Good Days Ahead!

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

Peace to All Who Enter Here

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.
And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

I once had the privilege of hearing the Dalai Lama speak, and what struck me about him most of all was his humility. Can you imagine him sending a mean tweet or an angry Facebook message? Would he lean on his horn in a traffic jam or flip somebody off in a parking lot? Is it his kindness that brings him peace?

In this line of work, we receive many comments on what we do, what we say and how we look. Many of them are kind and heartwarming and really lift the spirits. Others...not so much. My friend Renita reminded me today that hurt people are the ones who hurt other people. So, to all of you who are having a really bad day, I am sending positive vibes and a virtual hug. Peace.

Week Three of the Great Foot Fix

Last night I went to the company Christmas party. Normally one stands around at these things, glass in hand, mingling, but I'm scooter-bound and that made me a roadblock in a narrow room, so I chose to sit, with my leg elevated on the seat of the scooter. Which also made me a roadblock in a narrow room. People are just not meant to be shaped like a T-square.

Back home, I took a painkiller and got on the computer. I hadn't realized before last night how goofy those things make me. A friend shared with me a YouTube clip of a blooper that featured Kevin Stanfield and me (see it here if it interests you, but be aware that it's about three minutes in and you may have to pass by some stuff that's mildly objectionable first  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=604D5GvnnT4) and it struck me as so funny that I decided to share it with a few family members. What I did instead, was message it to a whole bunch of people. I am not even sure how I did it. I immediately got a message back from a friend who said she thought my Facebook page had been hacked.  I think I'm ready to graduate to Tylenol, if only to save my friends from  the fuzzy texts.

But that brings me to my point. You simply don't realize how challenging life is for people who are mobility impaired until it happens to you. Here is a list of things I never knew:

1. If I CAN drop a thing on the floor, I will.
2. If, after I drop it, it CAN roll under furniture, into tiny corners or behind the toilet, it will.
3. Putting your pants on while standing on just one leg is not possible. Scooting into them while seated on the bed is undignified.
4. Vehicles on wheels roll, and sometimes role out from under you.
5. If I set my phone down and roll away from it, it will ALWAYS ring. Three rings are not enough time to get to it. And if I'm in a hurry to answer it before it goes to voicemail, the phone will not recognize my thumbprint, nor will I remember my unlocking code.
6. I am not much of a dancer, but I've developed a beautiful one-legged pirouette.
7. And perhaps the most surprising of all, I find I am not good at sitting still and reading a book for more than, say, ten minutes. So those days when I dream of a vacation where I do nothing but sit on a beach with a novel? Probably not the vacation for me.

I've also learned that I have wonderful friends and family who are always there to step up and help, and to make me smile and feel loved. That is perhaps the most valuable lesson of all.

Heavy Lifting and Marriage

Last night I spent a couple of hours by myself for the first time since my foot surgery a little more than a week ago while Cliff went to watch a hockey game. I figured I had things under control. I sat for an hour watching Netflix, but then realized it was past supper time and I was hungry. So I rolled myself into the kitchen to rustle something up.

My house is historic and has many distinctive and charming features -- another way to read that is "old, with uneven floor heights, lots of stairs, more doorways than necessary and tight spaces." It doesn't have that "open concept" one hears so much about these days. It's something of a challenge and in all of the back and forth I tend to run over the toes on my good foot. I did that a couple of times.

Then I found some leftover chili in the fridge, but had trouble getting a bowl down from the cupboard because I couldn't maneuver the scooter close enough to reach it easily, and the cupboard door swings the wrong way. But I worked that out. I put my chili on the stove to open the microwave, and the top panel on the microwave fell off (why it happened at that moment I have no idea -- probably a test), knocking my bowl of chili onto the floor, splattering my legs, my scooter, the cupboards, etc. I wheeled away from that mess and reached for the paper towels and somehow managed to also knock them onto the floor. I could reach down far enough to retrieve the bowl, the paper towels and the spoon, but I couldn't quite reach the spilled food. That wasn't a big problem because while my back was turned the dogs swooped in and before I could stop them, did a pretty good job of mopping things up. I suspect I will pay for that later.

But you know who will really pay? Cliff, because he's going to have a hard time leaving my side again for the next month. "For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health," and in foot surgery.