Over the past decade, I’ve been privileged and delighted to see Maria zoom right past me in so many ways.
She takes beautiful videos, takes great photos, talks to the animals, makes beautiful quilts, hanging pieces and potholders worldwide, hauls wood around, shovels snow, makes lovely friends, and almost single-handedly restores our farmhouse.
This is Maria’s time, even as mine is booming but with the end in sight. We are closer than ever, but in different places, and this has worked so well for us and our love.
I’ve never been jealous for a second even as she rockets towards the peak of her life and has so many places yet to go.
I’m settling into my place and have never been so comfortable or at peace. I feel my writing is just beginning to be good. I have Maria, a great dog to follow me around, donkeys who tolerate me and do great therapy work, and a Leica, an old sweet dream.
I can’t ask for much more than that. Maria’s success is my happiness.
But I do have a bad knee, and she doesn’t.
About nine years ago, I slipped on the treacherous ice of the first Bedlam Farm and shattered my knee cap. I went to a doctor but refused to go to the hospital and my knee is often quite painful. I can get around fine, but there are many things I can’t do.
An orthopedist told me the knee had some serious arthritis as a result of the fall.
Of course, I should have gone to the hospital at the time as the doctor asked, but that was a macho period for me and I was the tough farmer on the rugged, remote farm. I didn’t yet know how to ask for help up here.
If there is one thing I’m jealous of Maria about, it is her knees.
She has the greatest knees. She amazes me by sticking a foot out when she needs to tie her shoelaces, she doesn’t even need to bend over.
She skitters up and down ladders and stairs, walks confidently on ice, hikes all through the woods, and ties her shoes in seconds. And yes, I’m a little jealous.
When I see her tying her shoes that way (above) I sometimes mutter and curse (to myself.)
Tying my shoes requires some serious planning, grunting, twisting, and bending, thanks to my knee. If she’s nearby and I’m wearing shoes with a lot of laces, she sometimes comes over and ties them for me. Most of the time, I can do it myself.
And I finally got around to getting some physical therapy for my knee, which begins Monday morning, about nine years late.
I doubt I will ever be able to tie my shoe the way Maria does, but I’m hopeful I can get to my laces painlessly. I never thought much about my knees, they always did what they were told.
Perhaps if I’m nicer to them, they will forgive me and start bending again.
You crack me up, Jon! I, too, am not able to tie my shoe laces the same way Maria does because of a bum knee for which I never sought treatment. I have to stand up, bend from the waist, and tie them that way. The physio will help immensely and you’ll be able to do it soon, especially with your recent weight loss. You amaze me how you keep on truckin’ with self-improvement and at the same time you do so many good works. Congrats and keep it up. I need your motivating thoughts daily to keep me on the straight and narrow! 🙂 And, you’re right, we don’t have to agree with absolutely everything you write. That doesn’t matter. To me, your writing is about getting myself to actually think about things and see where I can improve myself on a daily basis. Thanks!
This post makes me very grateful…I never think twice about my knees as, at 70, I can tie my shoes the same way Maria does. My husband, ten years younger, was a hockey player and shattered his left knee joint and thigh in a rink, as a teen. He has already been through bone grafts and a total knee replacement, but does okay now. It’s the little things that we sometimes overlook, and take for granted. Lovely b&w portrait, by the way…love the boots. 🙂