Stress Reduction and the Lazy Wench

The phone call all Lazy Wenches dread is the one from the aging parent. "I have to go to the hospital." I got that call in July and spent the next week sitting in a hospital room, keeping my mother, The Senior Wench, company. I spent a lot of that time stitching.

A complicated pattern that called for concentration was my choice. I know some Wenches would want something soothing and mindless, but I know the way my brain works and I wanted distraction more than anything else. I brought a reproduction sampler I am working on. I had to frog a lot, but I also finished two bands and half of a third. For the staff comments on my stitching, see The Lazy Wench Meets the Public.

Stitching in the hospital has advantages and disadvantages. You have something to do, but you have to be portable. I couldn't spread out with floss and charts scattered thither and yon, I had to keep my work out of the way of the doctors and nurses that bustled in and out, doing sometimes painful things to my mother. I did get light headed once and broke into a sweat another time. I did not use my sampler to mop my brow. Each day, I had to quit around sundown, as the light in the rooms is low, to encourage calm and rest.

Mom is heading home, with a new list of medications to take and strong words of warning about ignoring symptoms. Her condition is chronic, not acute. She and I both have had quite a scare and are not planning on waiting before we take risks, go on vacations or do things on that 'someday' list. We've both been reminded that life is just too short.

I'll be heading home and sorting through my stash. It there are projects in there that I feel indifferent about, you just might want to go digging through my trash next week. I embroider because I like it; if a project doesn't make me happy, I see no reason to continue or start work on it.

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