Having a cochlear implant is a big, momentous, scary, exhilarating, and exhausting experience. Six months in, my life transformed. I’m bird watching and can identify the White-Eyed Vireo, Summer Tanager, Cardinal, Titmouse, Red-eyed Vireo and more by sound alone. We sit 10’ from friends and have lunch and I understand what they’re saying. I can discern a vehicle coming down the hill vs. going up the hill. I understand my grandchildren on FaceTime and the whole family on Zoom. My taste buds have almost returned to normal. Somehow with all of those wonders, I feel a little like an pause or end is coming for this Journal. I wish I could post huge exciting changes every day, there aren’t any. Having a CI is a wonder, a miracle for me, period. I am so lucky.

We are still living in our RV here in the same state park, waiting - like so many others - for a vaccine or the virus to hit critical mass and disappear. I dislike uncertainty and the virus has offered a huge challenge for my meditation practice to managing the uncertainty and my impatience to get on with life. Thank goodness for the 8-week course we started during the early Covid time! I would likely be all kinds of crazy without it. There are good things about being in one place and forced to slow down. I hope each and all of you survive and thrive beyond Covid-10.