Nurturing Monday- Choosing Patience To Heal

“A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.” 

― Henri J.M. Nouwen

The hidden that I hope manifests itself is my ability to be patient with healing. Only three days until I get my old arthritic knee replaced with a titanium one. 

Recovery will be painful and fretful but it has a duration and the end result is less pain and more ability to be stable on my feet. 

  I cleaned the beside table and put some books, the surgical soap I need to shower with twice before I go to the hospital, and my trusty bear who waits better than anyone I know. 

My Manifesto of Patience

May I be at ease with those who want to help me.

May I remember that to allow others to help is recognizing our common humanity.

May I be familiar with pain but willing to cut it short.

May I push to bring movement into my new knee.

May I find joy in little things like, sun streaming in windows, flowers on the front porch, cloud formations, good books, and friends visiting to wish me well.

May I re-kindle the hope each morning that I will succeed.

To go to the overview of My Year of Nurturing click here.

Collect

You never know when you might want to play Debussy

I collect sheet music. I have a license, so to speak, I teach piano. But still, there is more music on my shelves than I could ever teach. 

Peter, sixteen, came with his impish grin. Summer freedom was cracking open a discovery of classical music in his life. One week it was Chopin, the next Debussy. Piano study came late in his life. At fifteen his mother called to tell me about what her son was doing on the piano. Using U-Tube he was watching tutorials and learning music off the screen by rote. She thought he needed lessons. 

   Over the year I introduced him to the basics of note reading, rhythm, and fingering. He was patient but continued learning harder music, which he couldn't sight read, off the computer. Thank goodness for my music collection. He proudly took home the original version of Chopin's Nocturne in Eb and surprised me when he learned the first page and announced reading music was faster than rewinding the video on U-Tube over and over again. 

   Last Wednesday he came with a copy from the library of Arabesque by Debussy. The copy he acquired was too small and the editing, poor. I brought the sheet music from my shelves and he proceeded to tell me how Debussy made him feel. We talked about impressionism and how this movement in France affected art and music. In my humble opinion, he isn't ready to play this difficult music but, he will have a desire to try and oh, what he will learn.

  I am so glad to share my sheet music collection with him.

 I have been writing with the Five Minute Friday group for three years and I really enjoy the talented writers who share themselves each week.

Nurturing My Health- Working With Health Practitioners

Do you ever feel guilty when going to the doctor? 

You know what I mean. They are going to comment on what you eat, what you weigh, and how much you exercise. What does the nurse do first as you go into the treatment room? She weighs you and then takes your blood pressure. Huh? I always comment that those two procedures should be reversed. 

   Seriously, I've been visiting many health practitioners lately as I am a few days away from a knee replacement. Nurturing my health is up in my face. So, I am trying hard to cooperate. Team "me" consists of my surgeon, my GP, my acupuncturist, the many great nurses, and of course my family. They all want the same outcome, a healthy, walking woman who is ready to go on with life. I don't lie to my team but I find I use a narrative that makes me feel good about myself. Yes, I am addicted to sugar. But, I don't smoke or drink alcohol. I eat really good food. (Just too much of that good food.) I want to try a more plant based diet. ( I plan all my meals around what meat is defrosted.) What do I have to say to get a gold star from that team member? I think I need a change of perspective. I am not working for them, they are working for me. I am the responsible party in our relationship. So, to nurture my health I need to do what they say but more importantly, see them as kind loving support while I take the reins. 

To go to the overview of My Year of Nurturing click here.

Comfort

"Get outside. Watch the sunrise. Watch the sunset. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel big or tiny? Because there's something good about feeling both." 

Amy Grant

This year I have derived a great deal of comfort going to my "watching place" to see a sunrise. No matter the difficulties of the day before, a new sunrise brings me back to the awe of creation. 

  All things testify of Him. Where there is darkness there will be light. This cycle of day and night is a routine that I feel grounds my spiraling, out of control mind. It reminds me that I am on a planet, fashioned by divine design. 

 I have been writing with the Five Minute Friday group for three years and I really enjoy the talented writers who share themselves each week.

Nurturing Monday- Nuturing Stamina

Stam·i·na

the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort:

You can do it!

As my knee replacement surgery comes closer I ask more questions. One I am curious about is how will my exercise benefit me during and after surgery? 

I expected my health providers to talk of the importance of my stronger muscles. But, each one of them mentioned the words stamina and energy. That did not occur to me, but I see the truth there. 

It will require stamina and energy to get up out of bed for the first time. It will require stamina and energy to moter around with a walker while I heal. It will require stamina and energy to push through physical therapy to get movement and extension in my new knee. 

My work in the gym for the last three years has prepared me to work harder still. Okay then, I'll nurture as much stamina in the next two weeks as possible. 

To go to the overview of My Year of Nurturing click here.

Play At Art Making

“There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness.” 

― Gelett Burgess

I climb the stairs in anticipation. No phone, front door locked, I hope to enter a world of play. Mugs of brushes, pencils, tubes of paint, and sticks of smooth waxy color call me to choose them to create.

This is my playtime. I get to make a mess. If I choose to leave the mess, I walk away, guilt free. Some days I work with watercolor, others days acrylic paint, or just a pencil to draw, works wonders. Outside the birds sing and cars go by and I am really happy there.

There are paintings from the past, and current canvases, and I even see notes on my wall which give me ideas of paintings in the future. 

Attention to detail has become a new strength. That was work in the past but this work is now play. When duty calls I finally take off my apron, check that every tube of paint has a lid and go downstairs, refreshed and alive.

 I have been writing with the Five Minute Friday group for three years and I really enjoy the talented writers who share themselves each week.

Nurturing Monday- Nurture My Health

             Become An Ally To Your Heart

           July 27- The day I get a right knee replacement
There is less than a month to nurture my body in preparation for this common, but nevertheless mind blowing experience. 

  There is light coming through indicating that my health will actually improve once this surgery heals. 

First item of business is; steady my mind. 

My heart needs my mind to become an ally. Where there is fear, let there be surety that I have prepared. Where there is dread, let there be calm that in the moment I can relax and let go. 

Have you ever called yourself on the phone? I called my number from my husband's phone and left an uplifting message. I plan on playing it again and again to replace negative self talk with a soothing voice of reason. 

I hope to replace many more things in the next months including the knee.

To go to the overview of My Year of Nurturing click here.