Time to reflect

My cousin Jenny teaches ballet to kids from grade school all the way up to high school.  She came to visit a few weeks ago, and we got to talking about my upcoming surgery.  Jenny hasn't had many injuries herself, because she takes really good care of herself.  But she has had to deal with injuries in her students.  Some of them will have stress injuries because they're doing something wrong over time.  My injury wasn't like that; I got hurt pull-starting a lawnmower, not by a repetitive motion.  But Jenny said that when her students have to take time away from class to recover from an injury, she tells them to use the time to learn.  They were doing something wrong, and need to do whatever it was differently, or they're taking too many classes of different kinds of dance, that use the body differently.

I'm SO not a dancer or athlete, and was thus inclined to think that her advice doesn't apply to me.  But, as is so often the case, further reflection on Jenny's words led to an epiphany of sorts.  Indeed I can use this time to learn a lesson that might stand me in good stead for the rest of my life. 

What I need to learn is patience and deliberation.  To quote the poem "Pursuit" by Stephen Dobyns: 

Each thing I do I rush through so I can do
something else...

While my shoulder is healing, there will be no rushing.  I will have no choice but to be deliberate, because the hand that does things without thinking will be immobilized.  The other hand, the slow, stupid hand, will be in charge, and it can't hurry.  It can only pay slow, careful attention to everything it does. 

And that can be a good lesson for me.  Focus on the task at hand, instead of trying to do a bunch of stuff at once.  Don't rush, but instead work with deliberation.  Be in the now, instead of thinking about what's coming up next. Slow down.  Be patient.  And forgive myself for needing to be slow.  All good lessons that I hope I can keep with me afterward.

38 days, and counting!  I need to give the dogs baths.  I think I'll start tonight, with Chester!  He's a little guy and easy to do without help.  The big girls take some help, especially Anita.  She LEANS.