Musing on…The Plus Side of a Broken Toe

I broke one of my toes (again) a few days ago. A bag holding ten pounds of frozen chile fell a couple of meters directly on my now ailing toe. As this was a result of reorganizing our freezer so that there would be room for this year’s crop of chile, I didn’t have the option of coddling the injury. In fact, after I rearranged the freezer, I still had a bushel of roasted chile to peel. Four hours later, I could finally focus on the patient.

In the couple of weeks leading up to my little accident, my days were becoming increasingly busy. I was having to tend to important family business

, I was trying to learn a new job while also sharing time with my familia ex-immediatus. In here I was also trying to tend to another novel rewrite, bring a different novel to the writing stage, working on web pages, writing articles for blogs, and generally filling up every waking hour.

The broken toe gave me license for a pause. I had to put off working this weekend because shoe-wearing—much less tending to customers—has been problematic, at best. While I still have family stuff to tend to, I’ve been able to do it in my own time and from the comfort (comfort…ha!) of my computer chair. The evening on the day after I broke the toe I did something I haven’t done in months: I lay back and watched DVDs for several hours. Yup, I vegged. Then I slept.

I keep reminding my friend, Mary Scott*, to rest when she can. I think that when we become responsible adults, we sometimes take the responsibility to a personally unhealthy level. It’s a hamster wheel that’s devilishly easy to mount, and astonishingly difficult to leave. For me, the toe has given me a small pocket of time to get some of myself, my soul, back into order before once again facing the constant torrent of needs, crises, and love.

As summer draws to a close, it is my wish to all of my readers that you can find a block of time—ideally a day, but an evening will do—so you can just settle back, rest, and appreciate what a special thing it is to be needed…regardless of how annoying the imposition of need can be. If you can manage to get your mind to be quiet for even five minutes, you’ll find that even when life breaks your toes, it’s not so bad.