I see now that I missed the whole gist of the story. Which is funny, because I caught on quickly to The Ant and The Grasshopper and The Little Red Hen . As the years go on with my MS and the natural aging process, I notice I'm slowing down more and more. Things once easy are not that simple.
I recently had a tear in my right hip repaired. This is also the leg with all the MS issues. So for me, recovery hasn't been as easy as my other surgeries have been--a week or two down and then back to my usual self. And they were some pretty major surgeries-the most recent about three years ago being a rib removal. I wasn't a young whipper snapper then, so this one has been a bit frustration for me.
It's not like I am bed-ridden or in a wheel-chair. I just run out of stamina sooner than I feel like I should. I have to stop and rest more often. Instead of one power nap a day, maybe I have to take two. And so this is where the moral of the Tortoise and the Hare is really starting to set in to me-Slow and steady. Or as the original Aesop fable said: Plodding wins the race.
As I was trying to recover my energy one day, I received news about a dear friend's 15-year son who was just diagnosed with A.L.L. leukemia. She and her husband have seven other children they are trying to all juggle with his principal job and the shocking news. I went to her blog one day and wept for her, wanting to help in some way. She knows where I am at, since she came to help me out before her son was diagnosed. But Rick and Taylor went and pruned their fruit trees last Saturday, calling me with questions I could answer. Slow and Steady. Maren knows I can't physically help her, but I can do others things to help. I can call her, send texts, or letters.
Around my house, I work a little at a time. I try to put things away the FIRST time, so it doesn't lay there on the table miraculously growing and mutating. Have you noticed how things do that? You leave a dish by the sink and before you know it the whole counter is covered in dirty dishes. Or you leave a stack of papers on a desk or end-table and soon the said object disappears under an avalanche of paperwork never again to be found.
Now with children around, I know it's very hard to keep this up. I have a 19-year old still at home going to school. He seems to think items are put away by the house elves, even though he is wading through the 'creep' in his room and only does laundry when he has no clean clothes left to wear. He actually has thought that since he was about six, even when we made him pick up his room and help with the laundry--go figure. "Fires" still start around on flat surfaces if I am not vigilant at all times. Slow and steady.
It's when I stop being the tortoise and become the hare and laze around the house, I start to lose. I even tried that once (laze around the house) to try to teach my children a lesson. Mistake there was I didn't tell them I was teaching them a lesson. I just didn't do anything, and they kept doing what kids do best-make messes. And when they do that without anyone telling them what Mom's game plan is suppose to be, the fires became a raging inferno. The next time I decided to do that I told them. I left my resignation letter on the door. That went over really well. Kids were in a huge panic that Mom quit. They didn't think moms could do that. Life was better at home for quite a while after that.
But now, it is just me and Rick, and I can't quit. So, I must learn to take things slow and steady. I must not let raging infernos take control. I can't become the hare and be complacent in things that are important. And what IS important? This past surgery has been giving me some more time to decide.
