This morning at 7 am, as I sat in the Radiology department of the hospital, all prepped for surgery to remove my port, I found myself rehearsing what I was going to say to the surgeon. “Look, it’s not terribly red anymore, and it doesn’t hurt. Can we skip  the surgery?” These were not the words I imagined saying to him in recent weeks, but somehow, in the past few days, my port started to heal.

When the surgeon arrived, I showed him all the creepy photos of my inflamed port from the past 2 months, then revealed the mildly pink little knob on my chest. He looked very carefully,  then backed up and said, “Why don’t we give it another week. If it gets red again, we’ll take it right out.” I wanted to kiss him.

“Great,” I said, as I pulled off my hospital gown, “Sounds good. Can I go now?”

“Call if you have any problems.” And he was gone.

I suddenly felt liberated. I didn’t have to go through the terror of suffocating, sans anesthesia, under the surgical sheets, as the doctor slashed me up to remove the port. By some miracle, I started healing, and it’s good thing because I have ornaments to make!

Every year I knit or sew goofy holiday ornaments for my friends and family. One dear friend tells me every year that I should sell them, and I am always flattered, but have never done it because I make them for fun, not profit. But this year my friend joined forces with another dear friend and they offered to help me get started. They told me to gather a few of my ornaments, and took me to a couple of shops that feature local artists. Thankfully, my friends did all the talking and made a pitch for my work. The reception I got surprised me. The store employees loved my little creatures and encouraged me to contact the owners of the stores. Their positive responses lifted my sagging spirits and I wanted more.

Next, my friends said I needed to put my ornaments on Etsy. I eagerly followed their directions and stumbled through the process, but felt discouraged because there are gazillions of people selling cute, goofy things on Etsy. Oh well.

Three hours later an email from Etsy arrived. I was sure it was an advertisement, or another confirmation of my new account, but I was wrong. IT WAS MY FIRST ORDER!!! The most amazing thing was that it was from a complete stranger,  not my mom or best friend. The sale was from a lady who wanted one of  my sloth ornaments. I had to quickly learn how to process the order and get it shipped to her. Beginner’s luck.

The next day I got two more orders: one for 2 sloths; the other for 2 custom made ornaments: a Siamese cat and a rabbit. And later that day, a friend from my hospital volunteer job, ordered a jellyfish. I  could get used to this, especially since I haven’t  been inspired to work on book #3 lately. It’s not that I don’t want to write, but there’s been so much going on lately, my attention and energy have been going to other things, like sewing ornaments!!!

You can see a few of my little friends on Etsy at:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BenevolentBuddies