Skip to main content

Fairy Tales

What do London Bridge, Humpty Dumpty, The Three Little Pigs and Kathleen Piggins have in common?

 They all fall down! 

 Well with the Three Little Pigs it's not the pigs that fall but the house but I have three not-so-little Piggins and it just seemed appropos to include that fairy tale here!

 Because this is a tale about falling down. But it's also about getting back up!

 At last night's Douglas Social  my friend Kris and I meandered through the crowd greeting and often hugging friends along the way to the beer/wine tent - I spotted a friend that recently moved to the area and went to give her a big hug. and after proceeded to fall flat on my arse. Time seemed to stop and it felt that the all eyes in the crowd were on me as I landed and then proceeded to get back up with the help of friends. One of the saddest part of the fall, was that I had just gotten my first glass of wine and it was now all over me.  I thought "Thank goodness I was drinking white". And then, "I hope they don't think I was drunk!' - pride looks especially sad when you're on your ass.

 The saddest part, however, was my long-lost-friend thought she had something to do with the fall. Sorry, Sue, but I kind of wish that were true!

 For the record, I fall a lot. It's the reality for me with my MS right now. I know 'how to fall' so that I rise uninjured but I am taking chances, I know. The prescribed wheelchair that sits in the back of my van, has only been used once in four months. I even thought about using it last night but I didn't want to make everyone feel uncomfortable by seeing me in a wheelchair. Pride goest before the fall . . . I believe that's scripture so I must not be the first one not to want to seen in a wheelchair. I'm not very good at quoting scripture but I am very good at loving my God.

 Unlike Humpty Dumpty I cannot be put back together again. (How many times have you read an essay that quotes scripture and Mother Goose? It takes a special kind of mind to use them both in the same essay.) I can continue to take my chances and not wound my pride. Or I can let my pride take one for the team and get the formerly-on-the-grass ass in the wheelchair for occasions that will require going from point A to point B. I knew the day was coming - and just like when I had to start relying on the cane, I will go to this stage with humor and as much grace as I can muster. (Start praying that I may have as much grace as I will need to muster!) Just like I was "Too Sexy for my Cane", I will create a similar song/mantra to get me through this new phase.

 I have never learned lessons the easy way. And I know that God knows this about me so he's given me 'soft' falls until the day that I would finally say -
"this might be better for all if I didn't fall". I'm slow but I'm finally there. Here's a bright side - maybe I won't be so slow when I have wheels!


Comments

  1. Kim BehmerJune 29, 2013 at 12:24 AM

    I love you, you beautiful child of God!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

The "I'll Nevers" of growing older

  Years ago as a freelance writer, I submitted an essay entitled "The I'll Nevers of Parenting". It was a list, mostly, of things I had said prior to having children and the crow I was then eating because of the stupidity of the claims. You know little pearls of 'wisdom' that only someone who hasn't experienced the joys of  parenting could utter, like: I will never yell at my child in public or I will never let my child eat dinner in front of the television or my children will never stay up past 9 pm. I yelled at my children (usually when we were both tired and totally irrational!) in public. One time, as we were in the drop off lane at school with a long line of cars behind us, the boys hoped out of the car but Delaney was insisting on something that for the life of me I cannot recall and I was insisting that she get out of the van. We crept along, van door still open, until I got to the end of the line and yelled at the top of my voice, "Delaney get the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ch ... Ch ... Chemo

I was ready. I was prepared. The potential side-effect list was long and one I'd had some familiarity when John went through his treatment.  So I gathered my arsenal. I had my compazine, zofran and antivan. I had my ginger chewables and chicken noodle soup. I was armed and potentially dangerous. So, chemo day with the toxic chemo cocktail starting to do it's job, I envisioned it as either PacMan, eating away at the cancer cells or a Chia Pet, allowing my good cells to thrive. With these visions, (that aren't quite Christmas Eve sugar plums dancing) and tired from the chemo, I went to bed early. Friday, under the watchful eye of my caregiving hubby, I slept most of the day away. Not really hungry but not nauseous either. I spent the majority of the day horizontal on the couch listening to my book on Audible (despite the sleep timer, I probably missed 1/3 of what I 'read'), dozing, answering calls and texts, and snacking.  Perhaps the highlight of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Struggling to not feel like a failure

Okay all of you 'struggling to stand' or 'not wanting to have to use a wheelchair' or others that look upon using a wheelchair as a symbol of failure, you're about to get punched. Punched in the figurative sense. I am about to go on my soap box and my Irish is up which means that I'm fairly peeved (though I've been mulling this over for awhile so I'm not as angry as I once was, which means there will be fewer expletives and a kinder tone). If you've read this blog or know me at all, you know that I did not go easily into using a wheelchair as my primary mode of transport. I too, may have had a little bit of your attitude about the wheelchair being sign of failure or of having given up. My sister, Kerri, helped put it in a different light. She said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "It's actually an energy saver since walking is stressful and you're worried about falling - using a wheelchair will take away a lot of that stress. You will hav...
Post a Comment
Read more