Update:
Many days I cannot mention everything that I do; so let’s just say that
on Thursday I spent most of the day with people.
My son, Jon, and his friend, Nathan, came over in the afternoon to mow my
lawn for me. While I am able to walk on
grass now, I am not up to pushing a mower yet.
So right now the boys are scheduled to come over each week to move for
me. Jon and I raked up about four bags
of leaves too. I wasn’t as fast or
helpful as I use to be—but I helped (some).
Afterward, Jon helped me adjust my shifter on my motorcycle. It ended up that I had to take my highway
pegs off my motorcycle so that I could easily reach the front pedal of the
shifter. I hated to lose them but it
makes my downshifting much easier and I can do it with much more confidence; that’s
worth giving ups the highway pegs in trade.
I found that in raking the leaves I managed to get the soles of my
shoes clogged with mud. Since these are
the only shoes I can wear, I had to clean and scrub them off in the sink so I
wouldn’t keep leaving trails of dried up mud wherever I went. Maybe at some point I’ll have a second pair
of shoes that I can change in and out of for lawn work, etc. Right now the cost of orthotic shoes and
insert is prohibitive. I think next year
I get a new pair of shoes covered by insurance.
Hopefully I can keep the current ones I have for yard work.
I went to the Altoona Police Department for the first weigh-in for the “Biggest
Loser” competition. I don’t really plan
on winning; I just want the additional motivation for strictly following my
diet, eating a bit less food, and being more consistent with my exercise
program. I know that over the next ten
weeks that I’ll lose some weight (which I have plenty to lose) and that will be
great. My wife tells me that taking
insulin makes it very difficult to lose weight.
I’ll do my best to continually drop some weight throughout the ten
weeks. I’ll keep you informed after my
weigh-in on each Thursday.
On Thursday evening I had a training meeting with my Critical Incident
Stress Debriefing team. The last quarter
of 2013 was very quiet and we didn’t do hardly any debriefings. In the first quarter of 2014, we’ve done
seven in our region; that is a lot of work for a volunteer organization. We have chaplains, pastors, firefighters,
police officers, EMS personnel, and dispatchers involved in the group, so that
we always have peer support for those whom we are seeking to help.
I got home and did my floor exercises, then got ready and went
immediately to bed.
Thought for the Day:
I remember when I took the ATV safety course that we were taught “never
ride beyond your skill level.” I recall
thinking, “Well how do you know what your skill level is and if you are riding
beyond it?” A year later when I rolled
my ATV, while I was flying through the air before I landed, I clearly remember
thinking, “I finally know what my skill level is because I rode beyond it!” Fortunately I wasn’t too banged up and I made
it home to the ice, the heating pad, and the ibuprofen.
I heard the same kind of phrase when I took my motorcycle safety
class. I’ve chosen to ride more
conservatively and never test the boundaries of my skill level on my motorcycle
while putting over 2,000 miles on the bike each year.
The same concept applies to walking with my prosthesis. They want me to go slow and increase my
distance and the difficulty of what I do very gradually. Sometimes that process is easy to understand
where the “next step” is and some days it is not. I’ve encountered a number of “days after”
where pain from a complaining muscle or a sore spot has let me know that I’ve
exceeded my limits. Wisdom comes from
remembering the next time I encounter the situation and then not doing it to
myself again.
Most of life is like that isn’t it?
We want our children to stretch and grow; pushing the boundaries of
their strength and endurance. If they
stumble a bit, that’s okay; but we don’t want them to crash and burn. If they do crash, we don’t want them to do it
again; we hope they have learned their lesson.
But sooner or later we have to take the training wheels off and let them
go.
I laughed and joked with another adult the other day about how we rode
bicycles growing up without wearing a helmet and other protective gear. We teased each other about that being nature’s
way of culling the herd. Actually, I don’t
know of anybody I’m acquainted with who has a head injury from a bicycle accident,
a few broken bones, and scrapped knees or hands, yes; but not a head
injury. Our mothers sent us out bravely
into the world: to ride to the grocery store, to the library, to school, to our
friend’s house and everywhere in between to get our exercise and to burn off
some of our energy (now as an adult, I wear a helmet whenever I ride).
If we always stay safely wrapped up in bubble plastic in a tightly controlled
environment so that nothing can touch us; then we are missing out on so many
things in life. We can become paralyzed
by the fear of “maybe and might.” “I
might get hurt if I try that. Maybe this
isn’t a good idea, after all.” I am all
for being wise and appropriately cautious; but we can cross the line into being
neurotic and severely overly cautious without too much difficulty. I understand that most accidents start out as
someone’s brilliant idea of fun; so common sense and the ability to reign in a “good
idea gone bad” is a good thing. But we
need to live and experience life. We
learn by making decisions and then reaping the consequences. Hopefully our bad decisions are few and far
between and the consequences we face are never serious.
I think there is a spiritual parallel to this too. The bible does give us a list of do’s and don’ts;
but there is a whole lot of ground that isn’t specifically covered. Some things we should be able to deduce from
principles. And there are some things
that you might be able to handle that would do me in (and vice versa). Wisdom is needed so that we find our limits
so we “don’t live beyond our skill level.”
What do I mean by that? As an
example, I know a woman who loved to play cards. She played whenever she could and it got to
the point that cards were damaging her life.
She ignored everything else and played if there was a game. She finally decided that she had to stop
playing. As far as I know she never
played cards again. She never condemned
anyone else for playing; but she knew that even an innocent round of spades to
her was like handing a bottle to an alcoholic.
My parents were alcoholics. I
grew up with alcohol in the house and it was always available. Early in high school, I had a few bad experiences
and so I rarely ever drank. By the time
I was in my early 30’s I gave up drinking altogether. There were enough indicators to me that if I
ever started drinking seriously—I would never stop and it would be destructive
for me. The bible doesn’t outright
condemn drinking or prohibit it—but it does give a number of very stern
warnings about the danger of getting drunk.
I figured out early on that for me; one drink would be “living beyond my
skill level.”
James 4:17 “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and
does not do it, to him it is sin.” (NASB)
Proverbs 3:13-15 “Blessed
is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more
profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more
precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.” (NIV)
So before you face serious injury or destruction in your life, I hope that
you find wisdom and follow its advice so that you can avoid personal calamity.
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