A few weeks since my last post: blame Christmas madness, but still time to step into the garden each day to find a focus. It is a calming process.
Earlier in my chemo cycles, the capecitabine pills decided to go for my feet, causing them to become red and inflamed, leading to the unpleasantness and pain of peeling skin. As the worst of this has passed now, my recent wanderings around the winter garden have brought me face to face with bark! Getting up close to the trees in a way that I have not done before, I notice the beauty of the texture of bark, it's subtle colours and the micro life forms that exist within it or on it.
The peeling outer layer of a silver birch reminded me of how my feet had been, some months ago. They suffered, but with daily creaming treatment and a break between cycles, they have gradually recovered, just as the tree will, revealing it's new layer underneath
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The garden again reflects aspects of the process we are all going through, in whatever form, and helps to bring tranquility with its simple cycles of beauty.
