A Healing Journey

There’s nothing like a two-year delay between blogs to inspire the inattention of one’s readership. So, where have I been? Well, last summer I was all set to do a variety of performing, some songwriting and eventual recording, when a desperate attempt to retrieve a backhand during a tennis match at a family reunion in Wisconsin resulted in a fall and fracture/surgical repair of my left radius. As you might guess, that wrist apparatus is kind of essential in playing fretted instruments. It takes more imagination than I have, in light of pretty darn limited chord options, to play or create songs without the left hand on the neck of the guitar.

While the idea of one’s ‘journey’ may have become hackneyed in recent times, it has been an apt frame for my experience, which has led me to considerations I hadn’t, prior to my accident. Misfortunes happen to people all the time, of course–just not to me, before this. And as much as I like to think I can be and have been empathetic to others, a person truly cannot walk another’s walk nor feel exactly what they feel. Now that I’ve had an injury that was, for me, traumatic, I feel like my understanding and compassion for those with whatever injury, condition, emergency, or catastrophe has been elevated. For that snippet of insight, I am grateful for the journey on which I’ve been.

Reflecting on it now, nearly at the anniversary of the big crash, I have a different view than I did in the middle of it all, when I just didn’t know how I would come through. It’s probably fortunate that memories fade when it has to do with feelings of pain and loss. For now, I’m pleased to say that my recovery is in pretty good shape. Am I physically the same? No, and I don’t think I will be. In the jargon of today’s world, this is my ‘new normal’, and I am so relieved that I’m again able to do most of what I love doing. Time will likely continue to help me rebuild the strength and mobility lost through injury and months of inactivity. I can’t adequately express my relief—and joy—that I can play my instruments again, and I am so looking forward to creating and sharing new music.