What does it take?
Not only
has time passed a lot since I started the blog. but other things have changed
as well. While some call it a terrible
tragedy, (I lost the lower part of my left leg), it's really not that big a
deal. It came down to me asking myself
what is it going to take to stop me from accomplishing the things I want to
do? Not that. While I can't walk for the moment, I can
roll. You might be amazed at where you
can take yourself in a wheelchair, and even sometimes without one. This one's just the average kind of chair so
it has its limits. I can roll out of the
house and out to the garden. I didn't
know I could do that until I tried.
In rehab
they taught me how to go up ramps. In
spite of ADA laws most ramps are
too steep for the average chair bound person to make it up going forward. The solution?
Go backward. That means that you
use your hands to roll the side wheels and feet (or foot in my case) to
push. You'd be amazed at how well that
works. I use the same method to get
around outside in my garden.
I started
out this spring going out for short bursts to pull weeds. I had been afraid that being in the chair
would preclude being able to get outside and be in my garden. The more I went out, the more confident I
became. I was bound by only two
rules. The first was not to go out if no
one else was home in case I ran into trouble and the second was to always carry
my phone. Both reasonable.
When I was
outside the other day, I saw a splash of color on my dwarf pomegranate
bush. I'd never seen a pom flower
before. Isn't it beautiful?
Something I
have discovered through what I call this "adventure," is that if I
let fears rule me and my thoughts, nothing will be accomplished. Worse than that, I will miss out on many
things that stretch me and make me stronger.
I was afraid that this would be a
non year for my garden or that it would look really awful because I couldn't
get around. Not true.
So far,
this has been the best year ever. I
might be slow, but I am more thorough.
The plants are looking better than I have seen for years. I plan more what I am doing and work
deliberately. As a result, more has been
done. This is the first of the cattle
panels with tomatoes on one side and dragon tongue beans (a delicious heirloom
bean) on the other.
You don't
need to be able to walk to garden, although it is useful. You do need to determine what you are going
to do and find a way to do it. The
strength of your character is determined by what it takes to stop you.
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