This fine-looking 1950 Ford Coupe belongs to my husband, James. It was his father’s. He and his brother restored it to the perfect specimen that it is now. It’s beautiful. We just put insurance and tag on it a few days ago. We built a new garage for it, too.
Two years ago, when the world turned upside down with COVID, all the massage conventions and live classes were canceled. It seems that COVID is going to stay with us for a while longer–maybe forever–but life goes on. I’m vaxxed and boosted. That’s not a guarantee of staying free of COVID, but it makes me feel somewhat better about the risk of getting a severe case.
I ventured out to teach my first live class since 2020 a couple of months ago for the South Carolina Chapter of AMTA. Next week, I’m heading to the World Massage Festival in Cherokee, NC, to teach four classes, hang around the CryoDerm booth when I can, and reconnect with my tribe. It’s good to be on the road again, seeing massage therapists from near and far.
On the other hand, these two years of staying home have been a wonderful blessing. I’m fortunate that I have been working at home since 2015, when I accepted a job with Soothing Touch. They are located in New Mexico, but allowed me to work remotely. I left there after three years and went to work for CryoDerm. CryoDerm is located in Florida, and they also allow me to work from home.
James and I both stay busy. We both always have some kind of project to work on. We do projects together, too, usually involving woodworking. I’m handy with a Dremel and using the torch to burn wood. My husband is the gardener in our family. Sometimes he trusts me to do the watering; that’s brave on his part, since I could kill a silk flower!
It will be good to see the family of hands again (that’s what I’ve always called the Festival). We’ve got another trip planned to meet up with friends in Tennessee in September. Sometime this winter, we’ll head down to see my family in Florida. And next year, hopefully we can return to Ireland. I’ve visited Ireland every year for years, until COVID came along. James made his first trip with me in 2019, and we had no idea we wouldn’t be able to go in 2020, or 2021, or this year. While the numbers have gone down in my home state of North Carolina, they’re rising again in Ireland, so we’ll wait another year and see what happens.
No one knows what the future may hold. We will take it in stride, whatever it is. We’ll enjoy sitting on the porch with our dogs, watching the garden grow, and playing music together in the evenings. And we’ll enjoy our rides through the countryside (the kind with no real destination in mind) in the Ford.
I wish everyone health and happiness. May your blessings be many and your troubles be few.