February and Mortality

So February turned out to be an interesting month for me. First of all, I've gotten back into archery. I last indulged in that sport at high school - aside from owning an English longbow that was used in the movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" that I only rarely made use of - and now I appear to have the bug... I have a recurve and a longbow (the one used in that Cadillac ad), and I recently qualified to compete in SCA archery events.

In fact, the same day I qualified, I managed to encounter the second half of this entry's title - my own mortality. No, I didn't have a William Rufus-esque adventure with the arrows, but I did receive a wound. At some point in the days prior to this I walked barefoot wher I shouldn't have, and an opportunistic infection found its way into my system, taking up residence in my right leg. As a result, on that sunday evening I found myself being admitted to hospital with my leg twice its normal size, blistered, angry and oozing. I'm told a few more hours and I might have been looking at a career as a pirate...

Luckily, the saws were not brought out, but I ended up spending three days in hospital with IV antibiotics. This is the best thing that has happened to me in years, though, because it brought to light a few things that needed to be taken care of, that could easily have killed me at any time.

The high blood pressure I sort of knew about... well, okay, I knew about it and deliberately avoided medical facilities for fear they'd put me on blood-pressure medication. Well, now I am on the stuff, but not having any side-effects, and my BP is more or less normal for what may be the first time in my life.

The diabetes, well, I was afraid they might find something like that, but my blood sugar isn't horribly high, and I'm told that if I lose the weight, I should be able to say goodbye to the DB and BP meds altogether. And I am losing the weight, too - six pounds in hospital, and another 14 since I came home, and I look and feel better than I have for several years.

So, just like initiation and immersion into the Mysteries, I have faced my fears and come away from the experience renewed and re-invigorated. I am firmly on a path to becoming healthy, which should ensure I'll be around to write, podcast and generally annoy the Pagan community for many years to come. I guess I wasn't paying attention to the messages from my Ancestors and Gods, as usual, so they literally knocked my feet out from under me to make me pay attention.

Now I just need to get Visceral Magick finished and on the bookshelves, before they whack me again...