Birthday Countdown

   My thirty-second birthday is just days away.  While that in and of itself is hard to believe, it is even harder to believe that I will be having knee surgery the day after.  But, with thirty one birthdays that have come and gone, with another one just round the bend, I have been thinking about my past birthdays.  We moved a lot when I was a kid.  No, I wasn’t a military brat, but a corporate one instead.  We moved with my dad’s job, taking us from places in Ohio to Kentucky to Florida to Ohio to Iowa.  I laugh now as I think of how many of the places I was completely unaware of their existence, let alone the people in them.  Now, I think of birthdays that were celebrated along the way.  I would imagine that some of the birthday celebrations would look a little quiet to those on the outside.  But, moving so much, the family bond has strengthened and those quiet family dinners, complete with cake and song, are precious to me. 

   Now, with this new birthday approaching, I have been bouncing back and forth between trying to decide what treat to take to work (chocolate or savory), and how to prepare for surgery.  The reaction most people have when they hear about one following the other, is a look like what are you thinking about combined with an unspoken, “really?”.  Yes – really! 

   So, with all of that this is my thought about that.  A new year is about to begin.  And, I can’t know what will come.  However, I am trying to look at it as an auspicious beginning to this year, as the beginning of knee health.  It’s a bit nerve wracking because we don’t really know what is wrong the knee.  Nothing on x-ray or MRI, just a persistent pain, that has kept me stuck and missing out on doing activities.  All of that leads me to my hope that this will be a year that is soon full of long walks, hikes, and being able to walk more than a block. 

   I still don’t know what I will take to work Thursday – gooey dessert or vegetables…  

Knees

   Over the last few months I have been nursing a knee injury that finally led me at a doctor and physical therapy. The doctor thinks that the fat pad under the knee cap has been pinched and is irritated. When I momentarily got over the fact that he said fat pad and must be a brave (or nutty) fellow to ever tell a woman such a thing, I was ready to listen to all the instructions. One of which again must have led to a look between confusion, consternation, and just plain a lack of translation. The instruction boiled down to, in a nutshell – if it hurts you, then don’t do that. Do something else. Well, by the end of the day, walking hurts, sitting hurts – what am I supposed to do? It is really hard for me to give myself permission to sit and rest this leg. I have found myself trying to consolidate trips into the other room or down the hall. So, why if I know that this joint needs to rest is it hard to rest?

   We have heard mention of the Puritan work ethic, to not be lazy. But, when is it okay to rest? When do we seek out rest? And yet, we have such a wonderful example to look at. God creates the world. He pulls it all together in it’s tiny and great complexities and then rests. He doesn’t rest because of fatigue. He rested as an example. There was no thought of laziness, lack of productivity. My knee hurts. I’m going to rest it and not feel guilty. After all, what better example could I follow?