Need a New Metaphor

I keep talking about when things might turn the corner. I don’t expect things to change dramatically, just want to see some progress. Ok, maybe I was hoping for dramatic improvement quickly. That ship sailed. As did the “at least things won’t get worse” ship. (Trying out a nautical metaphor)

Radiation and chemo ended a week ago. By last Friday, felt like a corner was somewhere nearby.  Then the bastard took off on me. Sprinted five miles up river (serpentine route), and hid in a poorly designed hotel. And then buried itself in an LSD trip from the 70’s. Blanket apology to anyone I have talked to from last Friday through yesterday-I have been really out of it. I meant all the nice things I might have said, but none of the rest.  

So, every time I talk about that elusive corner, it changes. So perhaps my problem is just finding a better metaphor.

The thing is, corner pieces has always been my metaphor. When my oldest Kaileigh was little, we would do puzzles together. We would start with the corner pieces and try to build from there. It felt like a succinct life philosophy- find the corner pieces and then try to fill in the rest.

My very first “blog” was a series of essays written on MacWord from about 1993 to 1997, chronicling the joys and absurdities of part-time single parenting. I think I have one hard copy somewhere - possibly still with the tear-off printer thingy attached.

My second attempt was my actual blog cornerpieces.blogspot.com. That one spanned the twin period, from 2005 ish till a year or two ago.

This is my third iteration, and certainly not the last. I actually think I’ve found my corner pieces. Jill is one. The twins are one. Family and friends are another. And I can say without a doubt that Kaileigh was the very first one I found. She is an amazing, loving, funny, brilliant, kind person who is finding her place in the world and having amazing adventures. She just spent six months traveling South America solo, and is gearing up for new adventures to come. She returned to Austin this week and came over last night. Though my corner to turn had been elusive, I can see it now. My corner piece brought back my corner. Still may take some time to navigate the turn, but it finally feels like it is possible.

So screw it, I’m keeping the corner metaphor. And for the record, I do believe that there can be more than four corner pieces. My puzzle, if ever completely assembled, may very well be an octagonal cylinder, which would have, well, more than four.