Punting Practice

I'm not a big football fan.  I'd rather watch soccer any day.  I can, however, appreciate the need for the football punt. Just get the bloomin' ball back in play and get moving. I'm pretty sure I've written about that before but sometimes you have to be taught lessons more than once.

 

I spent last Sunday afternoon sitting in a field writing and thinking.  I was working through some final mental preparation for my upcoming hip replacement surgery.  I left my pastoral bench feeling less anxious and as prepared as I knew how to be.  Then came Tuesday's pre-operation final check-up.  Any time the medical staff says they need to take another look at labs and possibly repeat a test more carefully, it's not a good thing.  I left the appointment with no certainty what the following 24 hours would bring.

 

Those of you who've followed me know I am a person who likes lists, and goals, and plans set in concrete.  The uncertainty left me disoriented.  What do you mean the surgery may be postponed?  It's scheduled.  The rest of my summer is planned around rehab and recovery.  I have a plan and goals in place.  Well, it seems that it's really not a good idea to have hip replacement surgery if another condition exists that leaves you very vulnerable to infections that can affect the implants.  It makes perfect sense but my well planned world crumbled with the news.  Could it be that God wants me to learn to be more flexible?

 

Here I am, waiting again.  Now, I'm waiting to resolve what, hopefully, will be a minor medical detour on my way to total hip replacement.  I don't look forward to this.  The next couple of weeks have the potential of being either extremely painful or they could be a complete bust on the exciting news scale.  More than likely, it will be somewhere in between.

 

Since I'm still in pre-operation status, I'm still not allowed to take the more effective pain medications I've taken for the last several years.  I'm learning from this as well.  I remember my great-grandmother talking about how her legs hurt at night.  I'd watch her rub her thighs and knees with liniment.  Now, I understand more fully.  I catch myself rubbing away little spasms of pain during the day that are like faint echoes of the night pain. I'm learning I need to allow more time to do things. My body moves more slowly than I expect. Projects don't progress at the pace they could just a couple of weeks ago.

 

Have I been impatient when someone needed to take more time walking down an aisle in a store?  Have I been less than sympathetic when someone was dealing with pain?  I hope not. I understand more completely now. 

 

I'm taking my football and punting it into the future.  I don't know exactly how this is going to work out but I do have an eventual goal.  As long as I'm moving toward that goal, even if I'm moving more slowly, it will be all right.