cheer-me-ups

I haven't overcome that fear of pain yet, so a TMJ appt. today was pretty much hell. I really tried, I promise, but when my jaw muscles were already inflamed, opening my mouth as wide as I could was torture. Thanks to the good Lord, Doc says the pain is still muscle inflammation - not a bone issue. And since both a systemic yeast overgrowth and yeast die-off cause all kinds of muscle discomfort, Johnny and I believe my TMJ will go bye-bye along with the unhealthy yeast!

After the trauma, I needed refuge in a large bookstore (B & N). What cheered me up?

-Johnny was there.
-We purchased hot beverages: cappuccino (Johnny) and Tazo Calm tea (me).
-I heard a favorite song by Billy Bragg & Wilco overhead.
-Then Radiohead.
-We browsed magazines.
-Radiohead kept playing ~ In Rainbows.
-I scoured a sale table and snagged a hardback copy of The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman for $3.98!
-Johnny selected a book for a friend.
-I heard Radiohead's "All I Need" overhead.
-I also snagged Lacy Crochet (not on sale).
I predict this year will be one of learning for me. Crochet and guitar lessons for starters.
-We listened to Over the Rhine songs while driving back home: "Trouble", "I'm on a Roll", and "If a Song Could Be President", mainly.
We'll see OTR in concert next week - I can't wait.
-The March 2008 issue of dwell was waiting our mailbox.
-All this time, I kept thinking of a poem I read at the dentist's office - "Sandalwood" by Robert A. Fink. The poem is in IMAGE, issue #56.
Here's a teaser:

"Being one born from human stock,
the coming together of desire and will,
certainly flesh, I would not have found

such a word for this aroma, nor votive
for the candle on my writing table,

the small flame a sleeping infant's nursing
lips and mouth, a soft pronouncement.

And even though I lit this candle
for its promise of therapy, scent and light
against darkness, I know, of course,

that sandalwood is not the Word
the apostle John found on the Island

of Patmos, an exile of quiet, of listening-
what I seek each morning in the almost dark," ....
[buy this issue of IMAGE - you gotta read the whole poem + the entire issue]

Basically, good art is my kind of therapy.