Sunday, July 12, 2009

BLESSING THE ORDINARY

I just got out of a wonderful soapy shower. Oh how I enjoyed it. And yes, I stood there in the water saying a blessing for the experience. Nuts? Heck, you guys shower or bathe regularly, I hope. Me? I can count the showers I have had in the last three months on one hand. (Tomorrow the count will take two hands.)

Not that I sat around for three months growing moss on my body -- I took daily bird baths, but I have to tell you, a bird bath (with a sponge and a sink) is no substitute of a long, soapy shower.

And, I have driven twice to the synagogue in Venice, an hour each way. It's still a bit of a push, but it is super great to be once again sitting in the driver's seat of my beloved vehicle, Harriet the Chariot, listening to my favorite shows on XM radio. On my first trip, I was listening to my fav, the Gayle King Show, and she was being welcomed back from somewhere. If I weren't so seriously gripping the wheel and using my hands for cruise control variations in speed, I truly wanted to call in and have her welcome me back. Three months - wonder if she missed me as a listener?

Walking with one crutch works fine and as I wrote earlier - it gives me an ant's eye view of the ground: tiny little flower buds that usually go unnoticed, ants, lizards, snail's silvery tracks. It is a micro view of nature. I guess I am guilty of viewing the macro aspect of nature - which probably contributed to my accident, along with my full figured mastiff, Ms Ruby.

I am still amazed that after 58 years of rather successful walking, and three months of not walking, that it is a challenge to put one foot successfully in front of another. I guess walking is not like riding a bicycle -- once to take a break (pun, sorry) for a break, it is not so easy getting up and at 'em. This only makes me more grateful that I can stand, and put one foot in front of the other, and walk, even if it is sort of awkward. I can walk and I count this as a blessing.

Think of all the things, the ordinary, routine and mundane things that we do in our daily lives: lifting a spoon to our mouths with food, having food to put on our spoon, brushing our teeth, having teeth to brush, walking and having legs with which to walk, driving and having a car with which to drive.

As we love those Awe Moments, those macro moments of grandeur, let us never forget to bless all of the tiny little things that we often take forgranted that make our lives so beautifully liveable.

May you be blessed with health and peace in your days.

2 comments:

kayak woman said...

Congratulations on walking, showering, and driving!

I walk a *lot* and always took it for granted until my dad (age 87) fell on his daily hike to the post office and smashed his pelvis. After surviving two major reconstructive surgeries, the rehab was just overwhelming and he declined and died within a month.

Terrifying how life can change so dramatically with one mis-step.

Good luck on your continued recovery!

kayak woman said...

Congratulations on walking, showering, and driving!

I walk a *lot* and always took it for granted until my dad (age 87) fell on his daily hike to the post office and smashed his pelvis. After surviving two major reconstructive surgeries, the rehab was just overwhelming and he declined and died within a month.

Terrifying how life can change so dramatically with one mis-step.

Good luck on your continued recovery!