Sheri’s Rants #19: Gratitude. (‘It’s just a flesh wound!’)

This is an auspicious time to be putting out a newsletter on ‘gratitude’. Why? I’ll tell you:
I just moved into my new home in Ojai, California. I had plans to hit the ground running and get ready to turn around and head back up to Montana in August for the birth of a grand-baby. Barely unpacked, I have several lists of things that MUST get done – from address changes to banking to a new drivers license and including some shopping. I’m training for a 1/2 marathon in San Francisco at the end of July. I’m rotating my nutrition to tighten up before a photo shoot. I have piles of time-sensitive work to do with GT, not to mention miles of beach I had every intention of becoming intimate with. I have tomatoes to plant on my patio, boxes to break down, and company coming.
Amid all the ‘I need to’s, I managed to take a nasty little fall on a perfectly sedate evening dog walk and injured my ribs.   If I might publicly let out a tad of a whimper, it hurts.  It hurts to even breathe. Sneezing and laughing?   Pure hell.  I shuffle like someone who lost their walker… Waaaaaaahhhhhhh…..
For a couple of days I wrestled with the usual denial, irritation and ambitious drive that I am familiar with. Then the doc had a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with me and apparently, the problem with broken ribs like this is that I could jostle/bump/twist just the right way and oh, say, puncture a lung and other sordid little details resulting in demise at worse. That did manage to get my attention, thank you Dr Hawthorne.
So much for my carefully compiled lists, the 1/2 marathon, the photo shoot, the beach running, the legalities, the pile of boxes, tomatoes and prepping for company…

Because I respond well to threats of increased pain, I am moving very very slowly and carefully and resisting the puny urge to whinge and whine and depress myself based on the irrational fear that breaking my ribs will render me old and fat (I broke them walking…how geriatric is that?)  I got my happy face on and have found a way to  giggle which does not render me in tears of pain.  Which brings me to The Gratitude List.
I AM GRATEFUL FOR:

Shirley, Gayle, Sheri

*the decision NOT to hula hoop at the Pimp & Ho Pool Party before I knew I’d broken bones (yeow!); *being here in gorgeous jasmine-and-orange-scented CA where food grows abundantly; *that I quickly learned to control sneezing;  *the grace to keep smiling at Senator Boxer’s party while admonishing Gayle to not make me laugh not one more time; *my business mgr, Dave, who keeps the engine running smoothly while speaking to me in soothing tones; *Jamie, for suggesting in just the right way that I get medical help; *Samantha, for reminding me I can still do yoga, just not physically…; *my dogs, for having the willingness to trade a car ride for a walk; *my friend that insisted I stay at her amazing home where I can stand in the pool instead of icing my torso; *an incredible health food deli with take-out; *work that I can do from bed; *my new running shoes with the sparkly laces patiently waiting; *the miles of beach that I know will still be there and finally, to all of you for giving me a reason to keep having fun, no matter what!

(the pics are all from the Pimp & Ho Party – !)

Charlene & Graham

Graham, Charlene, Sheri, David