Adapting is Choosing Well

OK, so, a friend of mine recently said that I would adapt to my cast as well as I adapt to everything else. And its true, 24 hours in, I was  hardly limping, and though it still hurts and is itchy as all get out!

Adapting is really what disabled people do none stop. You assess a situation and before you even realize it your brain is already figuring out a different way to do things. I have always said its kind of like having an advantage over the rest of the human race....
I KNOW...I know. You would never give up half your body for my advantage, but I am quick to adapt. I don't love change, but I roll with it. WHEN IT COMES TO MY PHYSICAL DISABILITY I have never really felt I had a choice, really. We do have choices...but my "other" choice was so DISTASTEFUL-  THE ADAPT CHOICE- NO MATTER HOW DIFFICULT  seemed only logical.
Could you imagine for instance waking up every day and saying to yourself, " Nope not gonna get up and use the bathroom-I am going to just release everything right here and get another 5 minutes of sleep." That is a choice. But those consequences are not pleasant. Or desirable. And we don't want to deal with them. So we get up, use the appropriate facilities and go from there.

And that said, lets pretend for a moment we ALL HAVE DISABILITIES.  Cuz actually, really, we all do. We ALL COME HERE  without a perfect body or mind. We have weaknesses that we have to overcome. Some of us are impulsive.Some weakness don't have DISTATEFUL  results. Some of us like to eat too many mini Cadbury Eggs . I ( I mean we) could choose to NOT eat the whole entire bag in 24 hours. Or we could make a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHOICE-  resist the impulse to buy the bag in the first place. Wait a minute here, where did all my treats go? I would suppose I would have to make ANOTHER CHOICE. But because the end result isn't distasteful, I don't wanna. Which is why, sadly, and admittedly, I have eaten a bag of those chocolate pieces of crack since yesterday. Admitting I have a problem doesn't seem to be enough. I guess I need to out myself to online strangers as well. Still, in my mind I remember the little crunchy shells and melty chocolate and the smell-its like perfume-and it brings me great pleasure. And I bought them yesterday, after realizing that there was really no other option to cover my cast  in the rain and against nasty ground germs besides....trash bags. A part of me, the stylish cutesy part, got really sad. And then I saw the happy purple bag with little pastel flowers and I grabbed a bag, and said to my sweet husband -"lets GO!" And as I carried that bag to the car, I was still sad about my trash bags, But when I opened the treats....I could forget for a moment. And just enjoy. But I cannot stop. And now they are gone. This is bad for many reasons. The consequences are so many: I don't eat healthy when I overeat junk. I Cannot appreciate fruit for a while, because I have burned my taste buds. The fat is not good for my body or heart. And the overindulgence is not good for my soul-
So WHAT IF....we slowly took each of our weaknesses..."disabilities" and TREAT THEM LIKE DISABILITIES.  Find a different path. AND JUST TAKE IT. "CAST" OUR WEAKNESS.  Change the way our weakness is "shaping us". RESHAPE OUR THOUGHTS.  A dear friend who explained brain mapping to me helped me to think this through.
My cast hurts. I want to take it off. I cannot sleep for a long time before the weight of it hurts. I cannot shower, and must rely on my husband for many daily things, that I wish I could do myself. Besides being painful, I am exhausted. But......I can feel the change my foot is making. The pain reminds me I am realigning my body. My friend said she is seeing the physical difference. Change is never easy. Adapting is never easy. But it is necessary to become better. In my real case, I can stop falling and risking major injury.  WHAT FASCINATES  me is the amount of change I see needed in ALL AREAS OF MY LIFE. THIS PHYSICAL CAST  has allowed my Spiritual side to say hey- WE COULD USE SOME CHANGE! I feel immensely grateful for this cast. It is a catalyst for a better RUTHIE.  Many have asked: did this happen because you chose to run? The simple answer is: YES.  Without the intense trauma to my knee and hip, I may have gone along my merry way until, as a much older adult I would have been a deformed woman, whose falling may have risked her life. My running has CAUSED  this cast- and in so- again- freed me.
WHAT DISABILITY WILL YOU ADAPT YOUR LIFE FOR THIS WEEK?

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