Arm Bone’s Connected to the Thigh Bone

   Just before Christmas, I received a welcome holiday gift from the medical technician who guided a power saw through the plaster cast on my left arm. Liberation! X-rays had disclosed healthy new growth around the bone I cracked in a November fall.

   Yes, yes...there was still a removable brace to wear as my muscles remembered how to flex and bend after a month of immobility. But the brace seemed a minor limitation in my dash to reclaim full access to a healthy, active body.         

Armed for Action

   I started with reasonable caution. A few sessions of deep-water jogging before moving on to a 2.5-mile neighborhood walk. Then, a hike on a local mountain trail, giving my restored left fist the test of a hiking stick. My pace was slow and my wrist was weary by the time I completed the circuit. It was a good tired. A sign that my body was rebuilding. 

   By evening, I could feel tightness hardening at the back of my knees. By morning, I grimaced as I climbed the stairs to my study. I began to sense that there was more to mend in my body than the crack in my ulna.

 Common Sense, Common Forgetfulness

   Common sense prompts us to deal with the obvious injuries first in an accident, but eventually, it’s pain that turns our focus to the secondary consequences of an injury. Turns out, in this case, the arm bone connected to the thigh bone.

Arm bone connected to the head zone

   My left arm took the lead in this fall, but ribs and hips came tumbling after. My whole skeleton felt the impact, and shifted a bit in response. I’m back in reflect and recovery mode now, slowly (ever so slowly!) restoring the physical alignment that keeps the moving parts of my aging body moveable.

   Once again, it’s taken a setback to restore consciousness. Normally, and quite happily, I take for granted the wholeness, and delicate balances, that sustain my skeletal framework, my mood, and my zest for life.

   Today, in addition to impatience and frustration, I acknowledge the wholeness (and delicate balances) of my being—body, mind, and spirit: arm bone connects to the thigh bone; thigh bone connects to the head zone; head zone links to the heart tone; etc, etc, etc…and so the spirit heals.