on injury and unconditional love...

Well the inevitable has happened. I sustained an injury, at circus school. In tumbling class, to be exact. Having not done any tumbling in probably more than 20 years, I was pleasantly surprised to see I can still toss myself around. The teacher was vaguely impressed as well. Actually he called out "well done" to my round offs, complete with stag jump to finish. "I can certainly hold my own in this class of 20-somethings," I told myself....first 10 roundoffs lovely, 11th agony. 12th-15th (I don't give up) even more painful. Until instructor said, "are you ok?" "No," I bleated back, trying to stretch out now pulsing right hamstring. Shooting pain from behind knee to lower back.

Oh yes, all the cliches were filing into my brain:

Pride in movement goeth before the great fall of hamstring function
The spirit is more than willing but the flesh is old and weak
You are an idiot

Hobbled out of class feeling my age. Thankfully I live in a house littered with ice packs and icing machines and although the temptation of a steaming hot bath was hard to resist, I did, and the cold did wonders. I will walk again!

But as I lay on the couch, last night, quietly moaning and generally feeling sorry for myself, I also thought about the day. In particular, something that happened in the morning. A perfect example of the effects of unconditional love.

My friend Sarah posted a beautiful photo montage of the life her eldest daughter, Taylor, it being Taylor's 18th birthday. She is a beautiful girl, and as she gets older, as she turns, 16, 17, I realize she starts to really, really look like her father Al. Same eyes, same way of holding her head, same smile, a proper daddy's girl. But Al isn't Taylor's biological father. Yet, he has loved her since she was a very little girl. And she has loved him right back. Unconditionally. And look what that bond has done.

You cannot tell me that unconditional love doesn't effect people. We know it does. In all sorts of ways. Love is very powerful, yet often, much too often, we take it for granted. But when we realize its worth, it can surprise and amaze us. And change our lives. Maybe even our appearance.

This world is a mess, maybe more so now than ever before. Iraq, Kenya, Nigeria and everywhere else. Doesn't it seem pointless? Trying to help, let alone love, each other? It seems to make so little difference. Rome is burning, let's fiddle as fast as we can.

But we don't, give up that is. We keep on keeping on. We keep on helping, keep on loving. I spoke a few blogs ago about adoring dogs and building libraries and to that I add, loving our children more than we think possible. And loving other people's children as well. As pointless as it may seem somedays. Who knows, maybe these very children in the school attached to the library will be the very same adults who fix this world. Maybe not. But maybe yes. Let's try. Beats the hell out of all that fiddling, anyway.

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