Thursday, March 12, 2015

WE WILL SURVIVE!!

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I have learned a lot in the last four weeks.
For twenty years I have been living in various levels of pain but have been afraid to do anything about it. I rejoiced when the doctors said “No you aren’t ready for surgery yet.” I had to get worse before I got better as the saying goes.  The perfect answer for the proverbial  procrastinator.

 But everyone tells me that once I do have knee replacement surgery I will feel so much better. Well- I don’t.

I think one of the attributes I need and don’t have enough of right now is patience.
I know that with work and time the pain will go away and I will be able to do the things I use to do more or less. Crawling on the ground to do gardening, sandwiching quilts or scrubbing brick floors will have to find different ways of being accomplished
To cheer myself up I looked up some quotes on patience. My favorites were….

"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."
Arnold H. Glasow
"It is easiesr to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience."
Julius Caesar

"Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears."
Barbara Johnson

"The more patient we are,
the more understanding we become."
William Arthur Ward, Truths For Living

"Patience is the companion of wisdom."
Saint Augustine

"Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in one ahead."
Bill Mcglashen
Another thought that jumped into my mind was a song by Gloria Gaynor , I Will Survive
The chorus goes
“No, not I, I will survive
Long as I know how to love
I know I'll stay alive
I've got my life to live
And all my love to give and I'll survive
I, I, I will survive"

A neighbor told me she is going to have the surgery next year when she turns 65 and will be watching me to see how I do. I’m going to have to learn how to be a better example. I have noticed though that ten repetitions of six simple exercises done three times a day have made a big difference in what I can do.  Like a gentle stream  flowing through the desert can over time dig a grand canyon, with a little patience, and consistence in simple exercises I will survive.
I hope this month you will choose something you have wanted to do but felt inadequate to do and patiently start working on it a little at a time. We will Survive!