New Years Eve

My family spent the evening together. It was a last minute, unplanned, lets go out for a bit. Mama’s idea! We had no plans other than to grandson sit if our daughter had any. Ozra didn’t have any evening plans, and Erika a.k.a Erykah had an event to work at 10:00 p.m. I haven’t been out for New Years Eve or New Years Day for many years beyond our children’s home and most years I just slept midnight away. I didn’t want to leave our 10 year old grandson behind and while I might like to party, I don’t. I chose a spot where De’Mantai Xayvier could enjoy the night with us. And that’s what we did. Erik (Massah), Kharisma Anna Magdalena (Maggie), Erykah (Rikki) (and Dan), Ozra (Kurtis) and Austin.

twinklev-and-demantai-xayvier-howard-new-years-eve

Nana and Grandson

Hard to keep up on our names? I know. Kharisma was named after me. Odd right? When I was growing up everyone told me I had a lot of charisma and I was always being told how charismatic I was. I named her for that. And gave her the K. I’ve always liked the unique side of people, places and things, so a C wouldn’t work. I was still a teenager when she was born. I was 18 when I conceived her and she was born when I was 19. Initially our second daughter was to be named Destynee, but I named her after her daddy instead. Erik –> Erika. Our son was to be Atreyu (Son of All) but I named him after his Dad and great great grandfather. Erik Kurtis –> Kurtis Ozra (Ozie). I gave the name Atreyu to another, later. De’Mantai is known as ‘Tai. And then me, I’m called Twink by my family and close friends, but my toddler childhood nickname that I’m still called often and publicly is Ooie. Pronounced 00 ee. oo-ee baby! Then there’s Twinks, Twinkles, and a few others.

So we gathered together for a bit and was home fairly early by 10:00 p.m. Earlier in the day we went home so I could grab that Cymbalta. Being off it was too much! At first I wanted to call it quits since I hadn’t taken it at all in 2 days because I had forgotten to bring it. I’m like, I got this! Well I didn’t. That crap is the devil. At first I only took the 30 mg, but it didn’t stop the feeling of jumping in and out of myself. It’s a hard experience. So about an hour later I took the other 30 and within 2 hours I was feeling better. So today I continued on the 60 and tomorrow I’ll go back to the 30 and hope for the best. I think about 10 days or so to be off it again. My cold is getting better, still have it, but not like it was. Phew! My shoulder is off and on again. Much better than just on.

Going back home this evening after an extended stay at our kids this week. Stayed a little longer because I wanted to minimize becoming sicker for longer when I have things to get ready for. Plus the toilet is torn apart in our bathroom, pulled the entire toilet from the ground and still needed more parts to try to fix the issue. Have those parts now so the man can work on it when we get home. Other repairs and replacements should only take a couple of months. Yay! Once that’s done, I’ll explain and share how other seemingly “impossible’s” are possible.

And with that, you might understand more clearly the last 3 years.

You’ll either be surprised, disturbed or dumbfounded.

 

In any event,

You might finally get it in it’s entirety. No matter how much I’ve told, left open to interpretation or slipped up on, I’ve never laid it all out for what it’s been.

 

In this New Year, I will.

Happy 2017

twinklev-rsdcrpsfire-new-years-eve-resized

#StrongerThanPain

 

 

 

 

 

Video Diary | YouTube

I started a video diary of sorts last night. Looking into learning voice recognition software, too. Takes a lot out of me to type. My lower body is doing amazing. My range of motion is incredible. I never held back on that. If a doctor said raise your arm, I just did. Squeeze their fingers, I just did. I didn’t show weakness like that even if I was screaming in my head.

Injuries in the same time period as I’ve been healing? Several. How can someone heal and be hurt at the same time? My perception of them isn’t the same as it was before. I’m not sure yet if it’s because I’m trying to learn my body as mine, or if I’m still disconnecting it as being separate from myself. In any event these injuries and pain that ensues from injuries or trauma hasn’t stopped me from my daily routines of strengthening. So what happened to my hands? I got in a dog fight. Ha! My left hand was bit, photo is 3 or 4 days after. My right hand, I’m not sure. Either mirroring left side, or from nerve root issues from my spine. Maybe. My foot is almost always banged up, but no additional swelling really. It’s actually doing really well considering. Without having had MLT, I highly doubt I’d be handling any of this. In fact, I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t have accomplished over half of it. I do know that I had already been trying since summer time to strengthen my bilateral CRPS because my upper body had become so bad. Unrelenting on my right side without any assistance in health care at all.

twinkle-v-rsdcrpsfire-right-hand-right-foot-december-18-2016

December 18, 2016. Right hand, right foot.

twinkle-v-rsdcrpsfire-left-hand-december-18-2016

December 18, 2016. Left hand.

I’m going to stick with holistic, or old ways of reducing pain. Healing and progress in body, mind and spirit and I want to learn from the people who practice it, use it, and I want to be someone who can utilize ancient healing, natural remedies, herbs etc instead of what’s just chaos in western medicine.

Still learning YouTube, uploading. Spend a lot of time reading books or articles on my Kindle. I try to get on Twitter to peek about a couple of times a day, and now I’ll share videos as able, but otherwise not too much else related to online.

Pain, passion, purpose, poetry, politics, philosophy and progress is all that’ll be covered in those video diary shares. Mood dependent of course. 🙂  #StrongerThanPain

Each day I find a little more peace in all of it. Maybe one day I can simply be peaceful.

Maybe.

Transition

waterfireheartTurning pain into her greatest asset was like turning water into wine by the bitter and sweet essence of nature. She waited. Wanting to become numb and no longer feel, but she also knew she would have to feel to understand. She knew that without walking shoes of others that she could never really embrace what they’ve gone through or was heading for. She would have to go there, too.

She began to think that her heterogeneous spirit was equal to an ugly duckling swimming alone in a vast pond of siblings. She wanted to feel everything and nothing at the same time because she was the light and became darkness through the worldly conflicts of being human in the first place.

Transitioning through the elements of water and stepping barefoot through the fire of both pain and passion to uncover a balance of consciousness and self awareness that had become divided long ago.

To find out who she was…

…she would have to meet herself first.

 

 

 

 

All She Wanted

by Twinkle VanFleet
All she wanted to do is live
All she wanted to do is dance
All she wanted to do is give
Trust in something and forgive

All she wanted was to care
All she wanted was to be
All she wanted for is hope
All she prayed for was the chi

All she wanted was to love
All she wanted was to rise
All she wanted was for them
And be cherished in his eyes

 

Twinkle V March 16.16 -2

 

All she needed was to survive
All she wanted was to keep dancing
If not in body;  soul, heart and mind
All she needed was to be worth having

All she knew was a world ahead
All she gave was it’s pain
All she meant was to take it away
In His name, she did pray

Pain, passion, purpose. Deuces High
Stronger Than Pain to stay alive
Ride, die or fly
Simpli(y) justified.

Twinkle VanFleet: ~TVa Sig

©2016 Twinkle VanFleet/Golden Rainbow Poetry/All rights reserved. Copyright Laws and Regulations of the United States http://www.copyright.gov/title17/