Something Else Was On My Mind

I had a post planned about our walks in the Arcata Marsh, an incredibly interesting place even in summer, which is not the optimum season for birdwatching. We're still seeing some new species (to us) there, while enjoying being immersed in the ambiance of our new surroundings. We also appreciate the innovative water treatment aspects of this sanctuary. A perfect melding of beauty and smarts. Okay, I admit to calling some of the bodies of water "poo-poo ponds," but that doesn't make me love it any less.

I will definitely revisit this subject soon (maybe Monday), but I just have to write about an email that Roger and I received Thursday morning. A friend of ours wrote to say that she had had a heart attack over the weekend. She wrote at length about what she had been experiencing on Saturday and Sunday, and how she had misinterpreted the increasing pain as gastric reflux disease. The details of her experience are both alarming and familiar. We all have aches and pains that we dismiss, mischaracterize, or worse-- ignore. She ended up in the emergency room on Monday, and had surgery to put stents into two of her FOUR blocked arteries. She will be having additional surgery next month on the other two arteries.
She reminded us how important it is to take our bodies seriously, to listen when we experience pain, to pay attention to the details. You know I could go on a soapbox here and write about how important it is to have universal health care, how we postpone treatment because of cost, how preventative care should be an absolute basic human right. But that's not the point of this post. The point is to remind you to listen to your body. It gives you information all the time, and your life will very well depend upon it. So, what test have you put off lately? Come on, have it done.

Even in a marsh as beautiful as the Arcata Marsh on a sunny day, and seeing this lovely ctenucha rubroscapus for the first time, I just couldn't stop thinking about it.