Queen Creek: An Update From Arizona

Pockmarks or Polka Dots?

My three-year-old niece sits beside me, looking at my face. She touches my left cheek, and in her adorable little sing-songy voice she exclaims: “You have polka dots!”

In a split second, many thoughts come to me:

How, in my early 20s, my skin was so bad that I often did not want to get out of bed or leave the house. (I did manage to get up, though. And go to work. And live my life. And dream my dreams — regardless of how I felt. Perhaps I dreamed even harder because of it.)

How I grew up comparing myself with my exceptionally beautiful sisters: both with symmetrical feminine features — one with the largest hazel eyes and longest natural lashes you’ve seen; the other, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty who spent years modeling and pursuing acting in Hollywood.

How, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate myself. I’ve stopped comparing. I may not be a conventional beauty, but I’m beautiful in my own way. And while I’ve certainly spent time hating my scars (amongst other things!), today I see them as a unique physical expression of what I’ve lived through: of my strength, my courage to carry on, of the challenges I’ve faced and survived — and ultimately of how I’ve learned to thrive.

So when my niece declares, “You have polka dots!” — I laugh! 

And as she touches my cheek, I think it’s the cutest innocent observation. I love the renaming of the thing: Instead of pockmarks, I have polka dots; thank you very much! I have polka dots and I’m proud.

Also, I think we all have our own sorts of polka dots. But maybe they aren’t always visible.

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An Update from Arizona

I just arrived back in Seattle on Friday. But for three weeks I was with family down in Queen Creek, Arizona, where temperatures had already hit triple digits! And I LOVED it. I’m like a lizard. I enjoy baking on a hot rock under the sun. (Though I haven’t learned to regenerate limbs and am thankful this has not been put to the test!)

There’s a pool out back at my parents’ place, so — you best believe — I took full advantage of it.

I was pretty busy working from my temporary home in Queen Creek those three weeks. In the home that houses my aging parents, my brother, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, my niece, and my nephew. In light of this ongoing pervasive coronavirus pandemic, it was difficult, deciding whether or not to infiltrate that bubble.

SIDE NOTE ON 'BUBBLE': It's a quarantine-related term used by 'Kiwis'! (Which Colin Mairs explained so succinctly in our recent collab: A Scotland Guide On Lockdown Down Under in New Zealand!)

For now I won’t delve into the details on what prompted me to hop a flight to visit immune-compromised family during a pandemic. But, I’m glad I made the decision I did. I loved sharing the time together with them. And now, as I’m getting reacclimated to life back in the Pacific Northwest, here are a few highlights from the last weeks in Arizona.

Yoga! Yoga! Yoga!

Ever since starting my first-ever 30-day yoga challenge in March (which got me on TV!), I’ve been YOGA BANANAS! Once I realized we’d all be hunkering down for a while, I thought yoga would be the perfect medicine for a quarantined body and soul. And it has been! It’s given me a routine. It promotes mental and physical well-being. And it legitimizes my wardrobe choices: comfy yoga pants are my new norm!

Immediately after finishing the first 30-day challenge, I started the second one. And now I’m on the third! This means — as of publishing this post today — I’m in my twelfth week and have got 80 consecutive days of daily yoga under my yoga mat! (Whoop whoop!)

When we encounter big environmental changes, it’s easy for routines to fly out the window. But when I arrived in Phoenix last month, I wasn’t about to ruin my flow! Instead, I continued my downward dog down in the desert. I even founded a mini yoga club (which flourished, albeit temporarily)! And, when I say mini, I mean mini. (The club basically comprised my nieces, my nephew, and myself.)

A Socially Distanced Walk With a Friend

Dusanka and I go WAY back! We ran cross-country together in high school under the caring eye of “run-like-a-bird” Felix — our coach, whom we were very fond of. (He used to always tell us to “run like a bird,” which I still find a bit puzzling. I suppose he was referring to road runners?)

SIDE NOTE: You may remember Dusanka from a previous post: "I Found an Old Love Letter (And it's too good not to share!)." :) Ah, we were so young and innocent then!

So when Dusanka heard that I was back in the Phoenix area, she drove to our side of the valley to meet up! We went for a socially distanced walk and we took pictures! (Yay!)

Family Time

The biggest highlight of the three weeks, though, was simply spending time with family. We crack each other up on the regular! (Although admittedly, much of the time it’s just me cracking myself up.)

Now that I’m back in Washington State, I’m glad to be home — even if it means I can no longer bake under the sun like a lizard. This weather will take some getting used to for me. But I’ll survive.

Heck, I think I’ll even thrive. I hope you will too!