Grateful.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Nine years ago this evening, I couldn't even see the sunset. I'd been transferred from the ER to a room on the opposite side of the building, after having nearly died. That was only the first time. It happened again two weeks later, with many smaller episodes repeatedly over the ensuing years. But once you've been hospitalized three times in two cities and they can't find what's killing you, you learn to manage it yourself, and pray a lot.

Fortunately, I'm still alive, and was able to see the sunset in real time tonight. These are my Virginia Woolf years: "I am glad to be alive, and sorry for the dead." Those experiences changed my relationship with the idea of death drastically [because what else could it do when you don't know whether you'll be alive from one moment to the next?] . . . but it also changed my relationship with life itself just as drastically. However terrible things get, however awful the outside world, how intractable my own levels of physical pain, the one overriding thread that weaves through all my days now is one of gratitude. No, you wouldn't know it by how I bitch and moan on here, but that's just a space to vent, a safety valve.

But whatever else, I am grateful, we are grateful, for the life we have here together. 

Not, of course, that it lessens the immediate obstacles in the slightest. I still have to keep pushing, all the time. And it's all that much harder when this kind of pain and disease progression just make me slower, and keep putting me further and further behind every day. Clearly the rest of the year is going to be very hard. And I've still got to bring in a lot more sales through the end of the year. It's been hellishly expensive already, and we've also got some other big-ticket things to take care of between now and then, and that only happens if we make some sales now. And we can still use help with shares, testimonials, wishlist stuff, etc. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [Too many obligations, too many folks in need; I can't justify spending money on them right now, but I'd really love to be able to get the rest of the towels and liquid soaps];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to end this year on a better footing than the last two, a year that, so far, has been very grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.