Thursday, November 13, 2014

Thursday (11/13/2014)

Update:

After the snow earlier this week, I waited to leave the house until everything was shoveled and melted since I am still in my wheelchair.  Late Tuesday afternoon everything was good enough for me to get out.  I also planned my time so that I would return after Karen got off work so she could help me get back up the ramp and inside if I needed help.  As I left, I found that my ramp was a bit icy.  I locked the brakes on my wheelchair and I slid all the way down the ramp!  Karen helped me back inside when I got home.

So on Wednesday morning before I tried to go down the ramp, I threw ice melt on it.  I locked the brakes and slid down the ramp again.  This time I also spun in a circle as I went down.  That was a weird feeling.  I don’t have a seat belt or airbag installed on my wheelchair…   My son, Jon, was there to help me back up into the house on Wednesday afternoon.  At one point he was slipping and couldn’t get me up the ramp.  Fortunately my wheels were on a drier spot and I gave the push we needed to get back inside.

This morning I’ll be heading down “Mount Rampmore” one more time in my wheelchair.  My wife told me to call her if I needed help.  My response was, “I won’t know if I need help until after I’ve slid down the ramp and through the handrail and land in the bushes.”  My wife said, “Well, then call me from the bushes and I’ll help get you back to the sidewalk.”  I might have to tie a rope to the handrail so I can pull myself up the ramp and let myself slowly down it as well.  I hate being limited by the weather and being housebound or having to rely upon other people to help me, so if I can find a solution that works, I’ll take it.

Thankfully, I should be walking back inside the house when I come home tonight.  I am supposed to be fitted with my test socket this afternoon.  Oh, I look so forward to walking again!  Then I’ll have a few weeks of adjustments and when we get the test socket tweaked, they’ll take it to make a permanent leg that should work for me for the next year or two. 


Thought for the Day:

“Let’s face it: life is more difficult for some than it is for others.  The playing field is not level.  You may have faced more and greater difficulties in life than I have.  You may have faced fewer.  Your life right now may feel like clear sailing.  Or it may feel like rough waters.  And comparing our lives to others ultimately isn’t that productive.  Life isn’t fair, and we shouldn’t expect it to be.  The sooner we face that reality, the better we are going to be at facing whatever is coming towards us.”  [John Maxwell, Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Learn].



Isn’t that the truth!  Since my hospitalization, I have refused to host a pity party for myself.  My situation is what it is and I do not choose to dwell upon how great others have it while I (pity poor me) suffer.  All that does is drag me down emotionally.  Then not only do I have to work hard to keep up physically, I have to do it while dragging around emotional baggage too.  Why would anyone want to burden themselves with that?

To be honest, I do occasionally play the comparison game.  But I only do it in one direction.  If I am going to compare myself to someone, I look for someone who has it much more difficult than I do.  When I compare my situation to that person’s I realize how fortunate I have it.  “My life could be so much more difficult if ‘that’ had happened to me.”  I find myself grateful and happy.

Thanksgiving Day will mark the anniversary of my hospitalization.  One year since I came within an hour of death. My life isn’t necessarily easy; but I am ALIVE.  I get to keep on experiencing and enjoying each new day.  I have so very much to be thankful for; why should I ruin all that happiness with sour, dour, and gloomy thoughts? 

Whatever you are facing do it with courage and do it head on.  It is what it is.  Accept it.  Change what you can to make your life better; but don’t fret and worry about the stuff you cannot change.  Give that stuff to God.  Either He will change it or He won’t.  Whatever happens and whatever you face is what you get.  Wishing won’t change anything.  Letting it drag you down won’t help your situation either.  Life isn’t fair.  Deal with it.


You’ll be happier when you do.

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