NPR - The lost year

We don't lose years in our life, just the memory of the year(s). And over times, even the snippets of the years we do remember get lost or disconnected in our memory. In many instances they're still there, just not memorable except on rare occasions when triggered by some person, event or thing, or in our dreams.

But that's another issue, I talking about a year when all your best laid plans and goal are set aside by the vagaries of life something which internvenes and changes everything, and then invades your psche to remind us of the randomness and fragility of our life, and try as we can to achieve our goals and keep it on track, we lose it. Simply lose it, lost forever in the past, and when we get back to where we're good, it's like a reset button.

I've had such a year and hopefully, as we always through the times and events like this, I'm back to square one again. I didn't collect anything but memories I'd rather not had and now keep, if only to recite to medical professionals the sequence of events which transpired and took the year away. Memories I hope some day to forget, or at least fade into something I think I remember but can't quite be sure anymore.

And the year?

It wasn't a serious sequence of events. Far from it. It was just enough. It started the week of St. Patrick's Day last years when I went to an appointment earlier in the week and to photograph the parade. At the appointment, the professional mentioned she had the flu or something but only recently went to her naturopath for treatments.

That should have been a hint to exit quickly, but I didn't and the parade was cold and rainy, and by the following week it started. My digestive system shutdown, completely. And over the next six months it rarely barely worked for more than a few days over a week or so. On top of that, any food created its own set of problems and issues.

And then it started to improve until around Thanksgiving it crashed again, not to start to get better until January, and since then has slowly improved, and is mostly back to some sense of normal. As irritating and as frustrating as it was, especially when the medical tests found nothing and so they couldn't or wouldn't prescribe anything, it literally wasted a year.

While getting back into a fitness regime after a hiatus for another health issue, I've lost a year of exercising beyond walks. And being in my late 50's that's not good news for it makes the exercise plan now harder just to get back to where I was a year ago and then improve beyond that.

So, a year lost over a stupid intestinal problem. A moment in time lost a year. And while everything else went on as usual, it was a lost year for the problems, the appointments find the non-answers, and lost fitness. We all get these periods in our life, and we're lucky if they're not serious and short. And for many they're not, and I'm grateful.

But it's still a lost year.