When I start any new venture, I begin knowing that there will be challenges and there will be setbacks. That is life. There is no such thing as a perfect run, this side of glory. Things will go wrong. Even so, somehow it is a lot harder to swallow the setback, when I know that it only happened because I did something I knew not to do. I should have known better. I did know better. Yet I did it and here I am sitting with my foot up, greatly hindered from doing all that I want and need. Sigh.
It all comes of not wearing boots, when your mother has warned you since childhood to never use garden forks or shovels without appropriate footwear. It all comes of being too hasty. It all comes of thinking ‘oh it’ll be fine’… it all comes of not thinking enough! Double sigh.
I had been in the garden all morning pulling weeds, planting new seedlings, mulching, watering and feeling deeply satisfied with all that I’d accomplished. I was barefoot as is my habit. I love walking with bare feet in the garden (provided there are no bindis!) and feeling the soft earth on the soles of my feet. It is not only physically grounding and has wonderful health benefits, but I also just find it relaxing and peaceful to work that way.
Normally if I know I am going to be working with a garden fork, spade or shovel, I will put work boots on. My mother had drilled this into me through years of working with tools on garden and farm jobs. But this particular morning I had no intention of doing that. My plan was to get the planting and mulching done before the heat and go inside with the children to start school by mid morning.
I was on track and had really enjoyed the morning. The children had played happily in the yard, helped me from time to time, then run off in between jobs to build their fort and play on the swings. Hubby had gone with one of the older boys to pick up a new oven we had bought. I was looking forward to sharing with him all that we had achieved.
As I was cleaning up I walked past the compost heap and remembered that it had been a while since I turned it. “It won’t take me ten minutes to turn that quickly before we go inside”, I thought. “It would be great to get that done this morning as well as everything else”.
“Mike will be so surprised at how much we’ve got done!”
” I should probably put boots on but my feet are already dirty and it’s just a quick job”.
Can you see where this is going? It seems ridiculously obvious to me now writing this. Ummm, hello?! Can’t you see this is a really dumb idea girl!!! But apparently no, I didn’t see. Running high on the satisfaction of my mornings work, I ran and grabbed the garden fork. It was getting close to the time I wanted to start school so I would have to rush a bit. Rushing and shoveling compost barefoot. It is painfully embarrassing to recall. I knew as soon as it happened that I was in trouble. I tripped and put the fork down to balance myself but misjudged where I landed the fork. I heard and felt the squelch of metal penetrating flesh. I pulled it out and bent down to cover it with my hand to stop any bleeding and stop the compost entering the wound. “Zac” I called out as nonchalantly as I could… “ummm, could you watch the little ones for a bit… Mummy just had a little accident and I need to go clean it up”.
That was a week and a half ago. Little did I realize not only the pain but the inconvenience I had just brought upon myself. It has been a very confronting time for me. Not only have I had to sit around with my foot up and had the frustration of not being able to continue my normal daily life of caring for my husband and children, cooking, cleaning, working in our garden, etc. – but I’ve had to make some difficult decisions regarding my own health care. This may seem very trivial to some but for me it was a big deal. I think our medical system can do wonders in an emergency situation and I am grateful to have the ability to call on it when in need… I have had to call 000 for my children a couple of times and cannot fault the care they were given in those emergencies. However as a general rule, I prefer to treat things naturally and more holistically and leave medical care for car accidents and the like. If my memory serves me correctly, I think I’ve only been to the doctor myself in the last couple of decades for either pregnancy or birth related checkups. So I didn’t even consider going to the doctor when I first shoved that fork through my foot. ‘I’ll clean it and patch it up and it will be fine’, I thought.
Well, it wasn’t fine. Challenge number one: That afternoon a local friend asked if I’d had a recent Tetanus booster and warned me that tetanus was prevalent in the area and they had lost a number of animals to it. Normally I wouldn’t be concerned at all but I had been shoveling compost full of manure and tetanus lives in manure. I do not label myself as anti-vaccine but I am very much pro research and informed consent and lean toward natural remedies wherever possible. From my research over the years I was not excited by the idea. I’m still not sure I made the right decision but in the end I decided to go ahead and get the booster. Having many small people needing me weighed heavily on me and I decided the benefits outweighed the risks. Hopefully.
Challenge number two: Turns out manure, metal and human flesh are not a good combo. Within 24 hours my foot was red, hot and swollen. Infection had set in and I couldn’t walk on it at all. Now the second uncomfortable decision. It had been almost 2 decades since I had taken any antibiotics. Again, I’m not against pharmaceutical medicines… I just don’t like to rely on them all the time. At least that is what I have told myself and others for years. I was now confronted with the realization that even though the facts were telling me that this was one of those serious situations in which I should allow medical intervention… I was having trouble acknowledging it.
If I’m honest, my pride did not want to admit that I couldn’t handle this one on my own. I needed some help. Ouch. That hurts more than my foot. I truly didn’t know that I had allowed pride to creep in to this area of my life. Now don’t get me wrong… I am still a 100% clean eating, prevention is better than cure, natural remedies are best, allow the body to heal using herbs God gave us, holistic health kinda girl! BUT… it was time to say ok to some help. Now perhaps there was a way to treat this naturally… in fact I’m sure there was. But I wasn’t confident and I think I had an important lesson to learn here. Pride is never a good response. Walk humbly.
So I haven’t stayed on plan with my seed sowing, weeding, planting or any other garden work. But I have sat. I have read. I have practiced patience, although I’m far from mastering it. And hopefully I have learned at least two valuable lessons. Number one – wear boots. And Number two – humble yourself. That in a nutshell is what I wanted to share today. Blessings on you and yours.
First posted November 27, 2021
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