the rhythm of life goes on

So tonight is my last night sleeping with the leg adductor pillow... 

After wearing it for 3 months I almost can't imagine not using it at night!
I've been swimming a little at a neighbor's pool on the days I don't go to Physical Therapy, and it really seems to make a difference. My recovery progress is going well, stairs are much easier; and I rarely use a cane. I AM getting really impatient to start dancing again but I'll just have to wait a bit longer. I'm happy to take things slowly so healing goes well. I'm not stupid!
Today I even took a much needed day off from exercising - I was just too sore and tired! I worked on preparing for an upcoming appearance of my PRISM Dancers at a downtown arts event in a couple of weeks. This will be my first "performance" since surgery; though I won't be dancing, I'll be drumming and playing cymbals for the others. Besides a couple of dance numbers to live drumming we'll be jamming some Middle Eastern percussion numbers; so we're bringing out a couple of rhythms we haven't played in a while: a 10/8 and a 6/8. I even got my old iMac fired up and whipped out a couple of rhythm tracks for my students to use for percussion practice. It's been too long since I played around with my music.

In the midst of life... 

On a sad note, both horses in my "Let Me Dance" music video have now passed: good old Rising Phoenix was laid to rest this week. What a funny guy he was, very cat-like in his personality, with a cute white heart on the end of his muzzle. I'll miss him very much, he was so gentle; he taught me a lot when I was just beginning to ride. After my first hip replacement, Phoenix was the one I felt safe getting on. Not very long after that he was retired from the teaching arena; and now he's joined the lovely black Velvet, laid to rest out in the meadow at White Buffalo Farm. Rest in peace, Phoenie!

funny Phoenix at White Buffalo

Anthea Kawakib
- End of Post -
~~~~~~~~~~~

It's so great to be "back"... to normal! Or normal enough LOL

I've got several bellydance events coming up in December: a Tribal Odyssey Meet, with students from other areas; my group the PRISM Dancers are hosting (& performing in) a "Bellydance Night" at a local restaurant; we're dancing for a local senior community who are big fans of ours; then we're dancing at First Night downtown on New Year's Eve - weather permitting! Lots of fun stuff :)

And, I'll be in my first horse show this Sunday which is super exciting! I'm so looking forward to it - since it's a schooling show (held at White Buffalo, where I take lessons), my teacher's letting me use any music I want, so I'm using my new single "Let Me Dance" ( by Tribe O). I wrote it while I was recovering from my hip surgery, it's about wanting to dance and ride again. woohoo! It's gonna be fun!

yep, I forgot!

I've officially started horse riding classes again (that is, paid for them); I've been riding a little bit here & there, but both my favorite rides are lame-ish so nothing very spectacular.

Bellydance class is back on track & feels fine, & I hang (almost) upside down afterwards too. Haven't yet gone completely vertical on the inversion table yet, but almost.

Had a big weekend with Tribal Jam X on Saturday, teaching a mini-class, "Intro to Tribal Odyssey" in the afternoon, and dancing with PRISM that evening. Sunday went to DC to see Turku at the Turkish Festival... that was fun even though they only played 4 or 5 songs thanks to earlier tech difficulties that held up the whole afternoon program.
Then going back to the parking garage (under the Customs building) I went through a metal detector, setting if off of course. But the funny thing is I forgot about my metal hip & thought my underwire bra was setting the durn thing off! And there wasn't even any wine involved! I think that shows how great my hip's doing :)

horse riding - now back to class!

Sunday I rode Velvet, instead of Phoenix, to get more of a workout. Phoenix is still off and can't do much more than a few trots. With Velvet I actually participated in class, to the extent that my legs were sore the next day. But not my hip!
If only everything else on my body felt as good as my bionic hip does now!!!

Just a trifle sore...

After four classes this week I'm just a trifle sore, and it's not anything to do with my new hip! I feel like a beginner must feel "the day after"!

After both nights of class I got on my inversion table to stretch my back, but didn't go completely upside down to hang from my ankles. Dr. had already ok'd that, but I just didn't feel like pushing it (or rather, PULLING it).

And back to the farm today for a short ride, God willing. Yay! I'm working on rehabbing my favorite ride, he's been out for almost as long as me with a couple of different issues. We're rehabbing together! I want to do an Intro level test for my first dressage clinic this fall, and also do a musical freestyle for a schooling show. So I have much to work on in the arena! So much fun!

a little bit (more) at a time...

Baby Steps! My favorite horse Phoenix is recovering from lameness but he's sound enough for me to ride since I'm only doing very very gentle stuff. So Sunday I added 5 minutes in the saddle, yesterday another 5... for a total of 20 minutes! My legs are still messy & the right one gets out of place & swings around, but that's nothing new. I might go again tomorrow if the weather holds (we're waiting to see what Hurricane Earl's going to do), and Sunday morning.

Saturday afternoon I'm planning on joining my students onstage for a videotaping of our Tribal Odyssey dancing, just a short set. And next week, classes start again!

12 weeks out!!

Last week I "officially" started a little barn work again where I go riding, just cleaning out a stall or two; taking the wheelbarrow up the ramp to dump it is still iffy but I CAN do it -

THIS week I FINALLY got rid of the damn hip abductor pillow at night! Wow! It was starting to fall apart anyway... I can also get in & out of bed like I used to instead of scooting up from the bottom of the bed.

This is great! My "restrictions" in terms of movement are relaxed, but I know the Drs. said to keep them in mind 6 - 12 months & not do more than one of the positions at a time, that is, not lifting the knee above 90% AND crossing the knee over, etc.

I can walk around really great, am a little stiff when I get up after sitting but that's due a lot to my spinal arthritis. I'm still trying to slow down & be careful when I walk & not get carried away with feeling good. It's still hard not to dance, but I'm not cleared for that yet. I am having fun with "bellydancing" without any hip movements....
I can get on & off my saddle really well, with no pain or discomfort. In fact, sitting on the saddle (which is on a barrel in my house) is absolultely pain-free. Sitting in the saddle has NEVER been pain-free before, so when I discovered that I was totally amazed & happy. I can also walk up & down stairs really well because I've been doing my exercises!

My chakra energy is freaking amazing. All I can say is NEVER underestimate the power of chakra energy; I've seen surprising changes in myself since recovering from the surgery. Now I've added chakra energizing exercises to my routine, and am continuing the chakra isolations I learned from my student Shakti; in fact I did vertical circle isolations today as well. Having the energy flowing better through those chakras has manifested as increased expressiveness of my material interactions with life, so to speak... there is DEFinitely a change here. In fact the energy has increased up through all of the centers, affecting many aspects of living, and how I deal with people. I'm aware that I need to stay on top of this new energy & not let it get crazy; I'm enjoying the new experiences and also enjoying learning firsthand about how the energy goes.