I always knew that the fact that the husband raced motorcycles for 25 years was going to come in handy one day. In that 25 years of riding/racing came many a broken bone and this last week I realized how all the points that I never knew I was keeping track of - were stacking up in my favor. Wrists, ankles, knees, foot, ribs, shoulders, hands, wrists, (I know- mentioned that one twice, but he broke both 2x each), over the years I have sat in many a waiting room while the surgeons put him back together. What he learned from all that experience was how it could hurt when someone took a piece of your body and stretched it from the inside out and put it back together the way they thought it would function better. And how you needed to take the time, and allow yourself to heal.
Over the last 14 weeks, while I was waiting for insurance approval and doctor’s schedules, I have heard many upon many tales of the woes of rotator cuff injury, repairs and recovery. Remember, we have a very busy store - of active gardeners - that seem to wear/tear their shoulders out a little faster than the rest of the population – at least it seems that way to me now. I have worried and wondered over the surgery, and now the healing process. But while the husband was quick to point out to me that “recovery pain” would be so much better than “constant pain”, I had yet to take hold of that thought and run with it. Apprehension is such a tall mountain to climb. The worry over the surgery itself, the time it would take me out of the garden, not just our business – but my flourishing blooming garden here at home, and the time it would take to fully heal.
So here is where I am, 5 days post op:
1.I am a truly thankful person. I have an incredible support network of family and friends that have not only kept my belly full, but my eyes filled with beauty and my thoughts filled with goodness.
2. You really CAN’T rush anything in this life. While I may be one of the fastest typists around, can ride my bike with no hands, can multi task at least 6 things at one time, and be good at all of them –I cannot tell my body to heal any faster than it is necessary and/or willing.
3. Don’t let the husband help with picking out clothes that will be "comfy" and dressing you unless you want to hear laughter from everyone you work with when you show up at the nursery for “just a minute” to see the new roses and order a truckload of perennials for Mother’s Day weekend.
4.RELEASE: this has been the tough one, and the one that the husband has helped the most with. I release to my body the time it takes to heal. I release to others the responsibilities that I feel are mine and mine alone. I release once and for all the fact that, HE IS RIGHT! Now it is time to listen to his wisdom, take a pain pill when necessary, take a slow walk back into my life, and remember to stop…….and smell the roses (see #3 above, and also all the ones that still need pruning out front – we can only let go so…..fast)
Next stop: Physical Therapy
A while back the US Fish & Wildlife Service installed wood duck boxes down on the Carson River at the nursery. They have been monitoring the boxes for quite a few weeks, and yesterday the first of the ducklings appeared. Wood Ducks have been known to be in the valley, but the folks at Fish and Wildlife are trying to track their numbers and see exactly what areas they frequent the most. The majority of the boxes were made by the Boy Scouts as part of their projects, and the boxes are now installed all around our valley. We are lucky to have three on the river, but this year only one had babies. This last Sunday morning when I got to work I walked out back to turn the sprinklers on the new lawn area in Nana's Garden, and got a small startle when I looked down and saw someone standing on a ladder in the river. I am not exactly sure how, but after watching the nesting boxes for the last week the biologists had pretty much pin pointed exactly to the hour when the ducklings would hatch. The first ones to hatch were taken out and tagged through their webbed feet, and then placed back in the box. I yelled back up to the nursery for Ashley to hurry down, and she got to hold one of the babies while the others were being tagged. They will leave the nest in a day or so, hoping out through the hole in the front of the box to begin their journey. Ahhhhh nature! 
