Laws of the Universe

The view at the end of the trail I was walking.

There are very few things that are carved in stone. I know of only two.

1. When trying to calculate how long something should take, come up with your best guess, DOUBLE it – and it shouldn't take too much longer than that.
2. The time to do something is as soon as you think of it.

My recovery from knee surgery has hit a bump in the road. I was walking the dogs on Saturday when I caught my foot in a loose tree root. I took a tumble, landing full force on my new knee. I got up fine and the next day I was, remarkably, in little more pain than I had been; I thought I had dodged a bullet.

But then Monday came along and my knee was throbbing. It was a different kind of pain than I had had for the last two months, but it was just as debilitating. Tuesday brought no relief so I called the surgeon and went to see him today.

He stuck a huge needle in my knee and withdrew fluid – something he had, very painfully, done twice before. This time though the fluid was largely blood. Not good. He told me to skip physical therapy for a week, to ice the knee a lot and to start using my cane again. Definitely a setback.

I go see him in a week to learn if anything else needs be done. When I asked him if he had to go in there again he would only say “I hope not.” Again, not good. More surgery is absolutely the last thing I want right now.

What does all this have to do with the laws of the universe above? Well, I ignored Rule #2. I had been stepping on and over that root for years. Countless times I thought “I should go get some garden shears and cut that thing out, else someday I'm going to trip on it.”

I finally did snap that bothersome root off – AFTER I fell. Had I heeded the rules, I'd be in less pain today, cane-free and looking forward to Spring walks in the country.

How is it that at 62 I still have so much to learn?