Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
On March 1st, I was wheeled into an operating room at St. Joseph Hospital, in Chicago. The plan was to repair a torn rotator cuff and a detached bicep. The word on the street was this was going to lead to a long and grueling recovery. Besides the pain from the procedure, the physical therapy that follows was supposed to be brutal. We’re talking six to nine months brutal.
After the surgery, while I was in the recovery room, the surgeon gave me some good news. My rotator cuff wasn’t torn, it was just frayed. He only needed to smooth it out and concentrate on repairing my bicep. I was already well ahead of the game.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still painful, but within a couple of days, I was able to move my arm pretty well. Also, I was off of the major pain meds. A few days later, I was cleared for physical therapy. It was go-time.
PT has gone fairly well. Yeah, it was painful, but not nearly as much as everyone said it would be. I even did all the exercises at home every day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!
But then I hit a wall. Literally!
There’s an exercise where you push a towel up a wall. It sounds simple, and in actuality, it is. All it’s designed to do is to help you stretch and increase your range of motion. And, it was working until the day I felt a shooting pain in my shoulder that moved all the way down to my fingers. I let out a gasp and then this word loudly popped out of my mouth;
MOTHERFUCKER!!
It wasn’t the first time profanity had been heard in this facility; the work you do leads to that, still, I could feel people staring at me. My physical therapist laughed but said maybe I should slow down at least a bit. When I saw the surgeon a few days later, he also laughed but said the same thing, “Take it easy. There’s no hurry. Slow down.”
A few days later, I was telling my mental-health therapist the story. She responded, “Do you think this is advice you can use in your everyday life?” I thought it was a little snarky, but after thinking it over, maybe she was on to something.
It’s hard to admit this, but if life was a football game, I’d be playing in the fourth quarter. I’m reminded of this daily by the loss of friends, relatives and contemporaries. I still have plenty of things I want to do and see before it becomes too late. But, in my rush to get these done, sometimes I fail to savor each of them. I know I need to stay in the moment more. There’s a fine line between accomplishing something and enjoying the experience.
So, back to the healing left arm thing. I’m no longer pushing full-speed ahead. I no longer am doing the exercises EVERY. SINGLE DAY! It’s now two to three days on with a day or two break to recover. I’m avoiding the pain, which is a good thing, plus, what’s the hurry? If it takes an extra month or two to complete the process, it’s not a big deal, right? RIGHT?! The personal everyday life thing is a little trickier. I started by taking my time in writing this piece. You see the slow-down thing started about a month ago, I had the idea to write about it a week later and I finally got to it…well…today!
Hmmmm….is there a fine line between slowing down and procrastination?
Looking for fun and feeling groovy
Ba da-da da-da da-da, feeling groovy
Great point about slowing down to enjoy the moments of the day. I was excited when i saw the title of you piece as I thought you might have the same symptom as i do - which is my speech is often speeds up uncontrollably and I've discovered so does my right when trying to learn a new guitar strumming pattern. I've wanted to play the guitar for years and in particular the Bo Diddley beat. I've spent months working on nailing that beauty but trying to do it slowly to I get the emphasis on the right upstroke/downstroke is seemingly impossible. So I have to settle for the pleasure of having the guitar in my hands and making some sounds with it that are perhaps getting closer. Maybe I'll never play it the way I want but I'll keep trying.