I’ve been thinking about injuries lately.
A coworker of mine was out on sick leave for several weeks due to pneumonia and accidentally pulling a muscle when she was coughing. It’s frustrating to her because a year ago she got seriously hurt in roughly the same area. Plus she has a fiercely independent spirit, so being so held back by something outside of her control is frustrating.
Similarly, another coworker hurt her shoulder over the summer, my roommate had two car accidents three weeks apart over a year ago and has neck damage, and I got a bad sprain over my mission that took three-four weeks to heal which I sprained again recently. On top of that, every now and again it hurts again and is weak.
All it takes is for me to step on my ankle wrong.
Really, for all of us healing has or will end up taking a long time and we will probably always have some damage. Especially if we use that muscle repeatedly without letting it rest. (Like my feet--which are used for an excessive amount of walking. I'm a Pedestrian for the most part. :| )
It made me think about how our emotional and spiritual healing (and even interpersonal relationship healing) are just like our physical healing.
Growing up with a father who was a manipulative abuser, there will always be parts of me that hurts and is weak. There will be times when I "re-injure" myself through unhealthy relationships or boundaries, or when I just "step on it wrong" through triggers that set off memories and addictive patterns of behavior.
But I'll just have to do the same thing for my inner self that I do for my outer self.
Take a pain pill. Massage till the chemical trapped in my muscles are released. Then wear a supportive band around the ankle and foot. Not a cast, per se (things aren't that bad), but a band. Then carefully continue walking.
