s-l-o-w down

A week ago today I went to the ER and discovered I have biliary colic (the very beginning of gallstone formation and problems with my gallbladder). It has been a rough week. Besides the gallbladder issues I also had a flare up with my hernia. I’ve known about this hernia for a year now. It was a small tear yet last week I did more damage to it by lifting boxes that were too heavy. I was told in emergency that I needed to rest – to watch what I eat so that my gallbladder attack would subside and not to lift anything heavy.
What a struggle this past week has been! My health has called me to slow down – my life has not. Therefore it’s been a week of tug of war. Sometimes I have bumped my head (metaphorically speaking) because of my unwillingness to surrender.

Do you remember that game Operation? The game requires that you use these special tweezers to grab parts out of the body yet if the tweezers touch the metal edge of the opening during the attempt, a buzzer sounds. As I child I remember paying this game and I remember how quiet we were as we concentrated on the game. If by some chance the buzzer went off I was always startled. It had a zapping sound that was unnerving. Well – this came to mind this week as I attempted to eat. My body told me right away if something was or was not ok to eat. If the food didn’t agree a searing pain would shoot through my side (like a buzzer) as soon as I chewed and swallowed. It did not take long to get the message about what to stay away from. Bland foods - good. Spicy bad. White bread, starches, sugars –bad. If anything, I have learned that I need to be aware- conscious of what I do. I need to be in the moment. As soon as I’ve gone into ‘auto-pilot’ or tried to multi-task, the buzzer goes off as I hurt my stomach either on the inside (gallbladder) or the outside (hernia).

I’ve spent the week in the house and even though I am home, I have continued to sculpt. Although I know I need to stop I found myself thinking, “Yeah- but I can’t right now…” Then yesterday I got what I will see as a another message to stop (beyond getting sick –since that didn’t seem to be message enough). I was in the middle of working when my metal pliers snapped. My only pair of pliers broke. My main tool is broken and they broke in such a way that I laughed knowing it’s God’s way of telling me to slow down.

Life lessons…