Working with my leg in the air

"So have you taken advantage of time to read and meditate or have you just been working with your leg in the air?"
It was a question asked with good humour and the expectation (sadly correct) that the latter option was more likely to be the case than the former.

The comparative immobilisation that has resulted from the fracture of a bone in my leg has been frustrating.
I cannot drive, so have been dependent on others to take me to preaching appointments and meetings.
I have needed to spend some time each day with my leg elevated which has sometimes been impossible and on those occasions I have realised that I really did need to put my leg up.
I have been forced to ask others to come to me when I would normally have gone to them. I have not been able to visit those I really want to visit.

For the last few weeks things which I have not thought about at all have become major challenges. Which foot should go first up or down steps?
How can I avoid a slope? Slopes are very uncomfortable.
What is the most efficient way of getting up in the morning which avoids multiple putting on and taking off the moonboot?
Can I really dare to use the escalator? (I did).
What do I do when the lapel microphone is not working, there is no hand-help microphone and I really shouldn't stand through the whole of the service?

I have had to learn to accept help when it is generously and graciously offered. I have been quite overwhelmed by the kindness of people who have been willing to go out of their way to get me to places.
I have been reminded how fortunate I am to be surrounded by loving and caring people.

I have made a few train journeys wearing my moonboot and using a crutch and I have always been offered assistance getting on and off the train by other passengers. People have opened doors because I don't have a free hand.

During a few days in Swanick at the CTE Forum, I learned to get about the large and hilly site in a mobility scooter and I learned that it isn't always easy. Doors are hard to open. The lifts are hard to get into because the door opens outwards. Steep slopes are a bit unnerving. You cannot carry a suitcase on a mobility scooter so clearing your room cannot be done alone.

One part of our living room became known as Houston Control because I was surrounded there by chargers for all the electronic equipment, my lap-top, my i-pad, the work phone and my mobile phone, the remote controls for the television and a variety of notebooks and files. Also close to hand were bible, prayer handbook and whichever commentaries and books I needed that day.
It was here that I sat with my leg in the air and worked. But there were also the times when I sat with my leg in the air and prayed and reflected.

This blog has been rather introspective and self-centred and I have recognised the temptation to to these things and to an inward focus.

I hope that I will continue to try to learn to keep a balance between looking at myself and my relationship with God, family and others and looking beyond myself to the experiences of others and to national and worldwide issues, recognising and responding to God's presence there.

I hope that I will keep the balance between taking time to reflect and working, with or without my leg in the air.