Today’s blog post might ramble a bit, but that’s okay. My thoughts have been rambling all over the place since I had total knee replacement nearly three weeks ago.
One of our pastors stopped by a few hours after surgery and brought me a prayer shawl. I’ve wrapped myself in the prayers that were worked into that shawl many times already. (If I don’t keep an eye on the shawl, one of my cats is likely to lay claim to it, as Jazz has done in this photo. I’m convinced all creatures sense the prayers knit within the shawl.)
Once I was home, during Holy Week, another of our pastors came one evening, offering prayers and Holy Communion to my entire family. The redeeming and reconciling love of God through Christ was right there in our bedroom as we shared the bread and wine.
While I’ve been recuperating inside, the growing warmth of spring has brought daffodils and jonquils and now the early tulips to life in our yard. I heard the ice cream truck drive by this past weekend, with a version of “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” playing to attract attention to the sweet treats found in the truck.
For someone who is always doing for others, it’s been a challenge to give up control and let others do for me. Right now I’m dependent on my family for food, drink, and laundry. I’m supposed to spend 4-6 hours each day using a continuous passive motion machine (that extends the flexibility and motion in my knee), but I can only begin and end its use with the help of someone.
I had assembled a big stack of books to read while I recuperate. It’s been nearly three weeks and I just completed the first book yesterday. I’ve been so busy with physical therapy and the continuous passive motion machine that there’s been barely any time leftover for reading. I’ve not had the concentration to knit either. And I tend to nod off fairly easily anyway.
I had thought my recuperation could be very productive. It is, but just not in the way I had imagined. I’m not busy reading or knitting. I’m busy healing and recuperating, the way it should be.
Linda Post Bushkofsky is the executive director of Women of the ELCA. She’ll have the other knee replaced this summer and looks forward to dancing by New Year’s Eve.