So I turned to see what she wanted.  She preceded to tell me how horrible it was that there was someone who was deaf working there in the store as a clerk.  She was very upset that they would have someone working there who couldn't answer her questions.  She asked for my agreement that it was wrong to have a deaf person working.  I found it ironic that she picked the only person around shopping slowly with a cane.  Unfortunately, I didn't give her the agreement she was looking for.  And, as she walked away, I noted that she was slightly hunched over and limping as she walked.

Later, as I saw her get into her car, I had the thought that I hadn't heard her either.  And perhaps, a compassionate response would have been to say, I am sorry that you didn't get the help you needed.  And, I am pondering the encounter still.

Well, I am tired and ready to slip back into the void.

"I feel akin to the Platypus. An orphan in a family. A swimmer, a recluse. Part bird, part fish, part lizard." - Trevor Dunn

"They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse." --  - Emily Dickinson