Thoughts from my thumb

No, my thumb isn't thinking.  I am thinking about my thumb.  Weird, right?  Keep reading...

So I recently injured myself during one of my cooking adventures.  I literally took off part of my thumb while chopping an onion.  Yeah, I know - I'm super coordinated and graceful and all that....

Anyway, as my thumb healed, I was struck by how all kinds of healing can be very similar.  Sometimes in life, we have other types of wounds - wounds in our hearts.  These can be just as painful (sometimes more) than being physically hurt.  It seems to be that the healing process for bodily injury and the wounds of our heart have a lot in common.

- At first, my thumb hurt so much that I just kept it wrapped up all the time.  I didn't let any air get to it at all because even that increased my pain.  When I finally took the bandage off a few days later to let my doctor check on it, it smelled terrible.  Seriously - really bad.  Have you ever had an experience that hurt so much that you could hardly even think abou it -  let alone talk about it?  To bring it out into the open seemed like it would be so painful that you weren't sure if you could stand it?  And all the while, it's there under the surface, hurting and stinking.  It's super hard, but true healing can't happen until the wound has been allowed to see the light of day.

- Just days after I hurt myself, I was ready to be done with the whole thing.  I really wanted my thumb to be better.  I knew that it would eventually heal, but I also knew that this would take time.  But, I didn't want it to take time - I wanted the use of thumb back, and I wanted it NOW!  I didn't want to have to keep taking medicine every few hours just to take the edge off.  I wanted the pain to go away and stay away.  The doctor told me, "It's going to have to heal from the inside out, so it'll be like this for a while."  Right....  The hurts of our hearts also have to heal from the inside out.  And it takes time - more time that we would like usually.  Once we've allowed our wound to be aired out, we want relief.  Maybe we understand it won't be instant relief, but we sure don't want the pain to last any longer that it absolutely has to.  But you can't cheat pain.  And you can't cheat time.

- As my thumb was healing, it went through various stages of looking "okay" to looking "wow- pretty gross".  It's not like it started out bad and just kept looking better and better.  It would look better, then worse again, then better again.  Our other pains are like that, too.  Some days we take a breath and think "I think it's getting better."  Other days, the pain is ugly and overwhelming again.  Healing is not a straight path.

- The night that I injured myself, the ER doctor told me "That part of your thumb and fingernail won't grow back."  Yes, it's a small injury (and I don't want to make it seem like I've lost a limb or something), but still - part of me is now different than it used to be.  When painful things happen to us, it's natural to want to "just go back to normal".  We wish we could erase the pain, "move on", or "get over it."  The truth is, painful things change us.  We can't go back to how life was before it happened.  We are different now.  It doesn't have to be a bad thing or a good thing - it just is the way it is.   

 - Update!  So, I started this blog post a couple of weeks ago.  My thumb still looked really bad and was obviously missing part of itself.  Well, the healing has continued and I'm happy to report that things are looking better than I'd imaged they would.  My thumb in "rounding out" nicely, so it no longer looks flat on one side.  And the nail is actually starting grow back.  So here's the thing - the above paragraph is no less true - pain changes us.  AND sometimes it doesn't change us as much as we thought it would.  Sometimes, the part of our lives we thought we wouldn't get back, ends up unexpectedly returning to us. 

I'm glad my thumb is healing.  It's so amazing to have the use of it back again.  Although, I was getting pretty good at the "pointer finger - middle finger  claw grasp".  :)

We all have our pains and hurts that we carry around with us.  This is just the stuff of life.  My prayer for all of you is that you give your hurts a chance to heal.  Nothing is hopeless.  It may not be a walk in the park, but it's not hopeless. 

Until next time, my friends........ Live well

Becky

Something new... Baked Salmon!

We are not fish eaters at my house.  Andy's motto when it comes to seafood is "If it's from the sea, it's not for me."  I grew up with my dad saying "When they find a fish that tastes like steak, I'll eat it."  The only "seafood" I used to eat was fish sticks (heavy on the tartar sauce) and popcorn shrimp (heavy on the breading).

But I'm always hearing how good for you fish is.  Several of the blogs that I frequent have a whole section on sea food recipes. So, I decided that maybe I'm missing out.  If nothing else, fish really is healthy and it gives a little bit of variety to a meat-heavy diet.

This week, I decided to jump in with both feet and try a salmon recipe.  This Lemon Dill Salmon was very easy to make.  The hardest part was wrapping up the parchment paper the right way.  It definitely looked very "professional". 

I had a taste test as soon as I took them out of the oven.  I can't tell yet if I like it.  It's just different.  I think my taste buds were wondering "What is this?" and weren't sure what to make of it.  I still might end up drowning it in tartar sauce, but that doesn't take away from the nutritional value, right?

Then, to be on the safe side, I tried this new Sweet Potato Chili.   

Disclaimer:  The picture from the website loods about 100  times better than my picture, so don't let mine deter you!

 I didn't have avocado to top it with, but still scooped myself a bowl for lunch today.  My taste buds knew exactly was to do with this one - rejoice!  It was awesome!!  I had to hold myself back from eating about three helping right then and there.  I might have a new favorite.

I'll have to let you all know how the fish-eating works out this week and how much tartar sauce was used :)

Music of the week:  My wonderful husband made a Pandora station for me that was based on Tub-Thumping (after he got done mocking me).  I enjoyed Matchbox 20, Bare Naked Ladies, Goo Goo Dolls, Wallflowers, Third Eye Blind, and so many more!!  It all brought me back to days of singing at the top of my lungs in the car with friends, sunny days at the pool, backstage before a show, and the days of not knowing just how good I really had it.  It was a fun day :)

Until next time, my friends..... Live well.

Becky      

Fail!!

So, in keeping with the "soup for breakfast" thing I've had going, I decided to try a new one.  This one is Orange Carrot Ginger soup, from the Vitamix recipe book.  The color looked nice and bright.  I thought "It seems like those three things wouldn't go together, but sometimes surprising combinations are really good.  Why not try it?"

Well, I'll tell you why not.

It was easy enough to make.  Just throw everything into the blender and away we go.  As I was blending, I thought a few times, "Wow - that's kind of more yellow that I thought it would be."  I checked the picture in the book and guessed it wasn't that off, so let's keep going.  After it was finished, I took a sample bite. My first thought was,  "That's interesting."  I took another bite.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great.  I figured I'd still eat it - since I went to the trouble of making it - but I probably wouldn't make it again.

The next day I warmed it up for breakfast and sat down.  About three bites in, I just couldn't do it anymore.  I keep trying to find the words to describe how this tasted.  The words "too bright"  keep popping into my mind.  I know that doesn't give you much to go on.  I'll just say my initial thought that those three foods don't seem like they go together seems to have been correct.

Thankfully, I had some back up chocolate chili in the freezer.  :)

After that fail, I really wanted some comfort food of things that I KNEW would go together.

Enter "Paleo Apple Crisp"

- 3 apples, cored and sliced
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup crushed cashews

1.  Throw the sliced apples in a baking dish
2.  Sprinkle with remaining ingredient
3.  Bake at 350 for about 30-45 min
4.  Be comforted

I'm not sure if this really counts as a "recipe" because it's just throwing stuff in a baking dish and then in the oven.  And also a word of caution - go easy on the brown sugar.  It's still sugar.

Music of the week:  Just the sounds of our busy life.   I've been cooking with lots of other stuff going on the last couple of weeks - so no music to share this time.

Until next time, my friends..... Live well.

Becky