Saturday, February 06, 2010

Appreciating My Two Hands

Spiff and I went ice skating last night. It was pretty much an awesome night to go ice skating at the outdoor rink in town. It was snowing (a fairly wet, slippery, sloshy snow), and so there weren't a whole lot of people out and about, which means that there weren't a lot of people at the rink. But it wasn't very cold, and it wasn't snowing very hard, so it was really quite awesome. Spiff is a pretty good skater (surprise, surprise), but I have only been on ice skates a handful of times, the last time being two years ago. I was surprised last night to find that it wasn't as hard as I remembered. Plus, my rental skates seemed to fit better and were way more comfortable than the last pair I rented, and it left me feeling all empowered and daring.

So, we skated a bit, and we even tried a few tricks. For me, that includes turning around in very large, slow circles, and then feeling super triumphant. I even tried skating backwards. And as I doing these bumbling tricks, I thought, "This is so fun! And I'm probably going to end falling on my face."

Not two seconds later, I fell flat on my face. A kind rink-worker dude saw the whole thing and came right over asking me if I was okay. Sadly, Spiff missed it, and turned around to find his dear, sweet wife on the ground, and he came rushing right over. They helped me up (yes, I needed help up), I brushed the snow off the entire front of me, and sporting a nice new bruise on my chin, I tried putting on my brave face.

I wish I could say that I hopped right up and continued to skate because, seriously, how embarrassing is it to break into tears after something like that? But I did something to my left wrist when I fell, and it left me feeling like an weepy, insecure eight-year-old, for the second time in two weeks. With my newly hurt wrist, I hobbled off the rink to have Spiff take a look at it. (Somehow, hurting my wrist causes me to hobble.) We did continue to skate for a while, and it really was very fun. I skated more conservatively, and Spiff was the perfect gentleman and held my hand so I could keep up with him and so that we could skate around the rink together.

So, my wrist is not broken, but it sure does hurt a lot. Little things that I take for granted are so very difficult today. Like picking up my son. Putting on gloves. Getting dressed. Grabbing and holding on to anything. Anything that involves twisting my arm or grasping in any way.

I'm just feeling so grateful for my general health today. I'm grateful that I have two hands and two arms to help me with my daily tasks. And even though I'm frustrated that my stinkin' wrist hurts and that things are difficult for me today, I'm grateful that I will heal and be able to go back to taking advantage of that fact that I have two working arms. And then I think I just might carry Gunner all day long, just because I can.

5 comments:

Madame Palmkey said...

I was cleaning one-handed while I talked on the phone today. I was glad that I have hands too, and nearly lost one after trying to clean a knife with one mitt.

cfg said...

No need for you to go to a gym if you are carrying a 25 pound weight all the time. I am so glad you get to do something fun and beautiful like skating out of doors. Minnesota or Vermont? You'll be ready.

Pulcheria said...

So sorry you are hurt. Missed you yesterday - not for your work, just your smile!! Feel better soon, let me know if you need me to come over and do some of those painful tasks!

Justin and JoLyn said...

So sorry you got hurt! Not good for a piano player to have hurting wrists! Get better soon!

recover and thrive said...

what a coincidence - I just found a picture of when we went ice skating with the singles ward! fun times