day 5

Today, I would have to say that I am most thankful for physical therapy. It puts me in so much pain, but I know that I will eventually be able to see the difference that it is making. I also feel like God gave me the physical therapist that he did because he knew I would need the encouragement. The physical therapist that I have keeps me so encouraged when I am doing particularly difficult tasks. Often times, I need the most encouragement when I am doing a task that, before getting hurt, was so easy. I mean, you seriously never realize what a luxury it is to have control over all of your toes, or to put on shoes and not be in pain, or to sit "criss-cross applesauce" (or Indian style) on a carpet. I mean, four years ago, all of those tasks were soooooo easy. Now, I feel like if I can do half of them it has been a good day. And you can forget about "criss-cross applesauce"....just throwing that out there. That one is a huge negative ghost rider! To sit that way means to put extreme pressure on a very swollen part of my ankle. Anyway, as these tasks come up during physical therapy, my therapist is always there to give an encouraging word and remind me that I CAN do it. Sometimes it is a "one day, you will look back on this and wonder why the heck it was so hard," and other times it is a "you are so much stronger than the task. Just zone in and go for it." I love these words of encouragement, especially when I feel like I am up against an impossible task.....like turning my foot to the right as I found out today :(. Anyway, it seems like a silly thing to be thankful for, but that is what I am most thankful for today. And just as a funny side note about physical therapy: I had to go to therapy for this ankle two years ago when I fell off the stage. When I went back this time, I ended up with the same physical therapist....AND he remembered me! It is nice that he gets to see the progression over time. Anyhow, that is all for tonight. I apologize that this one is fairly short, and will be picture-less, but a) I don't have any pictures of physical therapy, and b) I have to teach at 8:00 AM tomorrow, and it is past 11.

Words of Wisdom for tonight: "Don't be so afraid of failure that you don't try!"-Author Unknown. First off, I seem to have a lot of "author unknown" quotes up there on that wall. Secondly, I feel like I tell myself this every time I have to try something new with my ankle. Let it be a new brace that I am not sure will help, a new exercise that I am totally convinced is going to hurt more than help, or even coming up with lesson plans to teach my first graders. The possibility of failure is all around, but the probability of God's success is also always around! so next time you think you can't do something, remind yourself that "you should not be so afraid of failure that you don't try." That's right, the author is unknown, so I just rephrased their quote! :p