Brighter Days: New Year

Thankful list #32. Thank you to an amazing Chinese Medicine Practitioner who brought to an end a four day migraine and gave me back my health, my ability to interact with the world, my time and my life really. With a migraine you are here but you don't want to be. Continual and extreme pain that doesn't let up and where it's a struggle just to be. Thank you God for blessing Ching Long Yang at 'A+ Chinese Medicine' with the gift of healing.

New Years Day...As I cautiously get out of bed wondering if my head will continue throbbing on day five, I am relieved to feel almost normal again. I wake very early by a phone call from my dad who is in hospital who wants to chat about some news he's just seen on TV. All good - I'm so happy to hear him sound like my Dad.

Thankful list #33. My Dad is getting better.

Once I'm awake there is no chance I want to slip back to sleep again knowing that this action is a definite migraine trigger (now that's just downright unfair don't you think lol). So I fight off the yawns and my eyes wanting to close and just get up. Wait a minute...I remember this feeling....this is what it's like to be the first one out of bed. It's really quite peaceful at 6:30am. I would really like this to be the new norm. And that will be a game changer for me as my neurologist and massage therapist tell me to get very regular sleep - go to bed early and up early with 8 hours only per night. OK that's it then, my New Years Resolution - PRIORITISE SLEEP.

Sitting outside in my parent's tranquil garden, listening to the birds and feeling the warm sun and gentle breeze - this is the perfect time to pray and be thankful. I spend quite a long time talking to Jesus. Now if I can start as I mean to go on, then 2016 is going to be a cracker of a year.

After shower and some breaky I sit for a while, taking my time, gingerly going about my day. With a migraine 'hangover' you really don't want to overdo anything. As I attempt to go for a walk along the river I'm confronted with a hungry, crying relentless cat, a cheeky willy wagtail, three clever cockatoos, four mischievous mudlarks, two doting doves, two confident crows and a family of magpies that know my mum & dad as friends and that you can almost hand feed and literally thousands of sparrows! It's like 'Old Mc Donald's Farm' here and I guess I'm on feeding duty this morning? Really.... I'm in my element.