A Transformational Accident

Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents, happening in all sorts of ways, legislate in all sorts of ways.

― Plato

Blog Author: Karen Kendig

This October marks 30 years since I mistakenly rolled myself into a life-long re-invent-uring project. On October 6, 1993 I tipped a 2,000 pound Massey-Ferguson tractor, pinning my right leg beneath its weight. Once you realize you are not going to die from such an ordeal, relief, gratitude, and joyous celebration fill your heart. When the doctors tell you to rest, keep your leg elevated, and clean the wound daily for the next five weeks, you get a hint of the life-altering changes your carelessness is going to bring. When you are finally referred to a physical therapist to learn to walk again, the end of your nightmare appears at hand.

But alas, walking for several years after, incorrectly, brings on a new re-invent-ure—living with chronic pain. For nearly eight years, I found it very difficult to not let the pain define me. It is hard to concentrate on anything else when you are unable to walk, sit, or sleep without pain. Those women with resting bitch-face? Probably dealing with chronic pain. Not only does it show in your face, but your attitude toward life. Pain pills, acupuncture, muscle stripping, chiropractic adjustments—nothing worked.

I was finally scheduled to have a hip replacement, when a serendipitous act occurred. My sister-in-law called to chat, gave me her appointment with a physical therapist/energy worker who has helped me and my leg re-invent ourselves over the last ten years. Now I can walk most days without pain. I can bend and squat in the garden with a little help from Tylenol and Ibuprofen. The physical therapist has made me realize that this re-invent-uring process will be lifelong.

I have to do my exercises faithfully every day. If I squat in the garden, pick up heavy items without holding in my abdominal muscles, or climb a ladder the re-invent-uring process begins that evening when I can’t sleep because of the pain I’ve caused myself again. As I grow older and arthritis pokes around in my joints, there is cause for new exercises, new restrictions.

The physical therapist has prepared me for the inevitability of this cycle for the rest of my life. She has helped me come to terms with life’s reality—change, transitions, re-invent-uring IS life. We can call it an accident or a developmental stage or a well thought out plan—it doesn’t matter. A rose is still a rose by any other name, and roses smell lovely, come in a variety of beautiful colors, and have thorns that cause pain when you come in contact with them.

As fall brings changes to the color of the leaves, trees shed their foliage, and frost covers the grass in the mornings, I head into the inevitable loss of pain-free mobility that the joy of summer gardening has burdened me with. As with all of life—I must take the bitter with the sweet for how else would I ever know the difference between the two?

Daily Meditation

Use this meditation this week to help you open yourself to the changes around and within you.

I embrace this season of my life and trust in the process of continual change.