I was gratified to be able to answer promptly.  I said, “I don’t know.”  Mark Twain

There’s been an out-break of “I don’t know’s” around here lately.

My contacts?  If you’ve been keeping up with my blogs – I am still trying to wear eye contacts as well as figure out which ones work and feel the best.  I was supposed to see the eye doctor last week, but had to reschedule.  I have several lenses for both eyes right now that I keep switching out.  Which ones are working best?  Golly – I don’t know.

My trip to the grocery store this past weekend was, as always, amusing.  I can be an adventuresome cook.  Where we live it seems that people mostly eat a meat and potato diet around here and do not venture much farther than that.  The cashier at the grocery store had to pause a minute when she grabbed my bags of turnips and parsnips.  She questioned me, “Are these parsnips and these turnips?”  I cheerfully told her she was correct.  “I just learned those last week!” she responded gleefully.  I have purchased baby Bok choy, rainbow chard, kale, and other mysterious green things and find it amusing when the cashier takes a ‘I don’t know what this is’ look at what I am purchasing and has to ask me what the heck it is.  The recent cashier did impress me when she also got to ask, “Is this flat leaf parsley or cilantro?”

I don’t know, I don’t care, and it doesn’t make any difference.  Albert Einstein

Ted has been a man of medical mysteries lately.  For a couple of months, he has been having random outbreaks of intense itching with accompanying hives or edematous skin.  There is no cream or pill that makes it stop.  It comes and goes on its own whim.  We have been trying to connect a food or substance to the outbreaks to identify the culprit.  But – we just don’t know!  I’ve quizzed him several times when he shows me his red inflamed skin, “Do you think you’re allergic to garlic?  Maybe it’s chocolate?  Eggs?  What did you eat last night?”  His response is always the same, “I don’t know.”  And then there was his left arm pain with our middle-of-the-night run to the ER.  All his test results for that led us to another “I don’t know.”

The old forget, the young don’t know.  German proverb

I visited the hand surgeon today.  Even with all the MRI pictures that were taken, he still can’t tell what kind of mass is growing in my hand.  It was just another “I don’t know” to add to the day!  It’s either some kind of tumor in the muscle or some kind of thing he mentioned that was actually in the nerve fiber that branches through that part of my hand.  He won’t know until he actually sees it.

I suppose I could make myself crazy searching for answers to all the things I don’t know.  But that’s not me.  That would be wasted energy.  I have found that answers usually come in there own time and at the best time.  Besides – there is still a lot that I DO know:

I have an eye doctor appointment this week.  (I’ll get this contact fiasco figured out yet!)

Roasted parsnips, turnips, and carrots with a touch of thyme makes a lovely soup!

Ted got a new medication for his itchy skin and will be a good husband by following-up with a cardiac doctor.

I am having hand surgery on Nov. 15th – gonna cut that mystery mass right out of my hand!

So I know enough for now to get by.  Besides, don’t they say that ‘ignorance is bliss?’  How boring would life be to know everything!  So, here’s to someday having perfectly corrected vision, and exotic delicious recipes, calm skin and a healthy heart for Ted, and getting the alien out of my hand!  Sounds like I have an adventure ahead of me!

I pray you get the answers you need and patience for those things that … ya just don’t know.

just Laurel

I like to reminisce with people I don’t know.  Stephen Wright