La Bota Fea

Yesterday I had to go to the bank, the grocery store, and the dollar store.  Okay, the dollar store was not a "had to," but I wanted to stop there to look for some goodies for my Compassion children.  I had found some card games such as Go Fish and Old Maid with a Biblical theme there a couple of months ago, and I wanted to see if there were more.  There weren't.  Oh well.

I was frustrated because I have to wear the boot you see to the left because I have a stress fracture that resulted from moving many laptop carts (mobile learning labs--very heavy) for about 3 1/2 hours straight at school in March.  My foot hurt afterwards, but I kept thinking it would get better.  A month later, I finally saw a podiatrist who gave me the ugly news along with the ugly boot.  (I like to say that Neil Armstrong let me borrow the boot he wore on the moon.)

In the dollar store, I noticed a display with luau supplies.  I like to invite my friends and their children to my house for a beach party in the summer, so I hobbled over to look.  Another lady reached the display just as I did.  She was on crutches with a brace on her knee and only a sock on her foot.  She told me that she had a broken toe (been there) and that she had also just had knee surgery.  The dilemma she faced is that she is supposed to begin bending her knee as part of her therapy, but she's not supposed to move her foot.  Um . . . . not working.

What I realized, as we all have so many times, is that there is always someone with a bigger problem, and I just need to get over myself and stop whining.  Yes, I need to take care of my foot.  Yes, it is a challenge to do that with my job and my personality.  But it will get better . . . eventually.

Then I went to the grocery store.  And there, as always, I saw the constant reminder of how much we have and how little so many others have.

In spite of my ugly boot and my very painful fractured foot, I am thankful.  And I'm no longer whining.