Dear SuperForest,
At around 10 AM yesterday, while rushing to my car to get to my morning lecture and being completely wrapped up in my own thoughts and concerns, I didn’t notice the tools and the buckets of paint that were on the floor, tripped over them, fell, and landed on my awkwardly positioned foot. Ouch! Immediately, I could feel the blood rushing to my area of injury, and a numbness that has grown all too familiar over the years. I’m not a rookie when it comes to sprains and twists and even fractures, being so, this time I knew almost immediately that I had twisted a nerve in my foot.
The pain isn’t so much excruciating as it is annoying, you can literally pin point the areas where it’s twisted. So I took a look at the foot and decided I’ve suffered worse injuries and that I’d deal with this one properly after going to this 80 minute lecture. I then got up, slipped into the driver’s seat of my car (grateful that it was my left foot and not my right), and hit the road.
Unsurprisingly, during the drive to campus, I couldn’t really think of anything other than the pain. Accepting the fact that it would be difficult to get my mind off of it, I decided I would challenge myself to get my mind to alter it. I was going to challenge myself to see the silver lining of physical pain. Now, don’t get me wrong, in certain situations this is something that is probably near impossible to do, but being that this was more of a pesky sprain and cause of great discomfort rather than anything serious, I wanted to give it a go.
So, as crazy as it seems, I decided to write a quick thank you note. It went a little something like this:
Dear Unfortunate Present Situation,
I know it’s difficult to concentrate on anything other than my pain, but I also know that this is temporary and that I can choose to see you in a different light. Today, I choose to see you as a glorious wake up call, for you have reminded me of three incredible, albeit extreme, lessons.
1.) You have taught me to take my time. Getting places takes a lot longer at the moment, but this gives me the opportunity to notice things I never noticed before. (No joke, I literally saw butterflies. Real ones.)
2.) You’ve taught me to really focus on the now. When I’m feeling pain or discomfort, there is no “later” or “next week”. I only concentrate on myself, on getting better, and on the current task at hand. I become conscious of every body part and every movement.
Lastly, the obvious, yet important one…
3.) You’ve taught me to appreciate my health and not to take my usual absence of pain for granted.
So thank you, unfortunate present situation. (though next time, I hope next time your teaching methods aren’t so extreme and unfortunate…though now that I think of it, maybe the word “unfortunate” is all relative, anyway.)
Love,
C
To my surprise, it kind of helped! And though I don’t recommend falling and hurting yourself as a way to refresh your knowledge on some fundamental truths to life, choosing to see things differently, despite being a difficult challenge, always seems to be worth it.
In constant healing and learning,
SuperForester Carla
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