Earlier this week I visited the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum with my camera. I only spent about a half hour there before the rain began to seriously fall, but oh, such beauty everywhere I looked. Happy days indeed!
Happy Days
The season is truly transitioning to fall though I wish I could prolong summer for awhile longer. Despite my wish for more summer I’m so happy and grateful that I can get out with my camera. I feel so much joy and wonder exploring the beauty of nature as she changes colors and sheds what is no longer needed.
The seasons remind me that the flow of time cannot be stopped or delayed and that there is beauty in each season of life.
Seasons of Change
Speaking of seasons, today is my sixty-sixth birthday! This is what sixty-six years looks like on me… (selfie with my phone this morning). Today I am celebrating my sixty-six year old self, my new hip joint that makes walking so much easier, and the time to discover where that lovely joint will take me in years to come.
Yesterday I went back to the Mayo Clinic for my post-surgical checkup. I can hardly believe it’s already been 3 months since surgery. The x-rays of my hip looked great and I’m now clear of all restrictions except avoiding extreme yoga pose postures and doing anything which causes pain! Hmmm… I wonder if cleaning house qualifies?
Life is constant learning
I’ve learned so much through this experience—about myself and my own inner strength, about trusting, allowing, and receiving, and about the transience of experiences. Though I am celebrating this new hip joint which resolves some debilitating pain issues, I’m still experiencing some of the same old stuff that has limited me physically in the past. (There are no silver bullets that magically make everything better!)
I have some re-learning to do with my walking gait to overcome compensating patterns from before surgery. And I am still limited in how much I can walk and do. The hip joint was a big part of recent problems but it was not my only problem. There have been and continue to be other issues that slow me down.
My new “job”
I have decided that my primary “job” for the next year is seeing how much I can improve my strength, stamina, and health. Exercise has never been my favorite thing (I’d much rather curl up with a good book).
But if I want to be able to walk several miles and travel again I need to be able to move without pain and have more strength, vitality and endurance than I do now. I have a great team helping me—physical therapist, chiropractor, physical trainer, pilates, and yoga instructors—and I am blessed with the time and necessary resources to make this my focus.
My Vision Board for the coming months
Planting Seeds of Hope
The future is impossible to predict. I don’t know how much mobility and ease I will regain or how hard this will be, but I’m committed to doing everything I can to see how much I can regain. I am planting seeds of hope and watering them with intention and practice. It would be so wonderful to feel good moving my body and to be able to travel with ease but time will tell what the outcome will be..
As the lyrics to Nimo’s Planting Seeds reads, “Whatever grows will grow, whatever dies will die, whatever works will work, whatever flies will fly, whatever fails will fail, what’s meant to soar will soar. I am planting seeds, nothing more.”— Tojo-pa Turner
Every day I am living happy days filled with joy and gratitude. In this moment I am happy as I am and I am happy to commit to working hard to see how much mobility and strength I can regain. If it turns out that I’m not able to achieve greater mobility and vitality I will know that I gave it my best effort and continue to feel grateful for all I do have in my life and all I am able to do.
What seeds are you planting in your life?
May you walk in beauty.
0 Comments