Amazing

Something struck me last night, while I was doing the "medicinal herb" thing in the back yard under the stars... Hey, those things taste the way they taste... A little moonlight, to paraphrase Julie Andrews, makes the medicine go down. In the most delightful way.

But the thought that came to me was...

It's a damned strange existence we have, in the Here and Now.

But more than anything else, it's what the IT people would call "feature-rich." Our experience is full of the most amazing things, the most amazing experiences.

Yeah, my huge-air-quotes "walking," by comparison to what by-foot-locomotion used to be, ain't much to write home about. But dang, it is full of the most amazing sensations. (When I'm lucky, one of them isn't a face-plant on the floor. But, having hit the floor a few times, I can tell you now, that too would be quite an amazing sensation...)

So, amazing sensations, that have nothing to do with The Disease...

The sound of the birds. And the sounds of the people working on the house across the street.

My sixteen-year-old cat, "talking" to me, sometimes lying on me, sometimes wanting to be rubbed. The young squirrel who doesn't really want anything to do with me, but is clearly enjoying life running through the tree with soon-to-be-ripe fruit, chattering away as it scurries through the trees and across the top of the fence.

Shanghainese Xiaolongbao, crafted by an artisan, with the right kind of black vinegar.

Taiwanese tea, prepared and poured by an expert.

The moon. And its other "friends" in the night sky, the stars and planets and (again, when you're lucky) a comet.

The sun! And the wind, and the rain.

The smell of freshly-planted tomatoes.

And each of the changes we M.S.ers are going through, no matter what it is, is itself full of amazing sensations.

And the journey itself, from The Diagnosis to today, is rich with amazing sensations, experiences, even enlightenments.

Would I like to be able to not-air-quotes just-plain-WALK again? Sure, that would definitely make things easier. But walking or not walking, the experience is still the experience.

And it is... amazing.